Kitbash challenge – Vermintide

I was thinking of making a mini to represent Eddard’s brother Tomas, but once I chose to paint the folds of the soldiers clothes as kilt pleats in tartan instead, I wanted a new name and character for him.

Tonmehr means Claymore in German (according to Google anyway – Sorry, but I am a very lazy researcher).

Just to persevere with the Scottish theme I chose a slightly outdated Scottish boys name that sounded strong, but also seemed to suit the Warhammer Empire world too.

Alban Tonmehr has been promoted high above his standing strictly due to attrition and circumstance. All the capable leaders and strategists amongst his regiment have been slaughtered or eaten, or both. The dwindling stock of sergeants were too valuable where they are in the structure, keeping discipline and teaching the men their trade. Rightly or wrongly, possibly both, the few remaining officers above Alban decided that they may as well choose the strongest and most brutal amongst their ranks to at least lead by example when the inevitable Skaven horde surfaced. They were optimistically hopeful Alban would live long enough to add some finesse and tactics, beyond the headlong screaming charge, to his repertoire.

Alban knows his failings, is aware as soon as a relief column arrives he will lose his field commission, but is also aware that there is no guarantee that they will live through the Skaven incursion for any of that to be relevant.

His family had been forced from their mountain strongholds by the constant pressure from Orc and goblin raids. His father had taken him from city to Imperial city looking for work and only found prejudice for being mountain folk and menial poorly paid work. Alban saw how hard his father was having to work to feed him and his eight sisters and decided to lessen the burden by running away and joining the army. Being tall and strong the army believed Alban when he lied about his age in signing up and he proved an able and frighteningly effective soldier from the start.

That was all several years ago and now he faces the horrors of a Skaven horde with his dour style of pragmatic wit.

“You call that a horde? I was fighting bigger Waaaahs of orcs sat in my nappy. Dry your eyes ya fud, there’s a fight to be had. Last one to get their blade wet ‘s a bloody Jessie.”

Mordecai was interesting to build.

The body is from the NorthStar Frostgrave Human sprue.

The head is from the NorthStar Frostgrave Barbarian sprue.

The Hat and right sword arm are from a Warlord Games Pike and Shotte cavalry command sprue. Had to scrape away the sculpted hair on the underside of the hat’s brim. I Greenstuff added a buckle to the hat.

The left arm is from the NorthStar soldiers sprue with an open hand.

The pistol is metal, from Essex Miniatures.

The cloak is a Dwarf Brock Rider cloak from Mantic Games with some Greenstuff to attach it to the body.

The shoulder armour is from a Warlord Games Roman Pretorian sprue. Cut from a right sword arm.

The purity seal is a piece of paper and a piece of Blood for the Blood God dried up pot lid paint as the red seal.

The book on his right hip is made from a piece of card.

The plastic tab between the feet of the mini cut into squares works out well as cobbles. I left a trench of empty base down the middle. I started to fill this with thick layers of PVA, Nurgle’s Rot and varnish, allowing it to dry between layers. I now know there was probably some poor execution on my part and had the potential to look clear and interesting. Sadly by the end it was so green and opaque that it could have been a piece of Greenstuff covered in a single coat of Nurgle’s Rot and looked almost the same.

I am not sure why this gutter or drain is braced by metal bars, but during process it just seemed to make better authentic sense.

The vine looking pieces are made from dried up Blood for the Blood God paint from the pot lid painted Vallejo Flat Green.

I added some leaves, cut with a Greenstuff World leaf shape cutter. Some were added to the gutter, but as I said sadly I managed to mess this up and they were lost in the murky finish I ended up with.

It is an interesting base, but I am not sure I am really happy with it, especially considering the amount of drying time I wasted without getting a green tinted clear finish I hoped for.

• I brushed in Abaddon Black as a primer layer.
• The black of the coat is Abaddon Black with a highlight of Vallejo German Grey.
• The leggings are Vallejo Flat Brown with a couple of shades of Agrax Earthshade.
• The gloves are Vallejo Black Red and Nulin Oil shade.
• I used a mixture of Bugman’s Glow and Army Painter Barbarian Flesh for the face.
• The beard was a base of Vallejo Flat Brown then a wash of Nulin Oil and a highlight of Vallejo German Grey.
• The Brass coloured bits (book edges, sword basket etc.) are Vallejo Laton 70.801 Brass.
• The sword and shoulder armour etc. are painted with Leadbelcher.
• The sleaves and undergarment is MccragBBlue.
• The trim on the coat and belt on the hat are Mephiston Red.
• The shoes are Abaddon Black.
• The cloak has some Army Painter Ash Grey, highlights of Rakarth Flesh, some Vallejo Mahogany Brown and tailing off to Abaddon Black at the end, with Nulin Oil and Agrax Earthshade washes.
• The hat is Vallejo Mahogany Brown with some Agrax Earthshade and Nulin Oil wash. I had started with the hat being black but I was worried that be was starting to look like a Tower of London Yeoman guard and lots of Witch hunter art has more golds and browns than my scheme.

