Painting Progress, Inquisitor Axne and Cardinal Vindix

Getting close to finishing painting on my first squad of Steel Legion troops while starting the painting of squad #2.  11 out of 71 models with paint on them for the force.

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Minimal progress on painting has me looking at all of the in progress/built models that are visible in my hobby area and thinking about what to paint next.  One possibility is Inquisitor Axne built after seeing many interesting conversions from the easy to build Sequitor Stormcast models.  I'm working on some background for her and her Inquisitorial warband.  I see her as a positive, pragmatic force committed to both preserving and improving the Imperium.  It is a position that would, sadly, generate more enemies rather than fewer I suspect.

"An Escher ganger taken at age 10 in a Goliath raid, Axne was used as a test subject in Goliath growth stimulant experiments.  She escaped five years later having endured a litany of substances that left her standing well in excess of six feet tall with a strength to mass ratio the envy of many front line battle servitors. Alone in enemy territory, Axne then spent the next several years haunting the nearby territories as she collected resources and tried to determine how best to enact her revenge on the Goliaths. During that time she observed and eavesdropped on all manner of settings, people and transactions slowly developing an affinity for finding ideas and areas of worth."

Inquisitor Axne and acolytes recruited from her former Escher gang.

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If Inquisitor Axne is envisioned as a positive Inquisitorial force then Cardinal Vindix is quite the opposite.  He is a Ministorum Cardinal that will use Inquisitor rules if he ever takes the field.  Cruel and vindictive, his quest for Ministerial justice is always focused on maximizing fear and imposing his version of the Imperial Truth.  I assume his hood is made from the flayed skin of his opponents real and imagined.

Painting Progress and Conversion Chaos

Painting on the first squad of Steel Legion continues.  Weapon bodies painted black and helmets giving a coat of Castellan Green.  Both need a Nuln Oil wash and I've got at least one portion of a kneeling models coat to paint and wash since I somehow managed to miss it despite multiply passes over each model in the past week.  Lots of other details and clean up left, I'm sure, once I look closely at a given model.  Still it's progress.

The Steel Legion squad were occupying the corner of the mat holding the conversion pile I've been fiddling with the past week or so.  Ministorum agents, MicroArts mechanicus bodies, the one squad of new Scions I can't decide how to build...the list goes on and on.

Painting Steel Legion and Conversions

I have 70+ Steel Legion models plus a couple of Chimeras in my collection.  Mostly metal models but with some more recent additions from Mad Robot Miniatures for the heads and Anvil Industries for the rest of the models to round out units, model differently armed sergeants and even make a counts as set of Ratlings for the force.

Counts as Ratling snipers or a models for a Special Weapons or Veterans squad

I've never completed a 40K army in decades of buying and building.  This year I'm hoping to change that so I've started painting my Steel Legion and I'll take breaks to paint other models as I go.  After that there are many other 40K forces to work on.

Platoon 1 in progress paint job.

I also love to convert models and the counts as arco-flagellants and/or close combat servitors were made from Kromlech ork bits including their Mechanical Saw Arms.  I like that they are a bit beefier than other servitors I've bought or converted from ghouls or other models.