Mordheim: Youngblood "Parasol"

Here's the second youngblood for my Mordheim Reiklander warband. Like Poppet, Parasol wears a mask and is named after her eccentric accessory. This kitbash takes a body and both arms from the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Landsknects. The right hand is from the Frostgrave Soldiers sprue while the left hand and umbrella are from the Anvil Industry Secret Service pack. The head, with the weird pigtail/bun things, is from the Stargrave Mercenaries II sprue. I had to do some extensive surgery to get the hands and arms to be pretty much where I wanted; while I'm not as happy with this one as I am with Poppet, she still looks pretty good.

So, aside from Poppet and Parasol now being a pair of supercriminals, they also finish off my Mordheim warband. I did a bit more Mordheim work and put together four warpstone tokens. This picture shows the captain, the two new youngbloods, and the four new tokens.

Mordheim: Youngblood "Poppet"

Another round of possible Mordheim planning led me to build another youngblood for my Reikland mercenary warband. Mordheim has a long history of hand puppets, and when I saw a model with a puppet that someone built recently, I was inspired to put a hand puppet on my latest miniature. This is another extensive kitbash: the body is from the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Landsknects, both arms (including the puppet) are from the Frostgrave Wizards II sprue, the head is from the Stargrave Troopers box, and the mace is from the Stargrave Mercenaries II sprue. (As an aside, good maces, clubs, and hammers are hard to come by.)

This is a great figure that should really stand out on the table—visually, not in terms of her abilities. Youngbloods are hero characters in Mordheim, but they start off very weak, with skills below even those of basic henchmen.

To stay on theme for the end of the year, Poppet can also be used as a superperson. She has a mask, see? Since this is also the color theme for the Retinue, I think Poppet might find a place there as a jester NPC as well.

Supervillain: Lychgate

White Hat shouldn't have attacked his target in the cemetery.

Technically, this wasn't originally going to be a supervillain, but I have a theme going for the end of the year here, so I'm going to roll with it. An actual lychgate is a covered gate leading into a cemetery, where vigil could be kept on a body until it was buried. This Lychgate is a bit more like a force of nature.

The legend of Lychgate is well known to the locals. Saint Anthony's Cemetery is the largest graveyard in the city, situated on the hills behind the cathedral, just outside the freeway. It was sprawling, even in the 18th century, when bodysnatchers and graverobbers were something of an epidemic. According to the legend, those disturbed spirits interred in St. Anthony's had enough. Ghost stories are common enough in the city, but in this case, it wasn't one ghost or a dozen; the spirit was of the cemetery itself. They say the Lychgate makes no sound—on the contrary, it is known for the utter silence and stillness that its very presence imparts. Appearing from nowhere, it is a creature created to guard those hallowed grounds, seemingly built of gravestones and monuments, with great bronze gates sprouting as wings from its back. Those who would rob the dead of Saint Anthony's face its unyielding wrath; they and any who spill violent blood in the cemetery are interred by the Lychgate among the graves. Not everyone believes the stories, of course, but it's said that criminals especially are a cowardly and superstitious lot. There are whispers that sometimes the Lychgate can be compelled to leave the cemetery, driven by manipulative forces to do their bidding.

The model is a Reaper Bones Graveyard Golem. I really like the figure. It's big and there's a lot of detail, but it can basically just be dry-brushed like stone. It originally had both arms down in a fairly static pose, but I repositioned the left arm to reach forward to make it slightly more dynamic. I originally planned to use this model as a mini-boss in my Dungeons and Dark Souls game, but it wasn't needed (and it wasn't done in time). I like the idea of a cemetery guardian creature, so I'll probably import it into a fantasy RPG campaign at some point.

Supervillain: Spectral Sword

Here's another old supervillain of mine that I've reimagined with the bits I had on hand. This model was a bit of an experiment, kitbashed together from all over the place. The head is from Anvil Industries, the body and left hand are from Frostgrave Wizards II, the arms are from Perry Agincourt sprues, and the swords are from any kit I could find that had spare swords.

Spectral Sword—who might need a rename at some point because that doesn't really off the tongue—has the power to summon... spectral swords. She can also fly, create spooky mists, and possibly do minor teleports within the mists. As a spooky villain, her powers aren't totally set in stone.

The swirling swords here were based with white, then painted with Citadel Technical "Nihilakh Oxide," which is really meant to be used to simulate verdigris on miniatures. But, in this case, it acted kind of like a contrast paint. The pictures don't really do the swords justice; they practically glow with a ghostly light, especially with the dark green and grey clothing. The blades are meant to look like they're swirling around her, not... glued to her robes, but there's only so much I can do.

