Inquisitor Hex's Warband pt.1: The Inner Circle

Apologies for the quality of photographs, can't seem to get good light today. Still, good enough for unpainted miniatures and I did so want to post the conversions before the end of the month, starting the warband being one of my hobby goals for February. So here they are: Inquisitor Hex and the most longstanding members of his warband, his most trusted lieutenants (click pictures to embiggen):

Inquisitor Laurento Hex of the Ordo Xenos

I didn't want Hex to be too showy. He's not the blood and thunder type of Inquisitor who storms into combat clad in power armour and swinging a thunder hammer. Rather, he's an investigator who prefers to work undercover, adopting a role and playing just a little larger than life. He was an actor before he was an inquisitor. The Empire Witch Hunter seemed low key enough, especially once I'd sawn off the huge Puritan hat and substituted a head from the Cadian Command Squad.

Alvin Callum, Imperial Strategist

Callum is a very old character of mine, my point of view character for every Imperial army I've collected. He started as a reporter for The 700 Wonders Of The Imperium, reporting on an Imperial Crusade. Yes, he was Ford Prefect 40k, I admit it. He ended up joining the warband where his multi-track mind and genius for finding connections soon made him Hex's closest confidante and even, though Hex would never admit it, his closest friend. They've been apart for a while with Callum deep undercover at Imperial Strategy, but now they're together again and I don't intend to part them again any time soon.

I put more thought into this one than any of the other conversions: he's wearing a Cadian officer's uniform but the head (from the Empire Pistoliers sprue) has long, flowing hair to show he's not “proper” Guard and the pile of scrolls in his hand (from the Empire Luminark) refers to his past as a scrivener and his current role as the warband's researcher and mission co-ordinator.

Junko Antioch, Sanctioned Psyker

I've been reading Graham McNeil's … of Mars trilogy and one concept that really grabbed me was the idea of “Ultramarian optimism”. I never gave Junko much background back in the day so I decided he's from Macragge because the idea of an optimistic sanctioned psyker appealed to me, hence the Ultra on his stave. He's a powerful telekine and very much the muscle of the warband, though he has some talents as a prognosticator.

Legs and torso come from the Cadian Command Squad, the arms from a Leman Russ tank commander and the stave is made from the Ultra out of the Space Marine Commander atop pole from the Empire Flagellants.

Punichello “Punch” Texman, Rogue Trader

Every warband needs transport and in this case its provided by Punch, the eleventh son of rogue trader Julius Texman. Julius' life was saved by Hex many years ago and in return he lent the inquisitor a spaceship, a skeleton crew and one of his less immediately useful sons on indefinite loan.

I've never liked the plastic Commissar sculpt, I think its overdone and badly proportioned but what it does have is ridiculously ostentatious clothes. I got rid of the silly sword, replaced with with a hand from a Cadian Command Squad special weapon and swapped out the head for a Bretonnian Knight Errant (with a ruff made from a purity seal to cover an embarrassingly raggedy join). Paint it in ludicrously clashing colours and I should have a typically over-dressed rogue trader.