Ravensvale Gangs

I'm working on stuff for a campaign that will be set in a Mordheim-esque city called Ravensvale. The idea is to be simular to the Mullison (sp?) setting where it's very rich with undead and horror creatures. The land is perpetually cursed by darkness and covered in thick fog. By day it is roamed by wandering bands of brigands and gypsies and by night all sorts of unnamed horrors prey upon the townsfolk.

For now we'll be using traditional bands but as we have time to experiement and customise the models we'll be creating our own gangs and stuff for the setting.

So far my undead consists of the plastic wight king, necromancer and some crypt ghouls. I picked up a set of Vargheist as they just look nasty and I'll use them as large boss monsters for scenarios. I have some zombies and skeletons coming in the mail. The dreg's will be converted from Ork bodies, Flagellant legs and likely zombie heads.

While Vampires may reign supreme in the horror kingdom no knock off Transillvania setting would be complete without werewolves. Sadly GW doesn't make any and I haven't been too pleased with the offering from Reaper or the other companies I 've looked at. We'll also be playing quite a few games at our local GW store so we're trying to keep models primarily GW in origin. That led to creating a werewolf which can be used for several differant scenario or play options. It can stand in as the Thing in the Woods, or a vampire who has the wolf form skill.

I put a Vargheist and Chaos Hound to the chop and here's what I came up with. He still needs green stuff but I think the rough work came out nicely. The current eyes are tiny so I'll be adding new ones with greenstuff. I'm not sure about the current placement of the ears, from the front or at an angle they look good but from the side they appear a bit far back.






For my beatman gang (which is still in the mail) I ran a pretty extensive search for Minotaurs and came up short until I found this one which I love. It's not GW but I have to bend that rule as I absolutely love the piece and the rest of the gang will all be GW, so I'll make an exception for him. It's probably one of the best resin pieces I've ever owned which is saying a lot since I run a casting business and own a ton of figures.







The Empire Witch Hunter I saw and fell in love with. He's going to be the leader of one of my human gangs. I love his big foppish hat and the serious look in his face. The fact he's also brimming with weapons was also a perfect fit. I've always loved Rembrant's Night Watchmen painting and the witch hunter almost looks like he stepped out of it. With that in mind I am piecing models together from of the various Empire troop choices.

They'll likely be played as Marienburgers to represent them being the armed guards of wealthy merchants and having access to quality weapons and armor.

Good choice of figs so far .

Ears look fine to me on the wolf thing.

That bane legions fig looks really great, it's such a shame that the guy that owns the company owes a few hundred people thousands of pounds which they are never going to get... otherwise I might buy one too lol.

After reading all about that fiasco on Dakka I was very aprehensive on supporting anything related to Malstrom/Mierce. I managed to locate one on ebay already in the US that way I could reduce some of my fears about getting shafted.

It's a shame because the company makes such great looking models. He left a lot of people holding an empty bag with Malstrom. Rather than stop taking orders (like a reputable man would) he looted the business and used it to prop up Mierce. They are seperate businesses on paper but it's still the same owner so I can't trust them.

NICE START! You've got yourself some SPLENDID looking minis for the Mousillon style setting. Have FUN with the project & keep us updated with your progress.

The mods for the wolfman look great, but the Minotaur is AMAZING. Sorry to hear about the company woes and un-trustworthiness of the guy who runs it. Shame too, since the model look so good.

Love the wolfman conversion,
and nice selection of minis, looking forward for more

It's not the guys that RUN Mierce miniatures that's the problem is the guy who owns it and who used to own Maelstrom games (among other companies which he still owns). The decision to keep taking orders when the company had no way of fufilling them was the wrong one IMO.

The Darklands Kickstarter campaign (Mierce miniatures) made over 100k so it's not hurt thier business. I really like a lot of the Darklands stuff but I refuse to give Rob Lane any cash.

maxxev wrote:

It's not the guys that RUN Mierce miniatures that's the problem is the guy who owns it and who used to own Maelstrom games (among other companies which he still owns). The decision to keep taking orders when the company had no way of fufilling them was the wrong one IMO.