To the right is the original version of this creation made on Fábrica de Heróis over a decade ago.

Supervillain: Redcoat (and the Chosen Men)

Here's Redcoat, a dashing supervillain dressed like a Napoleonic-era British officer in some slightly non-regulation colors. Aside from being "Sharpely" dressed, Richard Welles hides his identity with a blue half-face mask, which wasn't exactly standard issue in the 1800s. Of course, most Napoleonic soldiers didn't have an M4 carbine with a 100-round casket magazine either. (One imagines the course of the Napoleonic Wars would have been a bit different if they had.)

Aside from the gun and gun-arm (which are from the Warlord Games Project Z Spec Ops sprue), all parts are from the Wargames Atlantic Napoleonic British Riflemen box. This also means I have plenty of fodder for uniformed henchmen if desired.

So, here we have some of Redcoat's top henchmen, the Chosen Men. (According to Wikipedia: "Chosen man was a rank primarily found in the Rifle Brigade denoting a marksman and/or leadership material." I only know it from the Sharpe TV series with Sean Bean.) I don't suppose all of Redcoat's minions wear historical uniforms all the time, but surely his most loyal men do when on the job. Gangs have to have flair and pizzazz to hold their territory in a super-powered world. The fellow with his gun up in the air is The Sergeant, Redcoat's right-hand henchman with massive, red-orange sideburns.

The bodies and heads are from the Wargames Atlantic Napoleonic British Riflemen box, like Redcoat, but the arms are from the Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder box. The guns are boxy, ugly, and somewhat ludicrous, but once the front quarter inch is removed, they're not too-badly sized. I imagine that (in-universe) these weapons are cheap, low quality, mass produced, and untraceable; they're manufactured to poor tolerances by the criminal underworld from a common blueprint. Classic disposable guns. (Also, I've got a box of these tiny guns and I need to start popping them onto miniatures.)

Villainous Thugs

In the ecosystem of superheroes and supervillains, the two-bit thug is an essential part of the circle of crime. Parasitic by nature, they latch onto stronger predators to survive. Here, we see four thugs that have attached themselves to Gingerbread (who got an accent highlight in her hair since her previous picture).

These models are from the Wargames Atlantic French Resistance 1940-45 box. They put me in mind of the classic henchmen from Batman: The Animated Series. Two of them have fedoras and M3 submachine guns. The other two have flat caps and pistols. Classic thugs. They'd also work well in general pulp games.

These guys are all done in browns and grays with no bright accent colors. They're not meant to stand out at all, so it makes sense. I wanted to put them on street bases (like Gingerbread), but the model feet are all on puddle bases, so I had to build up some Stirland Battlemire ground to hide them.

Supervillain: Gingerbread

Run, run, run, just as fast as you can!
You can't escape me, 'cause I'm Gingerbread, man!

I started the year with supers and I might as well end the year with supers. Here's Gingerbread, a crime boss. I came up with the concept when I saw the head on Anvil Industry's website. It's a great mask and looks perfect for a supervillain. She strikes me as a kind of Two-Face crime lord with a huge gang. In the most meta sense (in her non-existent comic book world), she probably started as a holiday-themed one-off comic and then her breakout popularity brought her back as a year-round member of someone's Rogues Gallery.

After the whole model was basecoated in black, the gingerbread-esque mottled brown suit started with a layer of FolkArt Matte Real Brown (231). I then dabbed on a layer of FolkArt Matte Coffee Bean (940), followed by a layer of Coffee Bean mixed with FolkArt Matte Coffee Latte (2559). I then did some highlights on the pleats, creases, mask, and lapels with very thin Coffee Latte. The hair, cuffs, and the red part of the wingtips are a basecoat of Vallejo Heavy Red (72.141) with a layer of FolkArt Imperial Red (4669). The white on the shirt, gloves, buttons, and wingtips are a base of Vallejo Heavy Bluegrey (72.144) with a layer of Vallejo Dead White (72.001). The gun has some Vallejo Heavy Charcoal (72.155) with some mixed layers of the charcoal with some greys. Here are all the bits that make up this model:

• Head: Anvil Industry Female Wasteland Heads 
• Body and left arm: Anvil Industry Secret Service Team
• Right arm: Female Fatigue Pistol-Grip Rifle Arms - Mixed
• Weapon: Anvil Industry Modern SMGs (I wanted a machine gun for this model, like a Thompson, but I didn't have any. This gun started life as a Tec-9, but since the actual Anvil Industry assault rifles and SMGs are huge, I put the little machine pistol onto the stock to make something that fit nicely.)