The name was just conjured from googling through old names and Malleus is the title of a 40k Inquisitor story I like. Malleus is also “the hammer” in the arrangement of small bones in your inner ear. It was a sneaky way of calling him Von Hammer. ?

Mordecai hasn’t always been Mordecai. He had a chance meeting with a Templar of the Cult of Sigmar that saved his life and he found his calling.

Henry Crun had been a stagecoach driver. This perhaps showed an intention to see new horizons and certainly demonstrated that he was not scared of long hours and facing threats and danger, but Henry to this day doesn’t know why the witch hunter took pity on him that fateful day.

Henry had ridden for two days with a lone female passenger and their belongings. With his keen eyes scanning the road ahead he had spotted a glint of metal. Maybe it was armour or a spear tip, but it was definitely danger. Unbeknownst to him his actions had avoided being ambushed by goblins. He took a longer road on an alternative route, but this had not been uneventful either. He had shot a brigand who tried to hold up the carriage and it had rained long and hard ever since. Finally at his destination his road weary passenger thanks him, kisses him on the cheek, knees him in the crotch and grabs his money purse and runs off down the main street of the small town. Henry cursed out loud, got back into the drivers seat and forced the horses on to give chase. He had worked too hard, on that journey alone, to be left penniless now. He was desperate, full of adrenaline and blocked out the pain in his nethers as best he could as he took the reins. The woman had clearly hoped there would be an alley to dive down and lose him but there was no obvious escape route as Henry gave pursuit. Henry was gaining on her. The tired horses whinny in protest as they gain momentum. Henry began thinking how he would get down quickly and safely enough to give chase on foot … When a local woman crossed the road and his horses ploughed into her. Killing her almost instantly. The thief ran on into the dark and Henry scrambled down from the coach, shaken and horrified as he tearfully dragged the woman from beneath the flailing hooves. Henry fell to the wooden sidewalk and rested the poor lifeless young woman down and sobbed uncontrollably. Even in the failing light the street was remarkably busy. Torches were brought forth and cries of sorrow and anguish in the gathering crowd turned to cries for explanation and justice. The crowd had seen a reckless speeding coach kill one of their own and Henry had been too traumatised to offer any words of defense. Just feeling sick and staring at blood and mud fouled hands. A huge burley aproned man put their huge hand on Henry’s shoulder and hoisted up to his feet. The move shook Henry from his shock for a moment. It was dawning on Henry what trouble he was in when this was punctuated with a huge punch from the huge aproned blacksmith and a cry of “That was my daughter!!!” Henry scrambled away from the furious man, bleary-eyed with tears and nursing a broken nose. The huge man reached for a knife at this hip when a shot rang out in the street.

All eyes swung to the man in his wide brimmed hat and long flowing black cloak. He stood between the crowd and Henry and told them what he had seen. He had witnessed it all and said that Henry would face judgement, but as a servant of the Empire the witch hunter would not condone the linching the mob was crying out for.

By shear presence, bearing and a fine command of words the Witch hunter calmed things enough to get a shacking Henry into the coach and assured them he would be tried in the morning.

In the morning the town folk awoke to find no stagecoach driver, no stagecoach and no witch hunter; only a dead horse, put out of its misery after breaking it’s legs.

The witch hunter told Henry that the thieving passenger had actually been a witch he had been hunting. Sadly the young woman Henry had killed with his horse team had been susceptible to a cantrip that the witch had been chanting as she ran down the sidewalk. Sadly it was only her with her young ears that heard all of the breathlessly spluttered spell and she obediently walked out into the path of the horses without question.

The witch hunter told Henry all about himself and offered him a chance to join him in catching the witch and felt it would help Henry get over his guilt and grief from that muddy bloody evening.

Henry accepted and began a long and arduous apprenticeship into the world of purification and fire that only a witch hunter can attest to and understand.

