Mordheim Possessed Chaos mutant conversion

little blog post before I'm off to celebrate the new year. Although this is really simple conversion stuff, I felt it would do fine for a blog post. This is the stuff we all have lying around anyway, and in my humble opinion, you can get so nice end results with it. I'm no stranger to putty and Green Stuff, but honestly, most of the time it isn't really needed, or it's rather needed for some simple filling. It's mainly when you get down to the really specific conversion ideas, this stuff comes into play.

First off. I have a number of large bit boxes. All the leftovers from sprues gets sorted and put into these, and like all of you I'm drowning in spare parts. But anything mutated is always a treasured item. Then I have a number of lead leftovers, if someone has a trashed miniature, rather than it getting bin'ed I take it. Over the time I've also lost quiet a bit of items, and now I have quiet a selection of lead bodies lying arround. I was planning to do something with a minotaur body for a possessed, but body size vs bit size was an issue, so I found a 2006 version of a Bloodletter Champion where arms and head was gone anyway and opted for a Possessed warband Mutant Hero instead. Then off to the old plastic bits, these where from the old Hunchback Chaos Warriors which I quickly got rid off, but kept bits from. The parts included in these sets where actually really nice, despite the Chaos Warriors themselves being so horrible.

So a little clipping with the cutter, some glue, and this is what I got:

After painting he's ready to join the Warband.

Painted in a pale skin tone then washed with a mixed up blueish wash tone (blue wash is way too agressive, faded out with a grey wash mix). After that some water thinned layer painting, started from a Deneb stone. A little wet blending done on the mutated split arm, the claw is blended from the pale skin to red on the base color, then done a bit by hand during layer paint process. Some Milky eyes to top it off, with a subtle pupil dot. The wooden handle of the Hand weapon was washed and drybrushed, always works for me on wooden texture :)

The claws where painted brown first, basically the color visible on the part closest to the skin. Then mixed up with Bleached bone a couple of times, and each time some thin streaks a drawn over the previous part. Well it's hard to make out on a small claw, so to demonstrate it, I've done the same process on a Dragon Horn, and finally a Dragon Claw that had some texture to do some extra wash effect with which can be seen here:

So to finish this off, if you are a Chaos Collector of any kind, rummage through your bits and see if you can come up with some good ideas :)

Mordheim Campaign Batle report - Assault on the Rock Scenario

ur group has a running Mordheim campaign, and recently we ran the Assault on the Rock scenario from Town Cryer issue 22. I will take you through a little battle report of our fun evening, and in the end of this post there will be the scenario and rules you need to play it yourself.

The lucky Warbands to participate was our Possessed Chaos Warband, Asrai Way-farers Wood Elves, and our Shadow Warriors warband. As this is a moderated Scenario, I took the helm as GM to control the mayhem, and the Sisters of Sigmar opposition of the scenario.

We would build The Rock of the sisters with Ziterdes terrain pieces, which is rather large and made a center piece impossible. Therefor we are running with the long table option of multiplayer Chaos on the Streets rules, and placing the front of the rock at one table edge. Although it makes the front entrance a choke paint, all the Warbands included are capable of climbing the walls. In front of the Rock, a normal setup of a Mordheim city was placed, with a river section across the board to represent the actual Rock location. This worked quiet well for the scenario and I can recommend it if you have board space issues like we had with your terrain.

Table Setup view, and first turn of the Shadow Warrior player.

An extra table was used for the underground catacombs (seen at the top of the photo), extending beyond the walls of The Rock. These where build with Warhammer quest / Advanced Hero quest floorplans and assorted dungeon scenery. The scenario uses crates and doesn't really play out the catacomb aspect, but I suggest actually playing out the Catacombs, it gives a much better feel than simply being told you found the right location, any floorplans will do, there are plenty available online for printing also (might be something for a future blog post). The underground complex has 3 entrances, one being located in the Chapel building of the rock, the rest secretly noted down by the referee at locations in the city itself, these can be found by the warbands. All warbands are aware of the fact that the Tome they seek are in the catacombs somewhere (again secretly noted by the referee), and that other entrances, apart from the one they know of in the Chapel, may exist.

So the Warbands took each table edge, as we decided the 3 last edge options in the Chaos in the Streets rules where occupied by the Rock. The Possessed warband rolled lowest and got a rather bad starting point in between the two heavy ranged Elves Warbands, although this was also the location of the most heavy cover on the board.

