Our Chief Weapon Is Fear...And Surprise!

One of the things I like about being cheap is that often my hunt for a bargain takes me down paths I wouldn't have ventured on otherwise.

The Vatican in Carnevale is one such example. It's not that I don't like the range, it's just that for me it doesn't have the lure of the fish monsters of the Rashaar, the gilded finery of the Patricians, the classic horror of the Strigoi or the abominations of the Doctors. If left to my own devices, the Vatican would have been well down the queue.

And yet one bargain on eBay and here we are...

Mind you, cheaphammering does have it's downsides too. I mentioned the casting issues I encountered in the last post and this got me into problem solving frame of mind. Even though the Vatican models had significantly fewer issues with flash and mould lines, I was dismayed to see that one of the raised parts of the cross emblem on the Inquisitor's hat was missing.

Therefore I got to work trimming and gluing a tiny replacement piece onto the hat to form a full cross and got the model ready for painting and went to look at a reference picture...only to discover that the hat, a biretta, was only meant to have three peaks in the first place!

Fortunately, a little bit of research revealed that four peaked birettas also exist but are only for those who have a doctoral degree from a pontifical university. So it wasn't wasted effort after all, it's just my Inquisitor is more educated than everybody else's.

Nobody expects the academic Inquisition!

Painting the Inquisitor was relatively simple, as I'm sure you can see. I shaded the Xereus Purple robe with Carroburg Crimson wash rather than highlighting as I felt it lends a deeper more ominous tone to the colour.

I took care with the gold trim and adding writing to the book as the details on a largely single colour model like this really stand out. I also had to go back over some of the blood on his hands (which is seeping from magical stigmata) to make it more patchy and prevent it looking like he is wearing latex gloves.

I believe the Inquisitor is a spell caster, which is good as it means that the Rashaar won't always be unopposed on the magic front. Also important is the fact that he is a leader for the Vatican, which means my next purchases can be pretty much anything (although I need to ensure I have more henchmen than heroes).

Another fairly straight forward model to build and paint was the Executioner. The only issue to sort with this model was a slightly bent chopper (ooh-err missus) which a little hot water sorted out. I did have a bit of a battle with mould release agent on these two and they both had to have a couple of baths in soapy water and was still fighting to get paint to stick in some places.

The definition of the muscles is a bit odd in places, but that might be because I've left the under-shading a bit thick in places. I was initially not happy with him, but I'm chilling out about it as time passes.

So there we have it, I've started a Vatican...gang? Is that the right word?

Anyway, I'm not sure whether I'm going to add official models and/or proxies at this point, but the Vatican do have the advantage of being both relatively normal looking (bloody-handed clergy notwithstanding) and more knightly in their attire, which means that my bits box and lead mountain are more likely to contain things that are applicable. 

On that subject, here are the numbers:

Acquired: -22
Painted: 32
Lead Mountain: 528