The name changes to Mordecai Von Malleüs, just to give him more mystique and authority, but he has not taken on all the buckled and guilded trappings of the witch hunter colleges. He travels light and uses his inherent skill for sniffing out danger to hunt out the enemies of the Empire. He finds himself in a sewer, his senses tingling as he draws his sword. This time there’s no long road to take, this ambush will be sprung and bloodily put to the sword on his terms not their’s. He wondered what the slightly timid Henry Crun would make of the determined, skillful hunter Mordecai if he could introduce the two somehow. He gulps, smiles and continues into the darkness…

I wanted to create a Dwarf, but realised the only kits I have available are the Mantic Games standard dwarf minis that sadly I have gone off aesthetically in a big way.

The body was always going to be a problem. I could cut off the legs of a standard human miniature and use a pair of Dwarf feet but a lack of a belly and squat features might be too far for people to stretch credulity with me.

I found a Mantic Games Orc miniature body that I felt could pass stature wise as a Dwarf once the legs were hacked off. Sadly the wide gate of the orc meant some leg would still be showing even when cut right up under the body. So some Greenstuff came in useful to make the pleats of a kilt to hide the remnants of the offending left leg.

The right arm is from the Mantic Games orc sprue, but with the weapon hand cut off and a Mantic Games dwarf right open hand glued on.

The left arm was attached to the body, so I cut it back to the elbow and put a Mantic Games dwarf cannon crew sprue smoking a pipe left arm instead. The only trouble was this didn’t quite match up for thickness of arm etc, so I Greenstuffed some chain mail over the top of the join.

The feet were from the Mantic Games dwarf cannon crew sprue. I assume they were just for fun basing potential, a jibe at the times that sadly dwarf tech can blow up in your face and blasts you clesn out of your boots.

The pistol is made from the Mantic Games dwarf gun butt. The sprue allows you to make guns or crossbows from the same gun butt. I chose to cut the end off of one of the dwarf gun barrels and use that to make my pistol. No flintlock or hammer at all, but I am happy to suspend disbelief.

The two-handed war hammer is from a Mantic Games dwarf sprue.

The video games have plenty of levels set in muddy streets as well as dungeons, sewers etc. I didn’t want to lose cohesion with the rest of the survivor heroes and have no cobbles though. So I chose to have Moril leaving a muddy area to catch up with his colleagues. Tail end Charlie of the group is having to rest his pipe and get into the action before they have all the fun without him

I used the Astrogranite Citadel paint, added a few slate tiny chippings followed by priming the whole model and base in Mournfang Brown. I dry brushed the muddy area with Army Painter Fur Brown to bring out some of the texture. I found that maybe I primed to soon or too heavily because the texture of the technical paint was almost all lost. If it hadn’t been for the chippings it may have looked boring and not natural. The cobbles got some Mechanicum Standard Grey with some Rakarth Flesh highlights. I added some moss / moldy green to one stone with some Biel-tan wash.

I added a touch of gloss varnish here and there to mimic puddles and suggest a slippery sheene to the morass he is leaving behind.

I pitched him at the back of the base because I think it adds some movement to the piece as he leans heavily forward and is about to break into a sprint (well his idea of a sprint anyway).

The way that I had to use Greenstuff and cut up lots of bits I knew it wasn’t until I got the paint down whether it would look too bodged together. I think I am happy with him. I might choose to paint his pipe a chalky clay colour to make it stand out.

• The face is painted with Bugman’s Glow and Army Painter Barbarian Flesh. (bit of Chaos Red added for his bottom lip)
• The hair is mostly Vallejo Black Red with some Army Painter Fur Brown highlights and a mix or washes until I was happy.
• The main leather under armour is Chaos Red and highlighted with a touch of Rakarth Flesh added to the red. Washed heavily with Agrax Earthshade.
• The armour and other silver metal parts are all in Nulin Oil washed Lead belcher.
• The bronze pieces are Vallejo Bronze.
• The kilt is Death Guard Green with Camoshade wash. Then the lines are just Death Guard Green again with a Nightshade wash line for patterning.
• The undershirt is Citadel Smurf blue with a nightshade wash.
• The Hammer shaft is Agrax washed Vallejo New Wood Brown paint.
• The grip is Agrax washed Zandri Dust with a Rakarth Flesh highlight.
• The Black boots and belt are Abaddon Black and Vallejo German Grey