I discovered the fan made Kill Team supplement Acolyte around the start of 2023. I enjoy collabrative games far more than head to head ones, and have always loved the idea of small scale narrative games set in the underbelly of the 40k universe, so this game immediately drew me in. It took until early 2024 to actually muster the time and play group to try out the game, but along with three others I will soon be heading into my first campaign.
All of us committed to converting fresh models for the campaign and after a group kitbash session where I leafed through a copy of The Emperor’s Might (an art book compiled by John Blanche) I decided to work on a Tech Adept acolyte who I ended up naming “Coglan Voltaire”.
The base model is a Delaque ganger with the cloak and shoulders from a Warcry Wildercorps Hunter and Skitari head.
In Acolyte, characters can be equipped differently from game to game so I ended up magnetising both arms and the head. The location of magnets below the shoulder pads seemed like a good idea at the time but in retrospect was a poor choice – it’s hard to conceal the join and also means that I can’t use magnetised weaponry or arms from other models I’ve made, which are magnetised at the wrists or shoulders. Anyway, I’ve made a couple of options so far including an auto/shotgun from the Delaque kit, Chainglaive from Ash Wastes Nomads, pistol or techno gadget thingy from Skitari.
Voltaire’s background is he worked as the tech adept on a rogue traders ship, initially intrigued about the possibility of discovering new technology. But going against the grain, he found himself revolted by his masters obsession with discovering, trading and using Xenos technology and became an inside agent for our (to be named) Inquisitor master, helping to bring the trader and the rest of his crew to justice. After this, he then entered the permanent employ of the Inquisitor, which is the point at which our collective story begins.
The plan is Voltaire will be a reasonably competent ranged combatant but will obviously focus on mission objectives, research, and interacting with systems and machinery more than fighting.
Gamon 7 is one of the servitors that worked under Voltaire on the rogue trader ship. Voltaire has brought it with him and modified it for combat. I tried a few different combinations of parts and it took a while to settle on Poxwalker legs and Scout torso. The Poxwalkers are very good for any models that you want to be sort of plodding forwards, as I found out when converting my Muties.
Once I put those two parts together the rest was pretty straightforward – weapon arm and head from the Cataphron Battle Servitors, right arm an AOS or Warcry chaos warrior mated with a ghoul hand. To begin with, I magnetised a long flamer type weapon from some Skitari kit.
This flamer was too long, so I ended up making another flamer from a couple of bits box parts, as well as a dual autogun and a power claw type attachment.
Here are Coglan Voltaire and Gamon 7, along with an old Servo Skull I may use as a second follower, painted up and ready for game 1…
