Subsequently retconned 40K background including Christian resonance PLUS Sean Connery playing an Egyptian dressed as a Spaniard in dated 80s cult movie EQUALS this: 
I didnt read the Realm of Chaos books until many years after their release but I heard about the Sensei characters, essentially champions of a fifth Chaos power /the Emperor/the toe-curlingly named “Star Child”. At the time I suspected that they might be rubbish.
A different Starchild.
I finally got my hands on the RoC books in 2000 or so and I did indeed find that the Sensei Jesus-meets-Highlander concept was more than a bit dodgy. So I didnt really think about the 40K Sensei much since.
Hmmm. Not convinced.
Fast forward almost a decade and a half and Sensei enthusiasm on both the Leadplague and the Leadpile blogs had me re-examining my Sensei standpoint. I now think that playing a skirmish 40K game with a Jesus-meets-Highlander theme is a good idea, so I painted this model. The circle of hypocrisy is complete. 
Sensei enthusiasm has led to a plan for a “Quickening” multi-player scenario to be played at the Bring Out Your Lead 2014 event in August. As games that have entire matching Queen albums dont come around very often, I decided to take part and get a Sensei model ready. Pushing the obvious Highlander references centre-stage, my immortal sensei is based heavily on a Sean Connerys Ramirez character from the original Highlander movie. 
Except its Ramirez “in space” that is. And except Ramirez doesnt look like he did in the second Highlander movie when the character actually went into space either. He looks like he did in 1541, except he has had some cheesy sci-fi trappings added, like a glowing tube on his sword, a bionic eye and a robotic floating skull wearing a feathered hat. So its probably not really supposed to be the same guy, just a rather obvious homage to him and an opportunity to do bad Sean Connery impersonations. 
The model is the old Warhammer Quest Imperial Noble miniature that Just John was able to provide at a moments notice, while the hat and feathers – crucial for the appropriate look for the servo skull – were supplied just as quickly by Mr Saturday. Thank you gents, we are greater than the sum of our parts. 
The painting was straightforward. If the model was supposed to represent a generic Imperial noble in spaaace I would have approached the palette quite differently. But it wasnt, so I didnt. The figure had to be an obvious reference to the movie character, so I tried to stick to the palette as seen in the images shown. 
A little artistic licence was applied as although close, the miniature isnt an exact match for the movie character. I also didnt want to try to paint a spray of peacock feathers, so I tried to give a vague scent-of-a-peacock vibe by using the appropriate colours instead. So the cloak ended up green and all of the “eyes” on the model ended up blue. 
The finished paint job ended up brighter than the one on the movie, with the finished model being brighter than most things that I paint and covering a full rainbow of colour. Its in keeping with the dandy, popinjay stylings of Ramirez in the movie I think, but its a very 1990s sort of GW paint scheme in some respects, which isnt always a good thing. 
Ramirez is also quite well suited for use as an actual “Rogue Trader” character (and the idea of attached the floating hatstand/servo-skull came directly from a Rogue Trader conversion on Tales from the Maelstrom in fact) as well as a Sensei. I have a couple of models lined up for Rogue Trader duties already, but Ramirez will do admirably as a stand-in if required.
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2014, 40K, Realms of Chaos, Sci-fi, Sensei |
sho3box 
A splendid model that does his part perfectly. He is a convincing Spanish Space Sean Connery and a perfect Imperial Noble or Rogue trader. A great delight it will be to fight alongside/against him…
Oh and I note he has a retinue, I’ll have to give Connor Mc Lambert one too then…
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I have to start work on the Freebooterz for my game with Whiskey Priest next, just in case something unexpected comes along and scuppers my schedule. Once they are done I will take a look at adding a dedicated retinue to Ramirez. I have a few miniatures picked already…
Thanks for the feedback Asslessman!
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As always awesome concept and execution. Really looks like Space Connery. The paintjob is superb, so are the other miniatures you present. But what in gods name does the flying bionic mummie depict? I would be more than interested in the fluff for this model.
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Im glad that you like Ramirez. Its a pretty recognisable depiction of the character I think, which is quite fun.
The flying bionic mummy is Navigator Totenkranz. Full post and explanation of whats going on HERE 🙂
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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Well he turned out great. Nice warm tones make him look very expensively dressed indeed. You have quite the output Paul, I must say. Glad to see the accoutrements went together so well, the skull looks the very pinnacle of flouncy fashion.
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Thanks Dave, Ramirez worked out well I think. He is a peacock, an “overdressed haggis” in fact, and his servo-skull is the best dressed in the auto-reliquary.
Working to a very recognisable character or “look” can be a help or a hindrance, but the sculpt was close enough to the movie costume to give this project a head start. There are very few fictional environments where a floating skull with a robot in it can wear a hat with a huge feather in it and still fit right in, so best to get on that while the going is good: the skull is my favourite bit by far, just because of the concept.
Regarding output, its always a struggle to balance output and quality for me. I dont have the patience for very tight paint jobs anyway, so its about getting the best compromise. I get more out of a colour scheme that works than technical application of paint that works. I get more out of the hobby these days than I ever did by agonising over the details. Output breeds output for me.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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¡Un trabajo excelente! Me quito el sombrero.
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Muchos gracias wachinayn!
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You’re welcome. 🙂
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He`s got that Sinbad look about him. From the gutter but sharp as a blade. I love him 🙂
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I like that description 🙂 Is it a quote?
I hadnt thought about Sinbad, but he has a bit of that about him alright. That miniature has a certain swashbuckling, debonair charm that appealed to me as soon as it was released (nineteen years ago…).
It has been fun finding a way to incorporate it into my own projects, but it was important to me not to disrupt the charm that the figure already had.
Im glad that you like it 🙂
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You just blew my mind out with that! 😀 That Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez (which sound excessive even for Spanish standards :P) looks gorgeous, I believe you just got the essence of it, but the skull… Oh, the skull is just the cherry on top. Bravo, maestro!
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That sort of approval from a Spaniard counts double, thanks Suber 🙂
The servo-skull is my favourite part of the model by a long way.
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Oh that’s great. Also the transformation from “rubbish”, “dodgy” to pure awesome, by way of Highlander. Very cool. Not sure about the PJ being “90’s” the darks are really dark, which I think is unusual for that period, the photos give him a great iridescent / peacock-like effect. If anything reminds me of the work Imaginary Friends Studio has been doing for FFG Rogue Trader (that’s a good thing IMHO).
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Thanks Zhu. The palette used is quite similar to the studio one at the time of the original release. It didnt copy elements of the studio scheme intentionally, but I guess that the studio took a number of cues from Highlander which I somehow missed back when the figure was originally released.
I think that I associate a bright palette that features a lot of red, green and yellow with some of the colour schemes used during the era, even if the application of the colours here differs, as you noted. One advantage to the dark shading that I used is that it is suggestive of velvets and other plush materials.
Similarly, the highlighting on the cloak was deliberately quite “edgy”. I knew that I would never have the patience to tackle something as ambitious as making the garment look like it was actually made of individual peacock feathers, so I chose to try to give it a sort of visual shorthand for a luxurious material, so “irridescent” is exactly what I wanted to hear 🙂
I will have to check out Imaginary Friends Studio. Thanks for the feedback.
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