Mordheim 2022 Invitational: Choir Member

Into the City of the Damned once more!

 

With Mordheim 2022 rapidly approaching, I decided that I wanted to use my Sisters of Sigmar warband from Mordheim 2019. With this in mind, I wanted to convert a new model to join the warband. Looking over some of Games Workshop’s more recent releases, I realized the vampire from the Exiled Dead warband for Warhammer Underworlds would be a good fit. The model’s tall stature and trench coat reminded me of Alexander Winberg’s Sisters of Sigmar warband, the Choir, a faction of the Sisterhood who stands guard to someone deep within an oubliette within the sanctums of the Rock. For my 2019 warband, I actually converted a member of the Choir, following Alex’s design, and felt it would be neat to create another!

Between the Bolter and Me: 2019, a year in review

Marching on to 2020!

2019 marked the end of the decade, and 7 full years of Between the Bolter and Me as a blog! The year was defined by the Mordheim 2019 event, with a large number of our posts detailing the creation of our warbands and the event itself. We did a lot of other smaller projects as well, including painting a host of models created by some of our favorite artists (Ana Polanscak and Helge Wilhelm Dahl). We continued to do live streaming on Twitch and YouTube, resulting in some of our best episodes of Dragged into Turbolasers with guests like Weirding Way and Modern Synthesist. With this post, we wanted to review everything we did in 2019!

The Primogenitor: Death Guard

The Archenemy infects this universe. If we do not pause to fight that infection here, within our own selves, what purpose is there in taking our fight to the stars? - Apothecary Engane from his Treatise on Imperial Medicine

We have always had a soft spot for the Death Guard. Years back, after the release of the Putrid Blightkings, we tried our hands at creating some terminators. Later, when GW reworked their entire model line (which fell short of their potential), we started an initiative to improve them, which culminated in our creating one based on a Primaris model. Recently, Iron Sleet announced their next narrative event, set within a cyclopean space hulk, called the Primogenitor. Alexander Winberg from Echoes of Imperium realized the XIVth Legion would fit effortlessly into this setting, and started to craft a Death Guard warband for the event. It didn’t take much convincing for us to try our hands at creating another Death Guard model for the event. We decided to use a Primaris space marine as the basis for this conversion, and wanted to talk about the process in this post.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 62: Mordheim 2019 with Echoes of Imperium

Mordheim 2019!

We welcome Alexander Winberg (of Echoes of Imperium) back to the podcast to discuss the Mordheim 2019 collaborative event that he organized. Time is spent discussing how the idea to celebrate Mordheim's 20th anniversary came about. Considerable time is spent talking about how you can get involved in similar events, stressing the importance of getting out there and presenting your work on social media and commenting on the work of those whom you admire. The origin of 28 magazine is commented on, with a consideration towards how it might help shape the Inq28 and AoS28 movements in the future. New collaborative projects are mentioned liked Ondroma, Gelida, and Primogenitor. Finally, we end the episode by talking about everyone's favorite moments from the Mordheim 2019 event, both in game and outside of it.

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Mordheim 2019: Using Ana Polanšćak's Witch Hunters at Mordheim 2019

In all these days will a famine lay upon all of your lands, and a plague upon all of your people.

This article was published previously on Echoes of Imperium, describing Greg's thoughts about Mordheim and the Witch Hunter warband that Ana Polanšćak built for him to use at the Mordheim 2019 event.

I started into the miniature wargaming hobby not long before Mordheim was released. Being fairly young, and lacking a disposable income, I was not able to play it at the time. That did not stop me from spending many an hour reading about it in the pages of White Dwarf magazine. Something about the setting really stuck with me, and felt very unique, even for the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It was not until much later that I finally latched on to what it was that made it so distinctive. 

Mordheim 2019: Sisters of Sigmar games

Sound the dread alarm.

The smoke has finally settled after the chaos of Mordheim 2019. We recounted the games played with the Undead and Witch Hunter warbands earlier, and now it is finally time to talk about the exploits of the Sisters of Sigmar!

Mordheim 2019: Undead games

Church of the Ever Burning Saint attempt to banish a vampire twisted and warped by wyrdstone.

My brothers and I played a multitude of games of Mordheim during the Mordheim 2019 event, all of them unique and filled with surprises. With this post, I wanted to describe the two games played with my undead warband, the first against Nicky Grillet‘s Sisters of Sigmar and Alexander Lunde’s Witch Hunters, and the second against Erik Blomqvist’s Sisters of Sigmar.

Mordheim 2019: Undead warband

A living death awaits us all.

