What with one thing and another it’d be easy to believe I’ve forgotten about the Chapel and my intrepid band of Inquisitorial agents but I can assure you the truth is quite the opposite. I may not have blogged about them quite as often as I should have but do not doubt for an instant that they were always on my mind.
At last however, after considerably tinkering and tweaking, I finally have something to show for my efforts. Pending any major issues raised – and as ever if you see something that needs fixing you know where the comments box is – Inquisitor Morix of the Ordo Mors is ready for paint. Let all who would disturb the rest of the glorious Imperial dead tremble!
The base itself also deserves a close up, it’s part of a set sent to me by Black Earth as a preview of their forthcoming range so thanks once again to Mark, both for this and for all his efforts to make the Chapel a reality.
One of the things I was keen to convey with this model was the sheer bulk of a (relatively) unaugmented human in power armour. My own feeling, and there may be background somewhere that contradicts this, is that Astartes power armour will only ever work for a wearer with space marine physiology. A normal human, even one with substantial internal tweaking like Kor Phaeron or my own inquisitor, just couldn’t wear it – regardless of the fact that they’d be too small for it anyway. To put an ordinary human in power armour requires lots of adjustments, to both the person and the suit, before either is ready. Furthermore whilst space marines and their armour are both made in what is essentially a production line fashion and can therefore pick their power armour off the shelf each inquisitor will be different, with different needs and different levels of internal augmentation and implants, and as a result will require a custom suit. Not only that but whilst each space marine chapter has its own personal forges, armouries and thousands of specialist thralls dedicated to maintaining their armour an Inquisitor, particularly one who spends the majority of his time in the field as Morix does, needs something that can be repaired on the fly by pretty much anyone who knows which end of a spanner to hold (and has a basic grasp of the prayers needed to calm the armours fractious machine spirit). My intention was for his suit to appear industrial, as though it’s been built from some kind of void-armour or forge-suit of the sort that Terminator armour was based upon. The fact that it should also be downright intimidating for any heretics he comes across is a lucky bonus.
With this in mind I built a suit that relies more on its size and weight to provide both its protective and aggressive capabilities. This man may not move fast but small arms fire will ricochet from him like a hab-block wall and when he hits you you’ll know all about it.
By way of demonstrating Morix’s size and bulk here he is standing next to a battle brother of the Adeptus Astartes (recently emerged from the Dark Imperium box of course).
And here he is towering over my lone Imperial Guardsman who remains my go-to guy for demonstrating size comparisons next to a normal human.
Fans of the skelliebird that usually perches on his arm fear not, he’s flown off somewhere but he’ll be returning shortly. In the meantime I also put together a drone to assist Morix in his investigations, floating ahead in order to carry out any scouting or espionage he may require. After all if you’re as big and heavy as Inquisitor Morix you aren’t going to be sneaking up on anyone by yourself.
I did try to give the drone arms so it could lift and carry objects it finds, rather than just providing surveillance, but as yet I’ve not managed to find a way to do that which doesn’t unbalance it. In the meantime here it is hovering next to its master.
July 3rd, 2017 at 10:04 am
He’s a big yin.
Fantastic work my friend. He’s so chunky. Love the drone too.
July 4th, 2017 at 8:38 am
Thanks dude!
July 3rd, 2017 at 12:03 pm
Oooh, looking good dude – what a beast!!
July 4th, 2017 at 8:38 am
Cheers mate 🙂
July 3rd, 2017 at 12:09 pm
Brutal (spoken in slurred gravel ridden Metalocalypse tones)
July 4th, 2017 at 8:41 am
Are there any other ways to speak it? 🙂
July 3rd, 2017 at 8:15 pm
If someone had described this model to me (a fusion of heresy plastics and centurion parts) I’d have imagined it to look very stupid, but this somehow…just doesn’t. I think it looks great, not too much like a space marine, but still very much like power armour.
I especially like the drone, who I expect is probably not far off the bulk of the guardsman. 🙂
I love your blog, it makes me want to be a bit more adventurous with my own conversions (currently, I don’t really), especially as I’ll be trying to do some Inquistorial Acolytes of my own.
July 4th, 2017 at 1:46 pm
Often I find the best conversions are like that. Some combinations of components just work naturally and obviously together and those tend to get used a lot. If you want to do something a bit more striking and unique, which I did with this model, you’ve got to try mixing components that don’t naturally mix together, components most people aren’t using. Of course there’s usually a reason most people aren’t already using them, they either don’t fit together naturally which can be an exciting challenge/monumental ball-ache/both, or they just don’t look right when combined. I find you need to be really honest with yourself, no matter how good an idea is in your head or on paper sometimes it just doesn’t work in reality. It’s another reason why I find blogging so useful, there’s plenty of fresh eyes out there who can look at a piece and give you some honest feedback on whether its worked or not.
I’m rather pleased with the drone as well, it wasn’t a planned conversion by any means, and there’s not really a lot to it, just one of those bits of spontaneous creativity that just worked.
Good luck with your own conversions, it may be daunting at times but there’s a whole world of adventure waiting for you! I’ll be keeping an eye out 🙂
July 3rd, 2017 at 9:08 pm
He looks mean! Nice work my friend and I’m really looking forward to seeing him painted.
July 4th, 2017 at 1:54 pm
Paint (and the rest of the warband!) soon – I promise! There are many crazy ideas sitting half finished, at least some of which should become a reality over the next couple of weeks. Still need to tie down the colour-scheme as well but I’ll use one of his underlings for that.
July 4th, 2017 at 1:56 pm
Good plan!
September 9th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
[…] what it is, I won’t be able to make it but fear not, this isn’t the end of the road for Inquisitor Morix and his grim faced agents of the Ordo Mors. Mark has already hinted that the Chapel will call once […]