Inquisitional Conclave 2020 Completed!

 Inquisitor Jorus Rhyloth, Ordo Xenos

"He almost took my head off the first time he unsheathed that damned-fool giant sword of his in the narrow corridor of Stack Nineteen. The orbital station chief had warned me that old Jorus could act with the impulses of a man a quarter of his age, but I always assumed an Inquisitor would have been more... restrained in his choice of actions.  As soon as we arrived at the meet, I had a suspicion something wasn’t quite, ah, completely human about Karde and his men.  Fast as that realization had dawned on me the old man was moving even faster and if my ears hadn’t caught the hum of that power sword igniting I’d be several inches shorter and just as deceased as Karde and his men were a few seconds later.  Although Jorus had told the planetary governor he was on the trail of dangerous xenos technology being sold on the black market, he was actually masking his true purpose, unsure of how far the influence of the conspiracy reached.  What Inquisitor Ryloth had actually been seeking was sprayed all over the nearest bulkheads when he cut through Karde’s gang, blood that even in the dim light of the hallway we could see had too much purple in it to be the right color for a man. 

His superiors at the Ordo Xenos needed visible confirmation of what his investigation of the last few months had led him to: Refinery Stack Nineteen and its surrounding hab blocks had been the sight of a growing xenos infestation for some time. Before the sanitation techs had arrived to scrub the hallway, our squad had already been given orders to accompany Jorus and a regiment from the PDF to lock down all the access in and out of the western rim of the station.  The surprises kept on coming that day, it turned out Ryloth had more than a score of Astartes hidden away on the naval cruiser that had brought him to the station.  Once the combined forces of the Arbites and PDF had sealed off Stacks Fifteen to Twenty-One, he strode in with those armoured giants in a suit of his own jet black power armor to cleanse all those infected by the genestealer cult.  Don’t even get me started on that ridiculously huge banner he wore while leading the sons of the emperor into battle…”

Arbites Legate Bor Tarkin, Orbital Station Delta, Hexos System

The First Annual (hopefully) Inquisitional Conclave wrapped up at the end of August, but thanks to the vagaries of the warp I am just now posting this summary of my entry.  This project was very enjoyable, it really inspired my imagination and it was fun to finally paint an Inquisitor after so many years immersed in the 40K universe.  

My wife had given me an Ebay gift card for father's day right around the time Neverness announced the Conclave and I immediately started searching for some options for an Inquisitor.  I saw some of the RT Inquisitor models available but those poses had never struck me as being as exciting as the lore's description of what an Inquisitor should be.  While looking at those models, I came across the one I finally settled on, this space marine with a robe and giant power sword.  Not only did he look like as dynamic as I thought an Inquisitor should, he also reminded me of one of my favorite Star Wars EU characters, the evil Jedi Clone Jorus C'baoth.  I added and archeotech pistol from a more modern marine sculpt and Inquisitor Jorus was ready for paint.

This model offered some fun opportunities for new color combinations that usually don't make it onto my first legion models.  The black power armor was highlighted with Incubi Darkness and then Sotek Green which gave it a very bluish tinge I really liked.  However, the banner was the part that was the most nostalgic fun, as the picture of WD 129 that starts this page shows.  I was a longtime fan of the imposing look of Inquisitor Draco and his large back banner, which was very "rule of cool" for RT models in between 1st and 2nd edition.  By pure luck I stumbled upon a goldmine of banners in the end of the ancient RT Chapter Approved book while scanning some great looking pages for this blog.  When I saw the Inquisition banner I knew I had to use it on my model to evoke that look of Draco's I had always enjoyed.  First, I printed the page from a scan on my computer (no cutting up 30 year old source books for me).  Next, I cut a piece of foil to match the size of the banner, remembering an long ago 'Eavy Metal article describing this technique to lend a paper banner some rigidness and pose-ability.  Then I glued the paper to the foil and then to it's backing paper using rubber cement in order to avoid the dreaded paper curling that comes with the water content of PVA glue.   All that was left at that point was to glue the tabs over the banner pole cross arms and I had a RT era perfect Inquisition banner.

This project was a ton of fun, thanks to Neverness for coordinating, and check out all the other great models in the Conclave at Neverness Hobby blog.  Now onto the second month of the 2nd edition painting challenge and Dreadtober!