My Witch Hunter Warband

Greetings Fellow Travelers of the Old World!

The cursed streets of Mordheim is literally overrun by vermin and not just the ones that crawl on four legs. For centuries, these mutated "ratmen" have lived in secret burrowing beneath the world of man. They have undermined his great cities and inflitrated his sewers and cellars leaving behind death and destruction either from the poisoned blades of their assassins or from the diseases that they ritually brew up and let loose upon the unsuspecting citizens of the Empire. These creatures are known as the Skaven.



While the Skaven are generally regarded as myth by the people of the Empire, anyone who looks hard enough would know that the Skaven are indeed real. There have always been signs for those who cared to see them: a scurrying black shadow, an inhuman scream from the sewers, scuttling shapes at the back of any cellar or heavily robed men with long tails jutting forth from their filthy ragged robes AND none is more adept at hunting these creatures in the City of the Damned than Gustav Traugott, The Rat Slayer...


Gustav is a Middenheimer noble who eschewed and foresook his noble heritage and the comforts that came with it in order to live the life of an advenurer. Gustav is a fierce follower of the God Ulric and has a penchant for picking fights in order to prove his fighting prowess. Consequently, Gustav has become an accomplished fighter encased in a powerful frame of both brawn and muscles.

When news of the evil that has befallen Mordheim reached him, Gustav resolved to go to Mordheim and immediately joined the infamous Middenheim Warband of Gotthand Keller. Gustav eventually formed his own warband and on one occasion, he led his men through the sewers of Mordheim where they were ambushed by a band of Skaven assassins. Gustav lost all of his men and would have also perished in the hands of the Clan Eshin had it not been for the timely intervention of Van Orbrant's group. Shaken by what has happened to his men and with his encounter with the Skaven, Gustav has since then joined the warband of Van Orbrant and has dedicated his life to eradicating what he calls as "The Greatest Threat to Man."

I hope you guys like him!


Gustav chances upon a Skaven Plague Monk in the slums of Mordheim...


and he soon finds himself surrounded by the Skaven Plague Brewers. Cornered, Gustav whispers a prayer to Ulric for strength as he prepares to do battle.


Adalhard Ehrlichmann rushes to help Gustav just in time and the Plague Monks are easily slain by the two Witch Hunters. While cleaning their weapons, Gustav turns to Adalhard and says, "That was close. You certainly took your time in getting here. What took you so long to get here anyway? Where in Sigmar's name were you?"

Adalhard simply shrugs his shoulders and says, "I was busy taking care of an even BIGGER RAT PROBLEM..."

Traugott is a REALLY COOL MINI!...nice bit of kit-bashing. The action scenes ROCK!

Thank you DeafNala!

Greetings Fellow Travelers of the Old World!

Every warband needs a page boy... or a helper who takes care of the domestic needs of the warband. Someone who performs the menial functions of taking care of the logistical needs of the group. Witch Hunter Vam Orbrant's group is no exception. After all, someone needs to cook (especially when there are no taverns or inns nearby) and feed Otto, Greta, Hans, Max and Wolf. Someone also needs to watch over the group's supplies while the warband is off fighting with the forces of Chaos. This task falls on the able shoulders of a young man named Helmut Everard...


Helmut is a young orphan from Talabheim whom Van Orbrant took in as his page boy. He was discovered by Van Orbrant and by Baltasar Altmann hiding in a closet in a small farm on the outskirts of Talabheim when he was still 9 years old. His parents had been brutally murdered, eaten and dismembered. Based form the hoof-prints around and within the farmhouse, both Van Orbrant and Altmann suspected that Beastmen were behind the atrocity. Consequently, Van Orbrant took the young boy and has since then acted as the boy's guardian.

There is however one thing about Helmut: Helmut has not spoken a single word since he was found by Van Orbrant although there is nothing physcially wrong with him. Van Orbrant charges this condition to Helmut's shock and trauma at seeing his family's massacre but Baltasar Altmann suspects something else... but that is another story.

Now in his teens, Helmut has become the warband's official page boy but that is not to say that Helmut is not able to hold his own in a fight. Marius Gausser has undertaken to teach the young lad some martial skills and Helmut has shown some skill in the use of spears.

I hope you guys like him...


Helmut is seen here standing gaurd and protecting Van Orbrant's supplies.

PRETTY COOL painting & background. Helmut is even sporting the Talabheim colors. VERY NICE!
I somehow missed the Rat Guy...VERY WELL DONE mini. He really captures the Skaven mystique...the dirty, disgusting, rat thing.

Greetings Fellow Travelers of the Old World!

It has been some time since I made any posts in this particular thread and a lot of things have happened in Van Orbrant’s warband since then.

To begin with, tragedy has befallen this particular warband… a most painful tragedy because it is one borne by betrayal and treachery.

Marius Gausser is DEAD...


…murdered by Helmut Everard, the group’s silent pageboy who, through the years has been struggling with the corrupting influence and tint of chaos!


This unfortunate incident happened while the rest of Van Orbrant’s warband were pursuing a group of cultists operating in the merchant region of Mordheim. Nursing an injury from a previous altercation with the forces of chaos, Marius, upon orders from Van Orbrant, begrudgingly stayed behind with Helmut. Marius, who was bored and was not used to being left behind with the warband’s baggage train decided to resume Helmut’s martial training.

He then went inside Helmut’s tent and was shocked to see Helmut’s evil secret! He found Helmut feeding what looked like a small growth that jutted from his belly. It was actually a small head which grew and manifested when Helmut turned eighteen (18).

After having seen the mutation, Marius unsheathed his sword and resolved to remove this evil tint of chaos from his pupil’s body but unfortunately, Helmut thought that Marius was going to kill him and he reached for his spear and thrust the same into his mentor, who, due to his injuries was not able to parry the same.

