Enough of that.
I have mentioned before about how I wanted to expand the Adeptus Mechanicus theme to more Imperial forces. There are a couple things that happened today that excite me even more in this regard; Forge World has released Tech Thralls, and Blight Wheel Miniatures has announced the Brotherhood. I'm sure I can find a home in my ever expanding forces for these beautiful miniatures. I have used the Blight Wheel Miniatures bionic arms as Servo Arms for my AdMech Marines, and they are crisp.
Today though, my expansion focuses on the Grey Knights codex (also the Inquisitor supplement I suppose, but I haven't seen it). I wanted to include Coteaz as an Allied Inquisitor in my force. He has been in my army since Codex: Daemonhunters. I've always loved the look and feel of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, and to include them I need him. So I set out to create a 'counts as' Coteaz with an appropriate Mechanicus feel.
I started with these bits. Coteaz is in power armour, right, so I planned another Techmarine, this one with a great hammer and some servo skulls to count as the psyber eagle. When I laid out the bits, though, I really wasn't feeling it. I tried a few different heads, including a couple IG heads thinking that sure, he is in power armour but he isn't a Space Marine. Still not there. I dove back into my bits box and tried to find better bits. No dice. But I did find one Techpriest Engineseer.
I had won him off eBay over the summer and forgotten about him. The Engineseer model has the baroque armour that fits an Inquisitor. He has a power pack and servo arm, which I modified to be a bit more dynamic. The model also has a two handed tech axe, which I handily converted into Coteaz's daemonhammer. I can't say this is an original idea. since I swear I've seen this conversion somewhere before. I wish I could give the guy credit. The model even has a searchlight, just as do the rest of my AdMech Marines. I did add three different servo skulls to count as his familiar. The psyber eagle gets extra attacks in assault, so I figured a swarm of servo skulls would represent that well.
At the same time I was working on getting my 'counts as' Coteaz finished, I was waiting for some greatcoat legs to arrive from Mad Robot Miniatures. I had ordered them as part of the Roll Call Steve ran to raise money to produce the amazing Kurgan Winter Guard. Sadly, my order was stolen right out of my mailbox. I waited a few weeks then, until I could afford to order more greatcoat legs. This time, I was able to expand my order somewhat, including 20 luminous CQ battle rifles, 10 combat shotguns, and 6 each of the flamethrower, grenade launcher, thermal gun, and plasma rifle. I have torsos aplenty standing by, as well as arms to build some 'counts as' Inquisitorial Henchmen.
But wait, there is more! I want each unit of Henchmen to be able to double as a squad of Stormtroopers or Veterans in my IG force. So there will be a de facto sergeant for each unit. For this I ordered Mad Robot Mini's Personalities head set. With all these details, I'm guaranteed to get a unit that stands out on the battle field.
I used Cadian torsos, heads, and arms. It is a pain in the ass to remove hands from lasguns, but it has to be done. The sides of the heads have been shaved down, the eyes filled with so called liquid green stuff, and then respirators from the Cadian command sprue added. For this initial squad I chose flamers and combat shotguns, which will be 'count as' hotshot lasguns.
They paint up real easy with red armour over grey coats. The exact mix was Adeptus Battlegrey, drybrushed Codex Grey and Fortress Grey. Black wash, repeat drybrush. The red armour was simply Mordian Red followed by Blood Red and Baal Red wash. Eventually my supply of paint 1.0 will run out and I will have to upgrade.
'Counts as' Coteaz all finished. His armour was painted exactly as the rest of the AdMech Marines in my force. The robes were based with Graveyard Earth, then overbrushed Kommando Khaki, followed by drybrush coats of Bleached Bone and Skull white.
I have to cast up some more custom bases for these guys. More to come on these guys soon. I'm waiting for respirators to arrive from an eBay win so I can get back to it with them.
Cheers,
-Xi
