Faith and Piety - Background for the Witch Hunter

Hail Children of Technology!

As promised, here is the fluff for my Witch Hunter warband, I'll be doing fluff for each of the warbands that I make and I have plans on doing a few so keep a look out. hope you enjoy and feel free to comment below.

The Order of the Golden Cross

Witch Hunter Warband

The Order of the Golden Cross was originally founded in Wurtbad, Stirland in the year of our lord Sigmar 2509, by the local militia as a perminent deterant to the public not to stray from the path of piety after numerous accounts of strange goings on in the city. No more than a bunch of thugs at its outset, the count had given the men full reign of the law and the power of executioner as long as they were to hold up the faith of Sigmar and the Emperors justice. Wurtbad itself was home to one of the only secret hideouts of the Brotherhood of the Shroud in the Empire; the secretive and logically driven sub-cult of the god Morr who's service was to rooting out the taint of undeath; so it was not long before the Brotherhood brought their attentions towards this new and carelessly agressive band of men.

Approaching their leader under cover of night, a member of the Brotherhood offered the order help in their cause with arms and training and even some of their own members to bolster the ranks. This first offer was refused and the Brother arrested and tried as a conspiritor against the order and an agitator. The Brother was taken to the Order's holdings, a manor-house within the city dubbed the Black Fort. No one had even been seen returning from its heavy iron-bound doors unless they were already a member of the order. 

The Brotherhood send out another plea to the order, finding one of the members in a tavern surrounded by company of an ill repute. The member of the order was adorned with jewels and fine clothes and had developed a paunch, he ignored the words of the Brother and quickly shunned him in favour of female comany and mead. The Brother asked the bartender from whence did such finery come and was told that the order had been sponsored by the Lady Monique Voldenbach, a noble who had appeared in the city not too long ago. Had the order been corrupted by wealth and other pleasures of the flesh?

The Brotherhood mobilised. Sending its best men to investigate this noble woman and find out what her agenda was in buying off the order. Seeking her out at the Voldenbach estate, the Brotherhood's finest slipped unbeknowst to her bodyguards at the gate and entered her home. What the Brotherhood were to find was not what they were expecting. Tomes of unspeakable horror lining her bookcases in an extensive library of necromanic knowledge, a dungeon-like cellar ladened with bones and the Lady herself in mid-ritual. The Lady was no lady at all but a foul vampire spawn, an ancient and powerful Lahmian!

Her plot unravelled in the minds of the Brothers present. Transfixing her bodyguards with her undead sorcery, posing herself as a noblewoman and inserting herself into the heriarchy of Wurtbad, taking control of the order by their desire for power and wealth; she was free to run riot and position herself to take the city, and by extention the entire province for her own! The Brotherhood would not stand for this but they needed help. 

Loosing their three best members to the vile creature upon their retreat from her manor, the Brothers were weakened considerably but not defeated. They saw that any accusation thrown in the open about the Lady Monique would bring about their end at the hands of her bodyguards and the order, so cunning had to be the weapon of choice. One of the Brotherhood's members secreted a note to the order telling them of a Ball that was to be held in the city a month from then and that each of the order was to be invited and that they should extend the invitation to their patron, offering her the chance to mingle with guests from as far as Tilea. 

The invitation worked wonders and soon the order was buzzing with excitement for this night of frivolity held in their honour. The night came and the order and their patron arrived at the ball but to a welcome they were not expecting. The main hall, which had been expected to be full of foreign dignitaries and fine food and wine was instead lined entirely with mirrors. The doors barred behind them to see no reflection of their patron apon the walls. drawing swords, the order turned upon their master and in a fit of bloody violence were nearly ripped limb from limb by the raging fury of the vampire. Escaping by smashing her way through the barred door and away into the night, the Lady Monique slipped through the grasp of the Brotherhood that night but they had suceeded in another way.

The Order of the Golden Cross was reformed that night. The surviving members becoming nothing more than prophets of doom, flagellants for their sins against the Lord Sigmar and making a pact with the Brotherhood of the Shroud to hunt down the Dark Lady Monique Voldenbach and slay her once and for all. Witch Hunters, Templar Knights, Scourges of the Unholy, Pious men of faith and many others from Stirland and neihboring provinces were to fill the ranks of the Golden Cross as well as priests of both Morr and Sigmar, working all together to find and kill the vile Vampiric taint from the lands of the empire forever.

 Hope you enjoyed that little peice of prose. I'll have more details on the current members of the warband and their individual backstories in the near future so stay tuned for that and as I mentioned above feel free to comment below about the story, witch hunters or anything else that takes your fancy.

So until next time, Keep your blades enriched with Deeds of Violence!

Fighting to protect the sanctity of Sigmar! - Witch Hunters Finally Arrive!

Hail, Children of Technology!

