Kaspar von Velten

In the winter time I always like to do a season themed project of various kinds. In the last years I did little chritmas dioramas of WWI and WWII, painted some hoth troops for Star Wars Legion or did a Bolt Action German King Tiger in snow camo for my Battle of the Bulge Project.

This year with The Oldworld just around the corner I wanted to do a fantasy themed project. Looking for some inspiration online I came across some old Warhammer Fantasy Novels, and one of them caught my eye: The Ambassador by Graham McNeil. I remembered the cover from my early years in the hobby, back when there still where little tiny FLGS with smoke wafting through badly lit corridors cramped with hobbystuff. My entry into the hobby was the Lord of the rings tabletop MESBG but I was also interested in the Warhammer lore. Since I dind’t have enough pocket money to buy all the models I wanted yet starting another game I mainly acquired print mediums such as Armybooks, Rulebooks and Novels which I binge-read on my way to school and back home.

After this little nostalgia trip into my hobby memories I decided to do diorama of Kaspar von Velten, the main protagonist of the book The Ambassador. The crucial point however was that there is no model of him, which means either kitbash, convert or print one.

In one of my latest virtual shopping sprees the recently launched model of the Freeguild Cavalier Marshal for Age of Sigmar landed in my cart just to get above the limit for free shipping (they always get me with this one).

I really liked the pose and the aesthetics of the model, however just something about the heraldry and the ornamnets wasn’t quite jimmin’ my jam so I wanted to convert that model anyway – what a perfect opportunity.

With the problem of the not existing model out of the way I had to look for bits and pieces to convert this Age of Sigmar model into an imperial ambassador form the city of Nuln. I went through my bits box and found some stowage and a signpost with a crow on top (I’m everything but an ornithologist but I decided to paint the beak of the bird in a slightly brighter colour to give it more contrast. Since ravens have black beaks I opted for a crow ^^)

This metal bit was part of one of rare orders from Games Workshop back in the days when you could order actual bits and replacement parts. Since I planned to go to the store opening celebration of the first GW store in my country I let it ship there to pick it up on site. So this little piece of metal again brought back a lot of memories so I had to include it on the diorama.

Thes rest was a simple scan of my 3D files library and a quick search on MyMiniFactory. I then printed all the needed files and began dryfitting.

During the process I did a little research on Kaspar von Velten and found a good article on the Warhammer Wiki:

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Kaspar_von_Velten

In short Kaspar was an imperial general and war veteran that earned his high reputation in numerous battles. His wife introduced him to the court where the tales of his victories made him popular amongst the aristocracy. After her death Kaspar withdrew from court society and lived secludedly but his reputation brought him an offer he could not reject: the ambassadorial post at the court of Kislev to replace the corrupted predecessor.

He is a very interesting person due to his contrasts: He is an inspiring leader for his troops yet hates every form of bloodshed. He is a very disciplined and reasonable person but loves the wildness and emotionality of the Kislevites. After his retirement as general he is appointed ambassador to represent political interests of the Empire yet he hates every form of wickedness, corruption and abuse of power.

The model itself comes with a sort of scenic base which I really love and which gives the mini a rally dynamic pose. The horse is going down some sort of brickwork/stonework. It could either be a paved road or the remains of a building e.g. a watchtower. I like the idea that due to the good relationship between Kislev and the empire Kaspar comes across the ruins of an abandoned watchtower on his way to Kislev.

On the coverart of the first book we can see Kaspar standing behind the parapet of the city wall of Kislev. The wall and buildings are made of reddish stone and I tried to imitate the same stonework on the base of the diorama to make the rubble more recognizable as a kislevite building.

I did a little research on heraldry and uniforms of the imperial city of Nuln, Kaspars hometown. I came across an online version of the book “Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire” – a real treasure trove. Here is the link:

https://anyflip.com/gnpt/mkqr

I had to come up with a colour scheme matching the black uniforms of nuln and his uniform with the yellow coat that fits the mini covered in plate mail.

After some experimenting I basecoated the whole mini and give it a good wash.

I then painted the bits for the base decorations. I did them separately just for reachability.

I also did a freehand on the flag. It was too tiny to do some nuln heraldry freehand. I then came up with the idea to do an imperial banner which carries his credentials as emissary of the imperial court.

After highlighting, and assembling the mini and the base I covered the base in AK Diorama Terrains Snow and let it dry. I then covered the snow areas and patches in between with AK Diorama Snow Sprinkles which really turned our great since I wanted to represent the changing climate and not a fully covered snow base. Some tufts from Gamers Grass complete the tundra look.

I had a lot of fun completing this project and painting Kaspar made me want to read the novels and I might have bought them secondhand ^^

Thanks for reading and until next time!