For many who played Warhammer 40,000 back in the late 80's/early 90's you'll remember a lot of miniatures that were not lucky enough to become a part of today's canon. Around 1986 Games Workshop released a range of 16 'Mercenaries' which had a great sense of variety and character. Some of which made a lasting impact on the world of Warhammer 40k itself such as the first ever Inquisitor!
I decided to sketch some updates for this range with a couple of simple rules in mind. Firstly, I would try to keep the pose as close as possible to that of the original mini and secondly, I would keep all or as many of the important design elements as possible. Above all, OG Fans like myself must still be able to identify the models as those same characters.
Bear in mind, this is a 1st pass at the design process. Personally I'd say they are not ready for sculpting at this point. haha. This 1st pass is just to have fun exploring the possibilities. How can you bring a forty year old miniature up to date? Especially when so many of them have no place in the current structure and you've set yourself those rules as well?
It is true that Games Workshop has built a more 40k coherent universe and I did not craft the Merc's to fit into that - rather to stay within the 'Rogue Trader' realm to which they were born. True, some small details are taken from Warhammer 40,000 and I have tried to maintain a look that will suit alongside. I have done this in hopes that any updated Mercenaries could be used as special characters in 40k or that they could be used for conversions too.
'Hacker Harris' was always my favourite of the set and I suspect the favourite for a few others as well. However, He never looked like much of a hacker to me. So the updated version was a simple tweak to add a bit more of that 40k mech-tech in there on top of his slightly updated armour.
That said, Once it was done, Harris was easily going to need a Servo Skull with the right attachments to help do his bidding and what about a small Robot buddy on his own base to really bring his story to life!! The 'H1' Hack-Bot design is based on typical Imperial Robots but without the over-armour. I did think about designing it more like the original RT Robots but it might have looked too much like a teddy bear at that size.
I hate to say it but 'Worldburner' wasn't my favourite mini' from the collection. It's not that he was bad. More that he just flew under my radar when put next to all the others. However, he did have such a cool name! So I decided to mix it up. Of course I kept those important elements, even tried to keep the stance as close as possible BUT I tried to make his name more of the focus too. Notice the flames coming out of the barrels and the steam from his backpack - all to be sculpted elements.
Inquisitor Augustus was the first ever Inquisitor. That is a huge landmark in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Yet this miniature is largely forgotten about. Such a pity. That is why I chose to update Augustus by simply adding a modern Bolter and a few parts from more modern Inquisitors.
The question is though, would these characters be better if I tried harder to make them fit in more with the 40k universe? If I gave them more dynamic poses? The next step would be to sketch a sheet for each of them separately and see how it unfolds. Remember that these are nothing more than thumbnail sketches.