Wednesday 15 February 2017

From Curt: 40K Inquisitorial Retinue (Part II) Adeptus Arbites Hunter/Seeker Team - Kane Corso and 'Daisy' (10 Points)


I regret to say that I've been struggling to get any traction this Challenge. Work, life and general winter malaise have all conspired to dampen my productivity, making it very difficult to stay on task. Nonetheless, I've been trying to put in a few hours each week to maintain momentum, and while I have several projects in mid-stream, I do have a small submission to offer today. 

This time I've returned to my 40K Inquisitorial retinue.

This is Kane Corso and 'Daisy'. They are an Arbitrator K9C Hunter/Seeker team originally part of the Adeptus Abites police force (think of a grittier version of Judge Dredd), but are now valued members of Inquisitor Rochel-Perez's retinue of espionage operatives, detectives and combat specialists.

This set of miniatures was released (I believe) as part of a Forge World special event several years ago. As can be imagined, they are quite hard to come by these days unless you know the right, ahem, contacts. In this case the source is a company named, quite appropriately, Black Market Miniatures. Anyway, I made a cautiously small order and was pleasantly surprised to receive my figures promptly, wonderfully packaged and beautifully cast in near-faultless resin.


I've painted Kane in dark green half armour, carrying a stun baton and a K9C sensory readout that is wirelessly linked to to his Cyber-Mastiff 'Daisy'.


He is festooned with purity seals indicating that he's been anointed by a priest of the Imperial cult, marking him as a man who has seen, or is about to see, some nasty, nasty things.

'Daisy' is a heavily augmented Mastiff. I was going to suggest she may be a Cane Corso (dog breed), but thought that would make a better name for her handler. :)  She's obviously seen better days, what with all her pragmatically installed battle augmetics and heavy burn scaring along her side. 


A good portion of her skeleton and musculature has been replaced with a reinforced chassis, cybernetics, along with neural injectors for pain-suppression, heightened senses and adrenaline boosting. Yes, it seems that the SPCA is sadly absent in the 41st millennium.


She's seen here going 'walkies' with her owner. I wonder if Kane cares about 'Imperial on-leash ordinances' and the fact that he's neglected to bring along any poo-bags? Somehow I suspect not.   

Thanks to Byron and the Wednesday crew for letting me horn in on their Wednesday party! 

Kane and Daisy should give me an eye-watering 10 points to add to my total. Nevertheless, onwards and upwards!

ByronM: Welcome oh fearless leader to the Wednesday crew, and thank you for pitching in today with some content as it seems you are not alone in suffering a winter malaise and entries are slow today.  

These two figures make a very nice entry. I especially like the face and skin tones on the Arbite, right down to the stubble tone on his face.  I still struggle with skin tones more often than not, so it's nice to see them done well.   The dark overall palette also works well, especially for something as dark and shadowy as an Inquisitorial Retinue.

As for the figures, they are lovely, and isn't is sad that lately the black market / grey market seems to put out better quality and customer service than the original source... that more than anything else drives home the fact that "some large un-named organization" has lost its way.  Of course that organization is also (quite appropriately here) very good at sending out the Inquisition on a witch hunt to find those shadow organizations!

Anyway, very nice work Curt.  I find that working on cool and characterful single figures like these is a great way to keep motivated, so just stick with stuff like this, it looks great. 

43 comments:

  1. I don't know whether to report you to the Customs Man or the RSCPA! But very nice job on these figures Curt.

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    1. Thanks Peter!

      Since I give money to them both I don't think you'd get much love. ;)

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  2. Lovely work on this pair Curt :)

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  3. Thanks for letting me join the Wednesday show, Byron!

    Yes, as you well know Mr. M, it is amazing what can be had 'off the coast of Tortuga' these days. I'm a past customer of both Forge World and GW and have to say that these off-shore knock offs frequently exceed the quality of the originals.

    I'm sure GW has a very difficult time pursuing these people as many of them are based in China and Russia, where IP infringement is all in a day's work (if BMW can't stop them, I don't think GW has a chance). Then again, if GW/Forge World/et al would provide their products at a reasonable price you would not see this level of piracy. Case in point: how many Perry Miniature knock offs are there in the market? Very little, if any. That is due to the fact that they are easily acquired at a reasonable price. What is today's going rate for a squad of 10 plastic Space Marines from GW? 25 GBP. The cost for 42 plastic French Line infantry from the Perry Miniatures? 20 GBP. The numbers speak for themselves.