Well well well... You see it alot with blogs and mine in particular but its not intended whatsoever. Im talking about content lapses. I am responsible for not 1, not 2 but three major breaks in this blog. A tut tut should be ushered and a slap on the wrists given for such shoddyness to be beholdened to you, the reader. But, alas I have chosen to take up the mantle of Migrainer... I mean Wargamer once more as I delve into the paint pots and produce for you some miniatures!

Now, less babbling incoherantly and more pushing pictures into your retinas!

 Here is my Witch-Hunter Captain, a bog standard GW Witch Hunter from this edition. Wonderful miniature to paint, filled with lovely detail and charm. Also, my first attempt at using Finecast, which isn't as bad as I'd first thought it might be. Might have to try out some more of these new fangled resin miniatures in the future...

Next is the first of the 3 other Witch hunters in the warband. This one is an Avatars of War miniature and as with each of the other miniatures has no conversions/GS stuff done to it whatsoever. 

 This is the second Witch Hunter, again no changes but shows how the older GW figures (E.G. 90s Dogs of War) stand the test of time and work well with other miniatures created in any period of GWs history, or any company for that matter.

Here is my Warrior-Priest, Another Avatars of War miniature. Love this guy. Just a magnificent miniature that shows off all that it is to hold the faith of Sigmar as a weapon against evil. Hopefully he gets Soulfire again in my next campaign so I can AoE some zombies into ashes again!

 Heres the final Witch Hunter, again an unchanged one. Love the stuff that came out of the era of Warhammer Quest, I've got a few of the metal miniatures and I cant wait to paint them all up. Would also love to make some Quest boards and a way of random generation without me having to print the cards out or buy them of ebay for exuberant prices.

Here we have the crazed lunatics that follow the Witch Hunters around. 5 Flagellants with great weapons, these mad bastards are not to be triffled with. Slight bit of conversion work here where I simply took the flail heads off the flagellant sprues and put them on the ends of the shafts to make big maces for the crazy mob to run around with. The first guy (the one with the torch) is the Lad's got Talent guy and there is a slight adjustment in his arm that was done by simply gapfilling and resculpting the robes on his arm.

Next up we have a Hired Sword. A Trollslayer to be exact. He's another Avatars of War miniature and just like the Warrior-Priest was an absolute pleasure to paint. Last time I played I got stuck in with this little guy as a mercenary but I might get to use him as a hero in a Dwarven Treasure Hunters gang pretty soon. Note the last picture, Im going to finish this miniature with a little bit of water effects to create a small pool of goblin blood right behind the head.

Now where theres witch hunters, there tends to be the taint of Chaos and this gang wouldn't be complete without showing you my next project. Here is the start of the next gang I intend to work on, The Cult of the Possessed. I started by creating the body of the gang, the Darksouls. These are simple conversions using flagellant bodies repositioned at this hips and filled in with GS where there were holes and marauder horsemen, beastmen and warriors of chaos weapons and accessories. Finally, they have GS masks covering their faces all except for the Lad's got Talent guy (pictured on his own) who doesn't need to hide behind a mask and shows his loyalties to the Dark Gods openly.

These guys will have some additions to them in the future when I find inspiration/have money but in the mean time I have a hell of a lot of other miniatures to paint including nearly all of the Hired Swords (I dont yet have a Road Warden, Highwayman or Beast Hunter), Some Vampire related stuff, Reiklanders, Middenheimers, Dwarves, Villagers and NPCs, Orcs and Goblins, Skaven... The possibilities of what I paint next are nigh-on endless! I also want to post some fluff about each of the Warbands and the characters there in which will be modified each time they are played. I also have ideas a-plenty about a whole range of mordheim rules/settings related stuff to talk about and even some possible terrain projects lined up but all of these things will have to wait until another day...

So until next time, Keep your blades enriched with Deeds of Violence

Snow and Steel - Barbarian Warriors of Chaos Update

Hail, Children of Technology!

Tis I, Redbranch, here to bring you tales from the Bards of Norsca about their Deeds of Violence!

Well, after posting the first lot of Barbarian based minis last week and inspired by the wintery weather outside my window, I thought that it was about time that I showed you the leaders of the Fur Clad, Axe Weilding Marauders of the north.

Firstly we have Hrothgar Greymane, Barbarian Warlord of Jarl Icingaard

As you can see from the Photo above, He absolutely towers over the rank and file marauders which is what I wanted in a warlord. The model is the Avatars of War Marauder Warlord and fits perfectly into my army. In game, he will could as a Chaos Lord with Two Hand Weapons and im not sure what magic items yet. The base is made from several pieces of slate stacked on top of each other and when painted will have Icicles hanging off it.