The Darklands Kickstarter campaign (Mierce miniatures) made over 100k so it's not hurt thier business. I really like a lot of the Darklands stuff but I refuse to give Rob Lane any cash.

EDIT: sorry about that, lets get off this subject, hurry up and post some new minis already lol.

Discussing the stuff with Malestrom/Mierce/Rob Lane is fine with me. I love some the minis they do but at the same time I prefer to let people know what went down with the owner & company so that they can use their own discretion and know that there might be a potential risk. At the very least I wnat peopel to be aware that he pulled a giant d-bag move in the past and fleeced his customers.


Anyways here's some of the stuff I got put together over the last two days most of it is all pretty much stock stuff so it's not super exciting. I'll sure I'll modify stuff once we have the campaign underway and I can figure out the proper weapon load outs for the gangs and individualize some of the heros.

The first is a bunch of empire handgunner and crossbowman that I'll be using as mercenaries and henchmen with other gangs.









Here's my group of clan pestilans, the plague priest has hrons from a beastman but otherwise everything else is pretty much stock. Once I get my other kits in and have extra shields I'll be ditching the secondary hand weapons so that the spearmen all have a spear and shield

I picked up a couple of the isle of blood rat ogres off ebay so they'll be added to the mix once they arrive. I like the sculpts better than the normal box and they tend to go for about half the price so that works well for me. Having a gang of Skaven is pretty much a staple to playing, but i don't want to put all that much work or money into them if possible.







My Nightrunners are in pretty poor shape after rolling around in a shoebox for the better part of 12 years, lots of parts have popped off and some of the weapons are missing, I'm going to spend this weeend fixing them up as best that I can. I also ordered a box of clanrats which will let me fill out the gang and maybe even have a third one that I can use as a loaner gang to whoever needs them. My supply of slings has eitehr broken or disappeared, I'll likely have to pick some more up and in the meantime it'll be good for my opponents as a gang heavy on slings is always super cheesy.

In digging out my old minis I ran across this guy who was one of the first miniatures I ever bought. (Sttill in his original 25 year old paint job). Back in 88-89 I bought him alongside a couple ninjas from citadel and I'm surprised at how well they've held up in terms of desighn and sculpting. I think this guy still looks better than a lot of the ones curently in production. I'll be stripping him soon and repairing a few of the minor nicks and flat spots he's aquired. He's lead so he's pretty soft and I'm lucky he wasn't ruined considering the shoe box method of storage I used to keep my minis in. Metal on metal contact typically doesn't bode well for minis, particuarly lead ones.

Good start to those gangs so far, I've got 3 Skaven gangs in the works but I haven't even glued them to bases yet lol.

Maxxev: When I get around to doing a possesed gang I'm totally stealing your idea for cultists. I've always disliked the stock models that they had for the possessed. I have some spare necrons and flagellants so I think they'll finally be put to good use.

Also does anyone know if the metal giant rats that they sell on the GW page are larger than the plastic ones from the plague monks or orges boxes? They seem to be a bit bigger based on the pics but kinda hard to tell. The plastic ones are very small and would be completely concealed behind almost every terrain piece.

I think in the interest of being a sporting player it'd be nice to have something larger and also to give them a more threatening look considering they have a stat line comperable to the average skaven henchmen.

Next week I'm heading to Adepticon and forge world will have a booth there. I'm hoping maybe I can pick up a pack of the rat wolves as they look awesome.

Here's a bunch of my old models that I dragged out of storage.

The first group is my Donovan Trading Company Gang, which was the group I was using back in the day right about when my gaming group dissolved. Being composed of professional adventurers I gave them lots of extra equipment. The standardized helmets and torsos gave them a more unified military feel. I was aiming for a feel of a group of experienced military vets turns explorers.












These were the start of a Norse Viking Gang that never got finished, in part due to a lack of a good wolfman and also because our previous league had ended. I still have my box of Marauders so now that I have a good wolf man to go with the gang I'll plan on finishing them off.