Helmut left the camp hurriedly.

Van Orbrant soon found the mortally wounded Marius who, with his dying breath, relayed the events that led to his last few minutes…

The death of Marius Gausser had a profound effect to Van Orbrant’s Witch Hunter Warband and none was more affected by this tragedy than Elberich Van Orbrant. He had raised Helmut as a son and Marius was more than a brother to him. He wanted to avenge Marius’ death but could he pass judgment and slay someone who was practically a son to him? Torn by his conflicting emotions, Elberich decided to seek counsel from his mentor.

Meet NICODEMUS RICHTER…


Nicodemus is a retired Witch Hunter who occasionally comes out of retirement when the need arises. As pointed out hereinabove, he used to be Van Orbrant’s mentor and through the years, Nicodemus has provided counsel and wisdom to elector counts and even the Emperor himself.

What’s going to happen next? What advise will Nicodemus give Van Orbrant? What will happen to this warband? Stay tuned to this thread to find out!

NICE LOOKING mini! The background story might just add more to the mini than the paint job...with my Goblins the fluff is more like a Bugs Bunny Cartoon. GREAT STUFF!

Really cool thread!!!! Love it. Congratulations for a cool back story for your band AND a really nice band! I will be looking forward to updates to this thread

Cheers,
Xavi

Eheh...i'll stay tuned...don't worry...a really good BG

just don't want as long as last time to feed us some more pics & fluff !

I dig your gang and it's style! I'm great fan of oldschool Mordheim models that make the original Mordheim atmoshphere. And your pics are filled with it. I love the converted witch hunter with torch - he fits to the rest of the gang perfectly.
Looking forward to see more of your great stuff.

Greetings Fellow Travlers of the Old World!

After secluding himself in deep consultation with his former mentor, Van Orbarnt has resolved to hunt down his former pageboy Helmut Everard who has been rumored to have sought refuge in the dark and forboding forests surrounding Mordheim. In order to bolster their diminshed warband, Van Orbrant has instructed Joachim Gottschalk, his warrior priest companion to boltster their ranks with more flagellants...

These are my recently painted flagellants:









I hope you guys like them.

Their numbers bolstered, Van Orbarant's warband marches forward in search of the traitor Helmut Everard !

GREAT LOOKING GROUP SHOT! They make a really striking War Band. VERY WELL DONE!

I scanned through the thread and didn't find anyone asking already, so I will: what model did you use for Baltasar Altmann?
Nice looking warband you have there!

Wow, that was a nice tour of your warband!!! I've been thinking about making a witch hunter warband myself (mainly for the cool miniatures) and this thread has been a great inspiration thanks!

BTW: what miniatures did you use for your hounds?

You've created a truly lovely warband. The colors are very vibrant, and the background is great.

Greetings Fellow Travelers of the Old World!

My apologies for the late answer to your questions. The realities of life and the demands of work is apparently the culprit. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to answer and respond to some of our member's comments.

@ Grimscull:
Baltasar Altmann is a miniature manufactured by Privateer Press of Warmachine fame. He is a character from the Mercenaries faction named Harlan Phineas Versh, the illuminated one.

@BurnTheWitch:
The hounds were actually part of a 1/35 WW2 German FELDGENDARMERIE with dogs kit fmanufactured by this comapny called DRAGON. I realized that the dogs were too small to be 1/.35 but were just right for 28mm miniatures.

@ DeafNala, Grimscull, BurnTheWitch and Mr.chair:
Thank you alll for the comments. I am glad that you like my work. Your kind words are indeed sources of encouragement for me.

Greetings Fellow Travelers of the Old World!

I would like to share my most recent addition to my ever-growing flagellant...



For this specific miniature, I used GW's plastic flagellant and incorporated the unique standard/icon from GW's plastic empire general/captain kit. Quite frankly and this is just my opinion, this particular iconography is more fitting as a standard for these lunatics rather than for an army.

This is a picture of my flagellants in action as they go against the forces of chaos along a tributary of the river taal in talabheim...


I hope you like it!

Dreng Tromm wrote:

I hope you like it!

I certainly do, and, having browsed through your whole thread, am simply in awe with ... well ... everything.
The conversions and painting of your models, the background fluff and the combination with the scenery, the photos ... phenomenal!

I also have one question regarding the little puppy (formerly Hans, now Wolf) - where is that cute model from? Not from the Feldgendarmerie like the others, I suppose (I did not find any sprue pictures from that kit, but I doubt that the WW2 Germans had many puppies with them )?

Greetings Mephysto!

I am glad to know that you like what I have posted thus far. The copmments and critiques of the members of this amazing (albeit boring ) forum is a constant source of inspiration for me.

To answer your question, the puppy was taken from an old and discontinued Tamiya farm animals line in 1/35 scale. I was fortunate enough to buy a large enough quantity of the same during a "hobby-foraging" trip I had in Hong Kong.

Incidentally, I also paint miniatures in 1/35 scale and I make dioramas based on the WW2 period.

I agree that the standard is more appropriate for a Flagellant or maybe a Knights of Morr unit than a regular Empire unit or army...marching under the Shadow of Death could be a source of inspiration for mass desertion. As always VERY WELL DONE!

If you'd care to share photos of your WWII pieces, they'd look fine in the Historical corner of the Shout It Out Section.

Thanks for the answer, Dreng Tromm - I think I saw that pack once, too, but I did not think about 1/35's being suitable for 28mm scale. Good to be proven otherwise.

Seeing some pictures of your historicals would indeed be interesting - as long as it does not distract you from continuing van Orbrant's odysseys.