Next we have Queen Ilsa Frostheart, Ice Sorceress and Half Elf Queen to the Jarl Icingaard

She is the Reaper Miniatures Ice Queen and I think she fits the army pretty well. In game she will count as a Socerer with the Lore of Fire (Lore of Ice) and as with Hrothgar, i have not thought of what Magic items she shall have yet. She shall be accompanied by the first unit of Marauders with Wulferik Greymane.

Next we have Magni Wolfborn, Elder Skald to Jarl Icingaard

This conversion is of the Ar-Ulric model from way back in the days of Storm of Chaos. When I got the model, he didn't have any arms. So, using some leftover marauder bits i created this pose with his one hand resting on his axe and the other raised in the air as he reaches the climactic cresendo of his battlesong . As you can see from the pictures, his arm was recently replaced for the fist in the air. He did have a staff but i didnt think it looked right. In game he shall represent a Sorcerer with the Lore of Death (Songs of Battles). He shall be put into one of the units of marauders for protection.

Next we have Thorvald the Kinslayer

He is the Avatars of War Marauder Champion model and has recently had this head swapped for the unhelmeted version as i thought it looked better. In game he shall represent a Exalted Champion and shall accompany Magni's unit of Marauders into battle.

Finally (for now at least) we have Wulferik Greymane, Son of Hrothgar Greymane

Heres a Group Shot

 

Another Avatars of War model, he is the Barbarian Hero so as his name says, he fits in perfectly. There is a slight size difference between him and the other Combat characters but his background will explain that he is only just of age. He shall represent another Exalted Champion and shall be put within the first unit of Marauders with Ilsa Frostheart.

I am currently looking for another Sorcerer character to represent the lore of shadow and a mounted Lord to represent Jarl Icingaard and to join my Marauder Horsemen unit (maybe this guy, but with a different rider http://banelegions.maelstromgames.co.uk/?tag=bnl-020) as well as some other Barbarian heroes just for the fun of painting them, i do love Barbarians.

If you would like to get your paws on any of the miniatures featured here or want to have a look at the companies that produced them then heres the links to go look at:

http://www.avatars-of-war.com/  -------- http://www.reapermini.com/

All the Backgrounds and Fluff for the army shall be posted sometime during the week and maybe some pictures of one of these guys finished if i get chance to pick up my brushes. There shall also be a Dark Heresy report from the game yesterday and several Battle Reports from the Dark Underhive of Necromunda, It shall be a busy week indeed!

Until then, Keep your Blades enriched with Deeds of Violence!

The Boon of Tzeentch - Changes and Miniature Pictures Finally!

Hail, Children of Technology!
Tis I, Redbranch, here to bring you some Snapshots of Violence from the land of the young!

Its been all go on this blog the last 2 days and you may have seen a few changes, if not, then welcome all the same. First new thing is the lovely banner that is now lining the top of my page, made by me yesterday as i really felt that the page needed a good banner.

Secondly, you may notice that there is a lovely new section called pages to the left of this box. Well ladies and gentlemen, i felt that it had been long enough that i hadn't posted some miniatures onto this site, so if you click on any one of them it shall take you to one of the 3 new pages that i have set up to display my armies and models. the first is my current 40k army, The Emperor's Children. This army is an ongoing thing that has been made my focus in 40k so expect it to be teeming with bizzare sights and tintilating wonder as the power and magesty of Slaanesh takes a new part of your soul as you gaze at every new image. Dont dwell there long, as it is said that daemons most powerful lurk within the gleaming jewels waiting to rend and despoil at any given moment (as you shall find out very soon, does the name Juan Diaz ring any bells?).

The next link contains the log of my fur clad, axe weilding, bearded northerners known across the old world for their seafaring, pillaging and general wanton destruction of the southern men. Yes, the norsemen are loose and only the blood of an Emperor or last breath of a Tzar will sate their bloodlust. The Marauder themed Warriors of Chaos army that i have been working on for 3 years has finally got one unit finished! I have plans in hand to bring these Barbarians into 8th edition and so you should check that log out to see what they are, if you dare to face the true masters of the north that is?

The final log is a look into the eye's of Tzeentch itself and see the ever changing collection of random miniatures that i have floating round on my workbench at any given time. this log will contain an assortment of GW miniatures, old and new, as well as several other companies that i like. This will be the place to go to see any Necromunda miniatures (once they've had a re-paint), BloodBowl, Hordes/Warmachines, Malifaux, Gorkamorka, Mordheim, Inquisitor and many more games. There will also be work by me on there that i have painted just for the hell of it and it is the current location of my 40k Orks army (for now at least).

So its been all go here the last 2 days and dont expect me to let up any time soon. I'll leave you now with a little sneak peak at an army i'll be doing in the near future (as soon as i can get a new bracket for my air compressor)..

Look familliar to any of you Long Beards out there? well you'll have to wait a while at least to see the who lot of 'em.

Until then, Keep your Blades enriched with Deeds of Violence!