These were built from the standard wolf knights sprue the right most is using a skaven torso for the ragged armor. I'll likely revisit this theme for my middenheimers and they can do double duty as Norse Bondi henchmen. I'll likely mix the parts with some flagellants to give them a more mixed diversity and extra crazy look. One of the benefits of coming back to these now is the huge array of cool parts now available that they didn't have at the time I'd started these.




The Bertand unit will form the heroes for a Stirwood Forest gang. I have a long ignored box of Wood Elf Glade Guard that I'll use for the various bandits that'll get greenstuff masks to hife the elf features. The dwarf was a model I used as hired sword, both he and the preacher will need a few touch ups to their paint jobs to repair some scuffs and dings, but considering they'e been in a box for over ten years they are in pretty good shape. It's hard to see in teh pic but the Dwarf has a peg leg which is one of teh little features about the model I really love.

You've got enough plastic & metal there to keep you painting for quite awhile. Have FUN with it all; AND keep us posted as to your progress.

man, that werewolf is amazing! Great thinking on that.

Yeeeep, that's the way to go with making werewolves, I think. Awesome conversion.

The rest looks really promising too!

Theo

Thanks for the comments, good werewolves are hard to find so feel free to steal the converions idea.

The last couple of weeks I've been in "aquiring mode" so that I can have several gangs on hand that way I can attempt to lure my gaming group into playing more reguarly. The theory being that if I remove the cash out lay and time to paint they'll be more agreeable if they can just borrow whatever they need to play.

I picked up two of the graveyard sets which will help with scenery and I will likely be placing an order with Hirst arts for building molds that I can use for city buildings.

I put together a Marienburger gang with some stuff I bought off ebay, youngbloods are kinda hard to find so I used empire huntsmen for them, I wanted to use the clean shaven heads with hats to keep the marienburg theme, no feather though as they are the newbies and the feather will be for the experienced gangers. There wasn't a champion in the ebay lot which was fine as I've never been all that partial to the model in bandages so I converted one using parts from huntsmen and empire state troops. As there's a fair amount of motion in the figure I needed to remove and reposistion the feathers so that it fit the flow of wind caused by the lunging pose. Not really a huge modification but I like the way he looks.









The league at the local bunker had their draft picks today, I ended up with one of the last picks and there were two slots open for Vampire gangs so I went with that. I'd been hoping that I'd get that pick so I was happy, although after being passed by 9 other players it did cause me to second guess that choice a bit. I haven't played vampires yet but on paper it does look a bit limited as a large number of their models aren't able to gain xp. I'm looking forwards to playing them but it's been a very long time since I played and I imagine they'll take a bit of time to adjust and figure out the particulars of teh gang.

I liked the wight king but he just didn't feel vampy enough, unfortunately most of GW's vampires are covered in armor which I'm not keen on. I prefer my vampires more of the classic dracula version, IMO they are about suspense and drama more than battlefield slaughter but that's kinda hard to find in a mini. I picked up Isabelle Carlstein which is a killer mini although I'm afraid she is very thin and may be a bit too fragile in finecast. I also pieced together a hunchback that I was going to play as a dreg using an orc body with flagellant legs. I'm not 100% on the conversion as he came out really tall and while he has a definate hump in the body it's not the crippled up twisted pose I was initially thinking of. If you guys have any suggestions for him let me know.

The league is a painted play, we have one month to get our gangs ready. Unpainted gangs have a cumulative -15 crown penalty each week, so I've gotta get cracking on my vampires.

I haven't built them yet but I have a box of zombies, skeletons, and dire wolves that I can use for my gang. I'll need to toy around with lists to figure out the starting list. I really dislike the look of the zombie models the oversized heands and ugly faces look terrible which is why I picked up skeletons which I'll likely play counting as zombies.






Lastly I dug out one of my old trolls who'll be getting stripped and new paint job, and picked up jaws from teh deep (helldorado) mini which be used as my "thing in the woods" model

love that hunchback. Much cooler than the official models, even if it didn't turn out quite the way you were hoping.

Nice collection of minis you got there, great converting work! And I like your setting to!

i just noticed this: is that helldorado mini based off the "creature" from brotherhood of the wolf?

