Iron Sleet Invitation: For the Emperor's Soul

Everything you have been told is a lie!

I find it hard to believe, but after the most intense two hobbying months of my life, the first Iron Sleet Invitational is complete! To corroborate this, my entry and a host of fantastic entries are displayed in all their glory on Iron Sleet’s website, including an evocative entry by none other than John Blanche himself! For me, the whole process was a great learning experience, particularly encouraging me to pick up a paint brush after many long years of absence, as well as to try some more ambitious green stuff work.  It also got me to revisit Inq28, which I had been meaning to do for many months.  Now, with the two inquisitors done, I can start to explore some of the more eccentric members of their retinues (the new Adeptus Mechanicus models will work wonderfully for Molnar’s crew)!  To round out all of our Invitational posts, I figured that I would do one last entry focusing on the completed Molnár, and to show some pictures of the three models together.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Naval officer Nils Fernow

These dying days.

March is rapidly approaching an end, and that means Iron Sleet’s first Invitational is coming to an end! I am excited to say that one more of my models for the entry is complete: Nils Fernow, First Security Officer of the Saudor 23rd Imperial Navy, affectionately know as the “Voidstalkers.” I was a bit concerned that Nils would take significantly more time to paint then the pragmatic Anton Soljic, due to the increased complexity of the model (all the different layers of clothing…). Fortunately, that did not really seem to be the case, and I as I began painting the model came together quite nicely. Like Inquisitor Soljic, Nils is painted in dull earthy colors (though it is a little tricky to tell due to the greyscale images). Based on suggestions here, and from the Ammobunker, I decided to add an accent color to the inside of his cloak, as well as paint an =][= on one the the clasps holding it in place.  My excitement having finished Fernow was great enough that I knew I needed to put up some pictures to share with everyone, even if they are sepia toned for the time being, before they are finally revealed in April.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár and Naval officer Nils Fernow

Communication Breakdown.

With it being a little over a week into March, the deadline for the Iron Sleet Invitational is fast approaching. I have never put so much time into converting a group of three models, but I think it has been paying off. I am happy to announce that the last two models, Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár of the Ordo Machinum and Naval officer Nils Fernow, are finally finished!  Rather than swamping you with too much text (which I am often prone to doing), I thought I would just show you some pictures of the models!  As always comments and suggestions are welcome.  I would be particularly interested in hearing peoples’ thoughts on color schemes, as I am gearing up to start painting them.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Painting Inquisitor Soljic, Ordo Xenos

Inquisitor Anton Soljic - Thorian

In the 15+ years that I have been a part of this hobby, I have always been building and converting models.  Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about painting them.  There were a few good years were I was consistently painting, and managed to enter some models into the Golden Daemon painting competition at the Baltimore Gamesday, but that was over 7 years ago.  Since then, I put the brush down, citing a lack of time due to graduate work (which is the truth!).  But over the last two years since starting this blog, my desire to take up painting again has steadily increased.  After an absence of so many years, it is a difficult thing to start up again. In fact, all of my paints were dried or misplaced, along with all my brushes! Despite this, I began to collect new supplies towards the end of last year, including getting my first airbrush!  With new painting materials gathered, all that was left to wait for was some inspiration to trigger my foray into painting again.  As it turns out, that muse was being invited to participate in the first Iron Sleet Invitational.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Thorian Inquisitor WIP

Innocence proves nothing.

Having largely finished the first inquisitor and his accompanying security officer, I have begun to work on the last model for the Invitational, a second inquisitor.  I wanted this inquisitor to be less cautious about his identity as an inquisitor, instead of wearing run-of-the-mill fatigues and overcoats, he would be wearing a custom suit of power armor.  Despite a more brazen appearance, I wanted to ensure the model still had a reserved quality, giving no indication towards his placement along the thin line of radicalism.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Naval Officer WIP

A mind without purpose will wander in dark places.

Having finished the Inquisitor for the Invitational, I started working on a Imperial Guardsmen to accompany him. I wanted the guardsmen to have a similar reserved tone like the inquisitor, fitting a scene where both are part of a tense audience with a rival inquisitor, one that had just turned towards confrontation.  To accomplish this sentiment, I knew that I needed the model to be drawing a weapon, preferably with a tranquil confidence.  Interestingly, like the inquisitor, I ended up finding just the model that I was searching for in the Death Korp line of models, as well.  The Quartermaster, with his skeletal vistage, calmly drawing a las pistol to perform his grim task fit all my criteria for the model.  And since it too was designed by Simon Egan, it was scaled appropriately to the inquisitor.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Bases WIP

All your Bases Are Belong to Us.

Work on Between the Bolter and Me’s entry into Iron Sleet’s Invitational is progressing nicely and we wanted to take some time to post another small update. This time I will be focusing on my progress on the bases of the models for the entry. While not quite as exciting as seeing actual models, this is the first time in a long while that I spent time to construct my own bases (rather than just using my favorite Tech-Deck bases from Dragon Forge) and thought people might like to see them.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Inquisitor WIP

Thought begets Heresy. Heresy begets Retribution.

With only two short months to complete three models for Iron Sleet’s first invitational, I decided to revisit an inquisitor model that I started, but never finished, way back in 2013.  Although I did a lot of the basic conversion work back then (replacing his head and modifying his shoulders), the conversion was far from complete, and still looked a lot like the commissar he was based upon.  To complete the model, I wanted to continue to downplay the commissar look, while enhancing his somber clandestine tone.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Between the Bolter and Me enters the fray

It is only one month into 2015, and we at Between the Bolter and Me have been looking back over all of the projects that we began last year, trying to prioritise the which to finish and what new ones to start. Just as we were finalizing some of our initial project ideas, we received a message from the people over at the newly formed Iron Sleet (an indcredibly talented trio of artists: Migsula of Legion of Plastic; and Kari and Mikko from the Spiky Rat Pack), inviting us to participate in their blog’s first modeling challange: Iron Sleet Invitational 1 – All your Bases Are Belong To Us.  And in an instant, the schedule for our projects had to be greatly revised, and in many ways accelerated dramatically!