This is a diorama idea I've had kicking around for some time now, which is going to look a little old by the time it's finished, due to the number of Inquisitor conversions there are out there now based on the same model, but hey, who cares.

Basically, what I wanted was an Inquisitorial Warband on their way off to do some serious thwarting, or whatever. I've used an assortment of models, with a particular theme in mind. The Inquisitor Galadrus is a bit of a show-pony, and likes his troops to look their best. He also believes in making an impressive entrance... Which leads us to these guys...

The First Herald of Galadrus

This is a fairly basic conversion of an Imperial Commissar. The flashy uniform was perfect for the 'spit-and-polish' look I wanted, and the pose was brilliant... I simply cut off his right hand, and replaced it with a Gorkamorka Boy'z hand. These would normally be a bit large for Human hands (Although they are much smaller than the current Ork range), but for some reason the Commissar models have really big hands... so I just painted them to look like gloves.

The Horn is an air horn from a 1/32 scale model truck. (I make a habit of picking up model kits whenever I see them going cheap, just to dump them in my bits box. You never know when you're going to want some obscure part for a conversion, and that Humvee Brake pedal might be perfect...)

Then painted him... The greatcoat is Red Gore, highlight with Blood red and Fiery Orange. Shining Gold and Mithril Silver highlights for the metal, Black with Shadow Grey for the black. His face was painted with Bestial Brown, followed by Vomit Brown, with highlights of Elf Flesh.

The Second Herald of Galadrus

Another basic conversion. This is a Mordheim champion model, with the left arm replaced with an arm from an old Necron Immortal, minus the hand. I cut the front half off a plastic Necromunda Goliath shotgun, and glued it onto the Immortal's wrist. Then simply painted the same as the first guy.

The Third Herald of Galadrus

This was fairly obviously based on Commander Azrael's Watcher In The Dark... I simply shaved off the Lion Helm (Luckily, this was a rather old lead model. which made this bit a heck of a lot easier) added on the bell, (The bell from the plastic zombie boxed set, attached to a length of brass rod) and used Green Stuff to extend the sleeves out over the pole. Then added a Dark Elf pistol holster, just for the hell of it...

The Fourth Herald of Galadrus

Another Commissar, with the bolter hand removed at the wrist, and replaced with a Gorkamorka Boy'z hand. The book was made from a small rectangle of cardboard, glued around a stack of small paper pages. Painted the same as the others...

Shaena, Callidus Assassin

I saw this Mordheim vampire model in Games Workshop, and just had to buy her... just needed a way to use her for 40K. It occurred to me that Callidus Assassins are, amongst their myriad talents, trained courtiers (The better to inveigle their way closer to their targets...) so what better companion and bodyguard for a brash and pretentious Inquisitor than a well-dressed Callidus...

Another simple conversion: Her right hand is a separate piece, with a sword... I left that off, and used the sword-hand from the original Callidus model. I then cut the gun off the same model, replaced the pistol-grip with a grip from a bolter, and attached it to her hip with a small strip of green stuff for a strap. I then ripped that off, and reattached it a fair bit lower, where it didn't look quite as odd...

Brughoss, The Silent Herald

The Base

I wanted the retinue to be coming out of a blocky, sinister-looking building. The base would show only the front entrance, but hopefully give the impression of being a part of a much larger structure.

I made up the basic shape with sheets of polystyrene, glued together with PVA glue. Three tiers make up the base, to allow steps up to the entrance. The Entrance itself will have an outer wall, with an open blast door, and an inner wall, with a closed door.



Into this I cut circular depressions for the models' bases to sit in. This was done by sitting them all in place, and drawing around the base with a marker pen. I then cut out the outline with a hobby knife, and dug the resultant circular plug out. The same technique was used to make depressions for the pillars to sit in.

I cut a square hole in the front wall for the sniper to be peering out of. This will eventually be a ventilation duct. A small lintel on the front will hold a couple of Space Marine statues, and some small lasgun turrets.



I wanted the base and the building to have different textures, to make them stand out better from each other. The building would have a rough cement texture, while the base would be not as rough, with more of a stone look. To this end, I covered over the base depressions by dropping in some spare slotta bases upside down, and then sprayed the whole base with textured spray.



The next step was to start adding detail to the building itself. Going with the normal 40K look of steel-reinforced cement buildings, I wanted to add bulkhead-style doors on the front. I made these from layers of cardboard (superglue packaging and cereal boxes cut to shape) glued together with superglue. The rivets were added by cutting dress-making pins to the right length, drilling holes in the appropriate places with a 1mm drill bit, and dropping a dollop of superglue into the hole before pushing the pin into place. The larger rivets are small nails.



In this manner, I made a set of closed inner doors:



And the open outer doors. You can also see the grill on the upper level, made with a piece of flyscreen glued in behind the cardboard.



The final step for now was to detail the upper level. I wanted it to look like a ventilation inlet that had been pulled open for access. With this in mind, I added a cardboard mount around the inside of the grill cutaway for the ducting to attach to, and grabbed an old engine fan assembly from a model truck.

The ducting itself was a little more problematic. I originally wanted an inlet hood leading to ducting running the width of the upper level, with the hood having been pulled out. Once I made this, however, aside from getting the dimensions wrong so I would have had to do it again, it made the upper level too crowded. So, I cut a hole in the floor, and decided to have the hood feed directly into there, rather than into exposed ducting.

The end result looks rather a lot like this:

Before installing the outer doors, the entrance foyer needed to be painted. There was simply no way I would be able to do so with the outer doors in place. So, The entire inside section was undercoated black. I then drybrushed the door with boltgun metal, and went back around the edges with black to cover over any excess metal paint splash. The walls and floor were drybrushed with dark grey, and then highlighted very minimally with a lighter grey. I tried to keep the highlights in here as subtle as possible, to accentuate the shadows. The final touch was to add the green and red control buttons for the inner door. I painted these the same way I would do gemstones (dark at the top, highlighted on the bottom corner, with a dot of white in the opposing top corner) to make them look glassy.

Next step was to glue the outer doors and finish texturing the base. I wanted the base to match my current urban miniature bases, so added small patches of gravel spread over the flat surfaces, with slightly heavier patches up against the walls. These were done by dabbing small patches of PVA glue around the place, and then pouring a light gravel mix over the top. Once it was set, I simply poured off the excess gravel.

Time to paint! First, black undercoat. This took two coats to look nice and even.

The metal sections were all drybrushed with boltgun metal, and then I drybrushed the walls with dark grey, adding a little pale grey to the paint for highlights on corners and crevasses.

The base I painted with shadow grey, and then covered with a thick coat of black wash. Over that went a heavy drybrush of shadow grey, followed by a highlight with ghostly grey. While the wash was setting I had taken the pillars and attached large Inquisitorial 'I's with superglue and pins. I then took the pillars and statues outside and gave them all a generous spray with matte black spray (el-cheapo Price Brand spray from Kmart). By the time I had the base finished the spray had set, and so the I's and statues were drybrushed with boltgun metal, slightly heavier than the doors to make them stand out a little. Then I went back around the I's with black to cover the excess metal bits.

At this point I'm thinking that the walls may need a slightly heavier highlight to match the floor better, but I'm waiting to see how the pillars look when I've finished them. They will hopefully help tie everything together.

More coming soon!

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