Beastman Psykers / Sorcerors for INQ28, 40K Renegades & Heretics, and Frostgrave

You may recall that some time ago I started work on a coven of renegade psykers for use in a proposed Renegades and Heretics army for 40K.  That whole wider idea has kinda been shelved for the moment (more likely indefinitely).

The most likely use for these two gnarled individuals will be in games of INQ28 / Inquisimunda, where they will no doubt be associates of Inquisitor Daubenton...

More recently, I was made aware of a relatively new game called Frostgrave. It's a small scale skirmish game where your force is led by a wizard and his/her apprentice.  That's the respective roles these chaps will play for Frostgrave if I ever get round to playing it.  The hardback rulebook itself is really nice and is available for around a tenner from places such as Amazon, but the full price is only something like £15, so I'd recommend supporting an actual games store if you fancy it.  The ruleset is really simple and dynamic. The other great thing about this game is that you can use suitable models from any range, and that all people in your warband set out with the same stats. You just recruit others that you feel would be suitable and pay for extra equipment from your store of gold. One Stevie Boxall of Corehammer fame has promised me an intro game at some point in a few weeks, so expect a bit of a warband to appear at some point.

Chimaera transport for Renegade Militia Rogue Psyker coven - 3D sketch

Last week I posted about my Rogue Psyker coven for my planned renegade Imperial Guard army.  I mentioned I had a plan for a dedicated transport for this unit, and I have now physically sketched this out in plastic and Blu Tak...

This whole model is based around the GW Imperial Guard Chimaera chassis, and the recently released GW Spirit Host kit for Warhammer fantasy. When I first dreamt this up the other week, I knew I had to try and build it. I also feel like I have actually had an original idea for the first time in ages - although if anybody wants to set me straight on this, I'm receptive! I know I've certainly not seen anybody come up with this yet.


At this point I probably ought to discuss my reasoning for putting this together the way in which I did. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I intended this group of psykers to be quite shamanistic and primitive in appearance, so it seemed reasonable to me that based on  superstitions around witchcraft still prevalent in the real world, there is a real feel fear around people interfering with the dead and communing with the spirits of the dead (amongst other things). This is what prompted me to look at the new Spirit Host kit in the first place.  The main idea being that I'd build the models and just deploy them with the psyker unit for decorative purposes.

Looking then at the Wyrdvan Psyker entry in Astra Militarum codex, I saw that they were able to take a Chimaera as a dedicated transport. However, when I started thinking about the Chimaera kit, there were certain things that didn't seem to sit too well with me - primarily the las rifles that poke out of the transport compartment area. It just didn't seem right that a bunch of shaman would be firing boom-sticks from a tank.  It was at this point that I started wondering what I could do to remedy this, as it occurred to me that once the las rifles were removed, there would be 6 sizeable, empty holes in the top of the tank.  Looking again at the Spirit Host kit, it was clear to see that these models were quite spindly and ethereal looking, particularly if they were modelled separately rather than in a 'swarm' and that they ought to fit very easily into the aforementioned holes.

So I put the pieces together, and this is what I initially came up with...

I used a couple of these spare pieces you get in various Guard
tanks to cover over the las gun holes from below

Rogue Psyker coven for renegade Imperial Guard

I may or may not have mentioned that I was going to start work on a renegade Imperial Guard army...

Basically, I've been hording bitz and occasionally picking up kits over the course of about a year (thus far), and this is a taster of what is to come...

The idea behind this force is that it represents some of the most oppressed sections of Imperial society that have been pressed into service. After all, the Imperial tithe comes to all worlds, be they hive worlds, agri-worlds or even feral worlds. All must pay the allotted amount of man-flesh to feed the eternal meat-grinder of the Imperial war machine.

Thus, the bulk of this army will be represented by abhumans, those considered to be "stable mutations", and feral humans and those conscripted from penal colonies.

What I've prepared here will form the basis of a unit of Wyrdvane Psykers (the unit that replaced the old Psychic Battle Squad). I wanted them to have quite a shamanistic appearance, but also showing a good amount of mutations, indicating the blessings and dark favour of the Chaos Gods. I've also got a cool idea in mind for their dedicated Chimaera transport, although you'll have to wait a bit for that one... As well as for a bit of further painting to take place!

I've used the following:
1. Vampire Counts - Necromancer (minus the daft bat wing ruff - I've had this one laying around the place for  a couple of years now. Sadly firmly glued to a small square base, now also stacked atop a round one. Regrettably, I realise that I could have come up with a better solution than this, but that's hindsight for you, innit?)
2. Warriors of Chaos -sorceror from the Glottkin kit (obviously had to feature)
3. Warriors of Chaos - Festus The Leechlord (also had this for ages, an impulse buy that I did nothing with)
4. Beasts of Chaos - Great Bray Shaman (picked up with this project in mind)
5. Beasts of Chaos - Malagar the Dark Omen (again, picked up with this project in mind)

I also included the brazier / cauldron type piece from the Skaven Screaming Bell kit for a bit of fun. I've had this bit knocking about for ages, but with no real obvious use for it, despite it being a nice little feature.  If I base it, it can also double up as an objective or something...