Mordheim Tileans Redux

Back to Mordheim, with an update to my Tileans warband, including new models and some refinements to the existing crew. Additionally, I've added a couple of scratch-built bits of scenery to my Mordheim setup. Pics and more below the jump.

The last few months I've been hopping between multiple WIPs, with nothing fully completed to show off. This has included several Mordheim projects, including more than one new warband, and additions to the warbands I made already. The Tilean Contessa's retinue are the first to reach completion. For reference you can take a look at what they looked like before.

So what's new? The condottiere contingent has been expanded to a group of three, complete with a captain carrying their standard. They are now the Band of the Winged Lion. That Bretonnian winged lion crest is a bit that I wanted to work into the project from the start, as the winged lion is a symbol associated with Venice. Really the throughline of this project has been about pushing the models away from symbology associated with the Empire (i.e. Germanic imagery) and towards fantasy (pseudo-) Italian imagery.

Part of that is to make it clear that the military contingent of the warband is a band of hired mercenaries (as was more common in both historical Italian city-states and in Warhammer's equivalent with the Tilean Dogs of War). I think that the paper scrolls pinned to some of them contain the written details of their contract. Another aspect of that involved looking at historical Italian paintings for fashion advice, then giving the soldiers nice hats (sculpted from green stuff). Their shirts were also extended into tunics, and a lot of extraneous Empire details were removed to make for simpler attire.

Not sure if DiMarco the crossbowman is part of the Band of the Winged Lion

The other aspect of the warband is the exiled Contessa herself, and her inner circle. Previously this was only Leo the wise (or is he?) adviser. Now there's a second figure in Bauto, an intimidating bruiser.

Bauto was directly inspired by the Bauta costume from Venetian Carnival. Instaead of a mask, he simply has a hard-featured face - I think he is not dressed up as a character, but simply resembles the archetypal costume. He was made from the Cities of Sigmar Whisperblade, with an annoying amount of re-positioning and bulking out with modelling putty. It was a difficult model to work with since it's all layers of cloak, and I'm not totally happy with my end result - a lot of the putty work is rough, and the all-black colour scheme doesn't do it any favours. But the figure is complete and it conveys the idea of an intimidating brute well enough.

Leo also got some work. His Empire style sleeves were replaced with baggy robe sleeves made from the ends of Bretonnian sleeves plus green stuff work. This involved changing the pose of his staff/walking stick. I also reconstructed the chain that goes over his shoulder with bits of chain from another kit (in the original Chaos model it disappears under a shoulder pad).

Finally there is the Contessa herself. The main updates here are to the neckline of her dress, and her hair. I sculpted a simple coif to cover her hair (she is a noblewoman after all). I also re-sculpted her dress' neckline to be square, and then added an amulet at her throat, taken from a hand in the Celestial Hurricanum set. The straps of the amulet form a nice v-neck collar for the blouse under her dress, and the amulet itself works as an aristocratic heirloom.

I also retouched her paint a little - changing her trousers to a burgundy colour to match the warm red-purples elsewhere in the warband, and adding some slightly gaudy makeup to her cheeks, eyebrows and lips. She is Warhammer aristocracy after all, and that requires a little grotesquerie.

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In addition to the Tileans, I made a couple pieces of scenery (which make an appearance in the background of the photos in this post!)

Firstly is this big Grim Reaper statue. It uses one of the original doors from the Mordheim boxed set terrain, which I decided was too venerable to use as a mere door. The skeleton itself uses one of the large skull-footballs from the Blood Bowl Amazons, plus an over-large skeleton hand with hourglass from the Cities of Sigmar Cavaliers, topped off with a twin-tailed comet from another kit. The robes are all sculpted with Aves Apoxy Sculpt and green stuff.

Who are they???

The second piece of scenery is a big bronze statue of a horse.

The horse came from a 54mm Airfix historical Polish Lancer kit. It's been sat in one of my desk drawers for decades (I never got into historicals). The statue base is itself part of the kit. I added a ton of debris to the base to match my Mordheim terrain, plus some paper scrolls made from a drinks can. Painting it was a fun material study, using sponging and other techniques.

Thanks for reading! More Mordheim soon!