Antiquities abound
I’ve begun browsing through my images for Inquisition inspiration from my early days. We’re talking 1998+ here. And boy did I find a gem of an old archive on a Zip Disk (!) no less.
Gather round as you bear witness to ancient antiquities of my earliest modelling days. A few images of the 54mm Inquisition models, part of a project sent out by Paul Sawyer to my group of online buddies, “The Taken” when we used to publish the Apocrypha 40k web journal. Two of these lads now run Astronomicon in the states (Christian Augst and Mike Major). This is way back in the late nineties and early 2000-2002. [Monk Gif created by me back then too]
Back then through a bulletin board (cough) we used to chat with Paul Sawyer about various things after he met a few of the Taken on a UK tournament visit. We heard about Inquisitor 54mm for one, then the scoring of the Lord of the Rings licence. To say Paul was excited was an understatement.
The modified attack servitor Damien and Inquisitor were from bits we were all sent (I had just moved to Australia again) which we modded up and sent back to be featured in the launch issue of 54mm Inq in White Dwarf. I even crafted a bolter from a Heavy Bolter and carved a power sword for the young Inquisitor. I’m going to keep hunting for the painted photos also. I’m sure I still have them.
My models were sadly dashed during transit, but Paul put them back together and sent them back a few weeks later with a few extra goodies.
There is a mix of models here, but it really is interesting to see my painting and modelling back then. Silas Hand, the first of the new Inqusitor models and my own Inq. Malakai – a ficitonal character I wrote two books about. Behold! Glorious green bases! Combi-bolters made of modelling putty even! (Malakai’s head was the original Kharn The Betrayer head, FYI)
EDIT: Just added Paul’s White Scar model (I found in Taken files just now) made for him by the Citadel design team as a birthday present, bag contains Bacon butties, a deeo fried bacon cheese foodstuff he loved.
Man, this would be back around the GW Warpgate network too.. awhile back indeed!
Here’s the one I used on The-Scythes.com when the site was invited in the first twenty sites.
Thanks for reading!
Seb.
Wow, that is some classic stuff! And man, the circles you run in… My own Inquisitor stuff never made it off my modeling desk, as my enthusiasm far out paced my skill (particularly back then) … I have over 20 figures I should do something with, but the common ones fetch next to nothing on ebay
Chuckle thanks LP! 🙂
I was very much involved online in 1998-2000 period and being one of the first more permanent websites you got attention. I grew up with little or no knowledge on how to paint and model; so my website was built on spreading the word on the hobby and how to approach modelling etc. There were so few folks online then, few could code websites and the bulletin boards were transitioning to php Forums. I’ve seen a lot of online communities come together and in the past year, die out (which is a great tragedy).
The 54mm figures catch a penny indeed online, then others barely anything. I sold mine to a private collector in Finland years ago. He liked the forced randomness as I only had parts Paul had lying about to send us (first castings etc) – we’re talking the time before 3D CAD, 3D printing etc haha.
I drifted out of GW realms until my Tau collection got picked up in WD; but around that time a lot of the lads I knew or were familiar with, moved on – Warlord Games (Paul), Mantic Games lads and so on. Haha, I actually recall now; I did the promo sheets for Paul’s local team football magazine when he couldnt keep up between it and his newborn. One of my first professional desktop publishing projects.
Thats the thing I guess with Inq28 on my mind and old Inquisition stuff I got involved in; how John Blanche has aged of late and realising; I was very fortunate and learned the hobby during a golden period. I hazard to think the recent changes in GW may bring back this culture anew! Particularly engaging the hobbyists more directly – they went silent on a broad scale for years.
That was a long reply, sorry 🙂
No no, this is fascinating stuff. The period you are referring to is my GW golden age, when every release was wonderful (and I had money and time).
I was also early into the digital side of the hobby (I had a website!) but being a Yank tends to work against you in the miniature world.
I remember The-Scythes.com. I think I even sent you a mail because I like the conversions (the helmet-less characters were subtle and looked like they could be real releases). I always loved your work being not-over-the-top and grounded in a more Nostromo/Sulaco-like aesthetic of 40k.
Am I misremembering things here but I think the White Scar was made by Clouseau who posted on an old version of dakkadakka. He also made a few Space Pirates (Skaven in 40k based on an Eldar falcon?), the Pink Panthers Space Marines and, if I remember correctly, made a few really big terminators (they had power fists like dreadnoughts?).
He also won a few golden daemons for some large scale eldar:
http://demonwinner.free.fr/australia/2000/golden_demon_winner.php?categorie=12#3rd
http://demonwinner.free.fr/australia/2001/golden_demon_winner.php?categorie=7#2nd
The-Scythes.com is still around, I’ll be updating some modelling posts on it. I’ve always been one for downplayed conversions, glad you liked that subtly 🙂
You know, about Clouseau; I think you may be right. The image was in my Taken group files, but I am actually about to put up a post covering models that inspired and amused me over the years – I have a lot of Clouseau’s work; I may have mixed it up. I figured it was done by the citadel team for Paul, but I couldnt remember who. The style is similar enough for me to think you’re right! 🙂
Look forward to your thoughts when I put up the inspiration gallery over the last 15years. 😀
Hah, I thought The-Scythes.com was on a break and you were collecting your work here. Good to know.
You are right both times; The Scythes was on a creative hiatus as I gathered up resources for the next push. To avoid crossover, I’ve made sure anything not in power armor, resides here on EE.com 🙂
Look forward to your thoughts on updates at The Scythes! 😀