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

Cadian Beast guard / renegade militia conversions part #3

The last 4 of the first 10 Cadian beast guard are now fully built... Burly, belligerent, and very pissed off.

Bellowed war cries and plaintives to the thirsting Gods.

Another grizzled and scarred veteran

Renegade militia / traitor guard beastmen

Another three kitbashed traitor guard / renegade militia beastmen.

Again, the conversion work here is very light. Insignia scraped off, minor gap filling with green stuff.

Simple work, but i think full of attitude.

Orders acknowledged!

Burn, you suckas!

You frontin' on my set you fuggah?

Something dark stirs at the Cadian Gate

I've had an idea in mind for a force of renegade guard, based loosely on the old Imperial Guard beastmen from the Rogue Trader days.  They were models that I'd always quite wanted, but never got around to buying.  They occasionally crop up on Ebay, but they seem a bit pricey for this lost son of Yorkshire.

Longer-term readers may be acquainted with the previous beast-guard conversions I did using gors and Catachans. If you are interested in seeing, you can find them here, and here, and also here and finally, here.

They took me absolutely ages to make.  One day, I'll paint the bastards.

Anyway, this has led to me working on some other conversions, this time using the Cadian box as the basis for the model, and adding in heads from the ungor kit.  The conversion work here is quite basic, involving only cutting / trimming the neck part away on the ungor heads, and filling the gap between head and shoulders with greenstuff, once the glue has set.

For such a minor amount of conversion work, they look pretty effective, particularly with the Imperial Aquilas scored off their armour and guns...

The ungor heads seem to lend the models a fairly belligerent air.  Love it.

This was my original 3d sketch

The original 3d sketch actualised, with "sarge" to keep him company

I imagine this guy as a bit of a veteran