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    1. Exactly! The average cost of a plastic character model from GW now is over $30. That's for 1 28mm figure in plastic! When other legit companies offer that same kind of figure from resin for $15-$20, sometimes with better sculpts and details it really shows how they are abusing people.

      Even worse, the new platic kits that come out... Example the Tau Riptide (Big anime robot) is $100 Canadian (+tax so $113) for the real plastic one, or $28us free shipping and no tax from China or Russia and they come in resin and are perfect! When you need 3 for a unit, the choice is obvious. If their prices were reasonable they would sell 10x as much as they do now, instead they drive people to look for options.

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  4. Beautiful hooky figures. The responsibilities of leadership are great and weigh heavy on ones shoulders. I recommend alcohol and the love of a good woman, ideally one who likes alcohol

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    1. Very wise counsel, Martin. I suspect from this you had a good Valentines Day? ;)

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  5. Nice work Curt, that's one scabby looking mutt!

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    1. Thanks Ray. Yes, Daisy's a bit rough but she's got a heart of, um, plasteel and titanium . :)

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  6. Lovely work, I do like the whole inquisition back story in 40K, it's one of the most well rounded parts of their future history, I'm afraid I haven't bought anything bar paint and tufts for over a decade now, they still do lovely stuff I just fell out of love with the whole thing but these both capture the feel very well and are delightfully realised.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. I completely agree. I find the dystopian civilian 'Imperium of Man' backstory more compelling than the over-the-top Space Marine narrative.

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  7. Very nice work Curt. That poor dog has seen better days, but I'm sure it's a resilient pup. Really nice work on the Arbite. He looks very seasoned.

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    1. 'You see, Daisy loves children. She makes an effort to eat one every day...'

      Cheers Rod!

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    1. Thank you very much Christopher. They were fun to work on.

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  9. I was already laughing about Officer Kane's name before I read your post! ;)
    Grand color scheme you used on them, I like the cybernetic hound a lot more than the pure mechanical one. They do seem like a cozy pair.
    The paintwork on the hound is very well done!
    I hate to think of that burn scar, but that is a nice color and shade you gave it.

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    1. Thanks Dave! Yes, this model is much more realistic (and therefore chilling) than the almost comical mechanical miniature.

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  10. The dog is the star of this entry! It looks really nasty. Great work on the face, also, he has that look of the weary traveller whos been away for too long...

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    1. Cheers Iannick. Yes, the only reason to buy this set is for the excellent hound model. That being said they did do a great job on sculpting his battle-weary, seen-it-all face.

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  11. That's a fearsome hound. Nice work!

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    1. Thanks Barks, she's not a snuggler to be sure. :)

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  12. Very nice work Curt. I too got a small selection from black market minis on eBay . And I must say top notch production.

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    1. Yes, the stuff I've received has been excellent both in quality and packaging.

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  13. Fantastic painting as ever Curt! I do like this set and you've realised them very nicely indeed, the face of the arbiter certainly makes him look somewhat world weary like a pulp detective and the dog's injuries really tell a story.

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    1. My thoughts exactly when I saw the set. More of a gritty civilian's take on the 40K universe.

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  14. Impressive work Curt! And great looking sculpts as well! Never seen them before. Must have been pretty Limited edition or not available on this side of the pond then

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    1. By the way do you know where they are shipping from? Not surprisingly their website is pretty vague about it...

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    2. I seem to recollect that they are out of Russia.

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  15. Very cool Curt - very much like a 40k version of Mad Max aka the Road Warrior!

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    1. You know, you're absolutely right Paul. I never made that connection until now.

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  16. Fantastic stuff dude, outstanding brushwork. Let the heretics fear the chomp of the Emperor's "public order"...

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    1. Thanks dude! Daisy's not exactly a 'hound of love'.

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  17. Very nicely done Curt, a lot of the entries today impress on me the need to work on my faces in 28mm.

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    1. Thanks John. Faces are always a challenge, but I've developed a method over the years that seems to give reasonably consistent results.

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  18. Nice black market figs, havent seen these before

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    1. If you visit their site you'll find their icon is perfect. ;)

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  19. Cracking paint job on these two Curt! I really like what you did with the canine. It really looks both battered and intimidating at the same time. Wouldn't want to mess with both of them.

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    1. Thanks Nick! That was precisely the look I was going for with the girl.

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