Wood Elves first turn. Taking over the large coaching inn building (roof removed)

The Chaos player did opt for a bulldozer tactic to press forward for the only known entrance location on the board, a long and dangerous trip but this is also a Warband with one of the most feared melee combatants, the hulking Possessed.

The Wood Elves player opted for a more carefull position and going for houses in search of the entrance, with a few models defensively located near the Rock to look out for the Shadow Warrior player.

Our Shadow Warrior player is always smugly secretive about his tactics. But it did change a lot under way. His initial setup was split between a Rock Attack Team and a City overwatch team which took a defensive tactic at the early stages.

Sisters coming out of the Front Entrance

By the early turns the Chaos and Wood Elves player got clinched in fighting. Right of the start of the Scenario, neither of them trusted eachothers moves, and so all moves where really seen as offensive manouvers against the other warband. This escalated quickly. At the same time the Sisters got some good reinforcement rolls and started coming out of the Rock to escalate the situation. At this point the Shadow Warrior which already had defensive forces dug in in the city area, started taking some potshots at the Chaos player from the opposite side, but his strongest force had begun a setup for climbing the Walls of the Rock. The Chaos player opted to continue bulldozing towards the Rock and took a heavy beating in the process.

Fighting between Chaos and Wood Elves continued, both on the streets and also over the Coaching Inn where a Catacomb entrance is found. The Shadow Warrior player goes for the Wall approach and gets his leader up on a wall tower, with Sisters approaching.
A Random event is rolled (Although these rules can be devastating, we all love them!), which is a giant Rat Swarm that starts raiding the area where the Chaos and Wood Elves player is already locked in bitter combat.

The Rat Swarm moves down the main street, forcing the Chaos player to reposition Warband members. At this point he has lost a mutant hero and Brethrens and the situation doesn't look good, so he plans to let the Wood Elves have the Coaching Inn and move for the Rock behind the Rat Swarm which is crossing the bridge.

 Wood Elves player begins to send his Warband down the Catacombs. As Sister player I oversee this problem a bit, thinking the double reinforcement roll in the Tome Room will fix it.

Meanwhile the Shadow Warrior player had extremely bad luck on the Wall, despite having the actual upper hand. A series of terrible dice rolls force him on the run. The rest of the fight takes part in the City section where the Sisters pursue, with one force of Sisters clashing with the Chaos player, and the other pursuing force fighting it out with the Shadow Warrior player. The Wood Elves player still had his two scouts positioned to react to any hostility from the Shadow Warrior part, but now starts taking pot shots at running Sisters. Although at one point we did suspect he was feeling bad for the Chaos player, it was infact just XP hunting :P

Shortly after the Wood Elves main force entered the Tome Room in the catacombs, and with a rather low defense force roll, he put everything he had into it. Basically all his heroes where down there, and the battle was short. Scenario ended short after. There was no realistic way the rest of the Sisters could get to him, and the other warbands had no intention to duke it out with their crippled force. Clear victory to the Wood Elves.

So this is what you need to play this scenario with your own group, files are PDF so you need a PDF capable browser or a PDF reader:

Chaos on the Streets Rules - Multiplayer Mordheim rules.
Assault on the Rock Scenario - From Town Cryer 22

Sisters of Sigmar Mordheim look-a-likes

he Sisters of Serene crowdfunder by Warband Miniatures has ended, and I've received my two miniatures. I must admit I already have a Sisters of Sigmar Warband, so this was really for the heck of it, and maybe later do some conversion stuff to get some variation in my warband.

First off, I must say, the sculpts are really great. Nice detailing on them, even including some comet insignia. Material is a resin, that's kinda bendy and not as fragile as other products, still I'm not pushing my luck when it comes to resin :) Poses are nice and dynamic.

Now size may be an issue, I've made a photo with Citadel's Bertha Bestraufrung miniature and two Sisters of Serene on it. They are surely some tall ladies compared to Good ol' Bertha.

So with a successful crowdfunding, it will be interesting to see if Warband Miniatures will continue with other Mordheim Warbands. Also once all the crowdfunders have had their miniatures send, public orders should open up.
Links:
Warband Miniatures Facebook - Current main page for Warband Miniatures, watch for announcements here.
The original Sisters of Serene Crowdfunding page with some good closeups.

Painting Session Flagellants

his Months painting session. Flagellant unit for my Empire army. Unit consist of a mix of some of the nicer Citadel Metal miniatures and some assembled from the current plastic set. I did try a bit earlier with Marauder's old Flagellant which has a lot of character, but the clumpy feet annoyed me, so this will be my new Flagellant regiment.