I'm under the assumtion that it was based on the wolf/lion from Brotherhood of the Wolf. That was the instant conenction I made when I saw the model and why I bought it. I loved that movie and when I have time I'm going to work on a gang of highway men based on the opening. High collared trench coats and tri-corner hats.

It was such an aweosme movie that slid under the radar for a lot of people.

History channel also ran a special on the history of the Beast of Gévaudan which is where we get a lot of modern werewolf mythology (silver bullets) and with an interesting twist they theorize that it was a pair of Hyenas that had been brought back from Africa and trained to kill. Their master is suspected to be one of the earliest recorded serial killers. They were even able to find the stuffed bodies in the royal french museum which was pretty cool.

Edit: I believe the documentary was called "the real wolfman " from 2009. Google said its on netflix but I'm not certain as they've dropped a lot of their content. Nothing comes up on the history channel site save for monster quest and true horror which aren't the one I saw.

I wish you the best of luck with The Plan. I tend to think though that anyone who has so little interest or such a short attention span that painting a dozen mins is beyond him/her isn't going to last in any game.

That aside you have accumulated quite a nice collection of minis. Have FUN with the painting & modeling!

As a Fellow Fan of The Brotherhood of the Wolf, I thought you might be interested to know that Laughing Monk has minis of some of the main characters from the film. You can check them out here:

http://www.thewarstore.com/page969.html

Just scroll down the page.

You've got some pretty awesome conversions there! GW's current plastic range is a modeller's dream for detailing, converting and interchangeability. Like may others I just love the werewolf, but the rest looks very nice as well. While the hunchback looks awesome, I can see why you wouldn't want to use it as a Dreg. Try to "downscale" him by using a Goblin body with some Zombie or Skaven Plague Monk legs. I've used the Goblin/Zombie mix for my own Dregs and ended up with some suitably sorry looking models!

I got in a test game last weekend and it went well. Not having played vampire sbefore and my last game was about 12 years ago I hadn't realized just how buff the dire wolves can be, a charge of 18 inches is rather insane, I'd brought four in my list which made some short work of my opponents henchmen.

We played an ambush scenario which really hurt his deployment as all but on of his hereos didn't come in until 3rd turn, and the way he'd deployed several of his henchmen made them sitting ducks for the wolves who atatcked first tiurn. The wolves removed the majority of his hecnhmen by the time his hereos showed up in mass to my rear and was able to charge in and off my vampire. I turned my group around and sunk in two hero kills before failing my route check (due to the loss of my vampire), so while I was technically the loser of the match I'd done a huge amount of damage in kills. My vampire lost her left eye and the rest of my models all made their recovery rolls. (2 zombies and a wolf)

It was a blast to play again and it gave me some good insight in how I'll need to play the gang. I expect being so light on the range attacks may be difficult at times and not having many models that are capable of gaing experience will also be tricky. While the wolves are great for attacking they will always be just wolves. Ranking up the Dregs is going to be pretty vital to the gang, but their stat lines are pretty weak so it won't be easy. Ghouls can rank up but since their armment can't be altered it's of limited help.

Anyways that got me thinking about my Dregs, I wasn't overly happy with my inital hunchback conversion but something inside of me was saying to keep at it. With the game under my belt it got me to thinking that the bad guy always has a number two that stands above any of the other faceless minions and I wasn't going to let any old stock model be that number two.

Like any good vampire I sat back down to revist my hunback and went to work on him. Some more scraping to accent the humped back and reduce the bulk on his left side for that desired mishapen look. A few new stitches to attach a beastman arm and he was off to the gym for training, unfortunately he's none too bright and keeps his weightlifting to just one side... but alas he has emerged a worthy Dreg and I have named him Morty (Mortimer) Now I just have to start building him up in game to give him a proper stat line.











For now here are my three Dregs. More mods and greenstuffing are sure to come.

The Trio of Dregs looks GREAT. I also use the Orc torso & arms with a variety of legs & heads...it's that Great Minds thingy again. Have FUN with the painting/basing!

I also like the disproportionate arm on the middle dreg. Gives him a really cool deformity that certainly fits the profile for a guy like that!