Two Knights in Mordheim

I'm returning again to my favourite GW setting, the cursed city of Mordheim. Here's two new sets of models - each a knight and retainer - and some new scenery with them. This is just the beginning of this foray back into the city, and much more is on the way. More about these duos below the jump...

In my opinion, the Mordheim Mercenaries roster does a good job of covering most human warbands you might want to make for Mordheim (with the exception of fanatics (Witch Hunters), warrior nuns (Sisters), or evil (Possessed)). Many of the warbands published subsequently in Town Cryer could just as well have been variants on Mercenaries like Middenheim, Reikland and Marienberg are. Anyway, I'll stay on this soapbox long enough to say that these two knights are built with the Mercenaries roster in mind - each a Captain tooled up appropriately, and accompanied by a Champion (or Henchman). 

The Knight of the White Wolf

First is retired Knight of the White Wolf, Gerhardt von Midden. After an unremarkable career in the Order, he retired with honours to his knight's pension estate in Middenland - a nice allotment of land with indentured tenants and so on. However like so many hard workers, he couldn't stay retired. He continued to itch for adventure, and when he heard about the fate of Mordheim, he took up his old gear, brought some of his serfs with him, and set out for the cursed city.

Gerhardt was a real bits box dive. His legs are from a Chaos Legionnary, half of his armour is from Space Wolves Wulfen, the other half from the Legionarries. His torso is the armour from a skeleton Black Knight - it has long hair down its back with combines with Gerhardt's bald head for a delightful skullet. He also has bits from Stormcast, no less than two different Chaos Cultists, a Drukhari Scourge, and Necromunda Redemptionist.

He was such a smash bash, I've taken him apart and rebuilt him a couple of times since first sticking him together over a year ago. Initially I didn't have enough spare bits for his arms, and made rough ones out of putty. Now they're replaced with the cool skinny armoured arms from the Bretonnian Foot Knights. His pose is deliberately old school, and I think he strikes a Blanchitsu style (especial thanks to the skull codpiece).

His retainer is the loyal Stanley. I was excited to find a use for the inn sign from the original Mordheim box set (I still have a few bits from that in my bits box). With a wolf on it, it's a perfect makeshift shield for a browbeaten Middenheim henchman. Stanley is made from the armoured zombie from the Warhammer Underworlds Exiled Dead kit (I got a lot of mileage out of this kit).

The Knight of Bretonnia

The other knightly duo is far different. Again these two work fine with the Mercenaries roster - the Bretonnian Knight is a Captain with heavy armour, shield and sword, maybe some skills. Although Town Cryer produced a Bretonnian list, I think you could achieve most of that by simply equipping your Mercenaries appropriately. Town Cryer also notes that "historically speaking", Bretonnians had no interest in Mordheim, and wouldn't have gone there! Which presents space for some storytelling: what brings a noble knight to the damned city?

Simply put, Sir Basil is on a quest for the grail, but unaware that his quest is rotten from the start. In the forests of Bretonnia, he met a mesmerising, otherworldy nymph who directed him to the cursed city where the hammer of the Barbarian God had recently fallen, far to the east in the Empire. His heart emboldened he set out for Mordheim at once, after which unknown to him, the Daemonette of Slaanesh had a good laugh at his expense and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Needless to say, there is little nobility to find in the ruins of Mordheim, and Sir Basil has become increasingly wretched.

My goal for this model was to communicate that he's a desperate figure but also very very dangerous. To meet a fully trained knight of Bretonnia on the streets of Mordheim is not something any cutthroat wants. So he's on a big 32mm base, and his pose is all about looking massive, intimidating and not fully sane. The base model is a Brettonnian Foot Knight, and their weird armour design is a benefit in this case - he looks less like a typical knight in shining armour. I've been using some of the sculpted Warhammer Underworlds bases for some of these Mordheim models, and happily this base includes a discarded grail! How symbolic!

His surcoat is the main part of his colour scheme, the rest of him is pallid and washed out (although even the surcoat is faded and patchy). His left sleeve is torn to rags. For his head, I used one of the Blood Bowl Norse, which is angry, hairy and unkempt. It had a topknot hairdo, which I filled out with greenstuff hair, and added a headband of fine twisted wire. His shield is broken (a Grave Guard shield), and its freehand basilisk icon deliberately clashes with the knight's deep red colour scheme to suggest that he might have "sourced" it from another knight. Perhaps "Basil" is not even his real name?...

Sir Basil's loyal squire and/or baggage carrier is the powder carrier from the Freeguild Fusiliers. An excellent model it needed almost no modification. I added a Fleur-de-lis to the tip of his flagpole, and a Bretonnian holy relic to his pile of baggage. I expect he counts as heavily armoured against all attacks.

In the background of these photos there's two pieces of new scratch-built scenery - a ruined house that is still WIP (spot the unpainted bits), and a staircase. The house uses one of the original plastic Mordheim roofs, and is otherwise scratch built. I roughly copied one of Goya's Black Paintings onto its interior wall. The staircase is built mostly from card and plasticard, with a brick surface made up of leftover bits of Wills Kits Builders Sheets (meant for train sets, I think, these are great for making small areas of sturdy scenery).

I've also added some torn pages scattered around all of my existing scenery. I made these by copying the text of the Mordheim rulebook into LibreOffice, and then printing them as small as possible. Carefully cut out, a bit of PVA glue and ochre paint adheres them to any surface. I have plans to add more characterful bits of debris this way.

More scenery, and a lot more Mordheim models are on the way very soon!

Hek