It is hard to imagine Mordheim is twenty years old; it means that I have been a part of this hobby for over two decades! And while I never got the opportunity to play the game when it was first released, I remember poring over each new issue of White Dwarf, looking at the new warbands being released, battle reports, and their dedicated magazine the Town Cryer. Games Workshop’s skirmish games have always been my favorite games they release, with GorkaMorka being the first of their games we really played extensively. Games like Necromunda, Inquisitor, and Mordheim allow the player to dive deeply into the strange and morbid worlds Games Workshop has created, and actively encourage you to carve out your own unique niche within their creation. Mordheim 2019 has been a fantastic opportunity to explore the Old World like I have always wanted to, building upon imagery and models that have always inspired us. While Alex defined the basic motivations behind the major factions, Tears of Envy, another incredible hobbyist involved in the event (who made Mordheim 2019’s excellent logo), had the fantastic idea of looking at the city of Mordheim through the lens of the Strugatsky brothers’ Roadside Picnic/Stalker. This science fiction classic explores the aftermath of an extraterrestrial visitation. Despite the alien visitors abrupt departure, their presence irrevocably and mysteriously changed the environment where they visited. These “Zones” were eventually cordoned off from the wider world to be studied. Could the meteorite that hit Mordheim have a similar effect, and what would happen to the city after being poisoned by this wyrdstone for 20 years? How would its inhabitants and the city itself be affected and corrupted? And what sort of adventurers would risk their lives to find fortune by venturing into the City of the Damned? This concept really captured my imagination, leading me to start experimenting with different warband designs.

Mordheim 2019: a recap

A few Witch Hunters carefully advance through the broken streets of Mordheim.

Last weekend was the culmination of over a year of work by many talented hobbyists, who gathered in Helsinki to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Old World Skirmish game, Mordheim. This collaborative event, known as Mordheim 2019, was hosted by Alexander Winberg of the Echoes of Imperium blog. We were fortunate to be able to make the trip to Finland to take part in the event, using the warbands we have been chronicling over the last few months (as well as one created by the estimable Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate). The event was far too big and filled with all manner of excellent people and exciting happenings to ever be covered in a single post, so we plan to separate our coverage of Mordheim 2019 into multiple posts (covering all of the games we played), and maybe a few podcasts. This post is going to be a short one, showing a few pictures, and ultimately thanking everyone involved, especially Alexander Winberg for inviting us and hosting the event. It is hard to put into words how wonderful the weekend was, filled with fantastic models and even better company. It was great to see old friends and create new ones, putting faces to people we have long admired. And although the event is over now, we are more inspired than ever to keep building models, crafting stories, and connecting with the hobby community!

Mordheim 2019: Additional sisters painted

By the manner of their death we shall know them.

I am still furiously painting models for my Sisters of Sigmar warband for Mordheim 2019, which is happening in just a few weeks! I am pleased to show the next two finished sisters. They were actually the first two I built for the project and it is awesome to finally see them finished!

Mordheim 2019: Choir member painted

“It was a promise unasked for and it was a wall of sound, unbroken.”

With Mordheim 2019 rapidly approaching, I have finally begun painting the Sisters of Sigmar warband in earnest. I decided to paint the last model I converted for the warband first, a member of the Choir, who guards the inner sanctum oubliette of the Rock. As something of an outsider in the group of traditional Sisters of Sigmar, she was a good opportunity to try out some things and get accustomed to painting again. Having come up with the concept behind the Choir, Alex Winberg had already come up with a somber looking paint scheme of black leather and white masks (the flavor text from the first image was penned by him too!). I was excited to try my hand at the monochromatic scheme, knowing it would add a sinister element to the warband.

Mordheim 2019: Choir member

"In My Heart The Answer Is Yes, But I Said No."

After months of work, I was able to build 6 members for my Sisters of Sigmar warband, which is a small feat based on the speed at which I build and convert models. Despite this accomplishment, 6 members is pretty small when it comes to an effective warband in Mordheim. With the Mordheim 2019 event close at hand, I knew that I would not have much in the way of time to convert any more and still have time to paint them. “Maybe I could try to convert one more model, and do it quickly, as an entry into my Conversion Corner posts?” I thought. After seeing Alexander Winberg’s own sisters of Sigmar, with their sinister masks and overcoats, I thought that I could make a Sister heralding from his clan to assist my warband. Alexander’s warband are guards to the deepest dungeon of the Sisters of Sigmar’s Fortress-Monastery, the Rock.

Mordheim 2019: Matriarch

Pimeys Yllä Jumalan Maan

With the Mordheim 2019 event less than two months away, I have been busy finishing the last members for my Sister of Sigmar warband. The last major character required is the warband’s leader, the Matriarch.

Mordheim 2019: Sister Superior 2

Only in death does duty end.

Although I recently finished converting a Sister Superior for the Sisters of Sigmar warband, I knew that I needed more, so I set about converting another. In my warband for the Pilgrym event, I converted a series of characters using old classic models. It was fun way to try to reimagine the models for a more modern look. I decided I should do the same for my Mordheim 2019 warband, using one of the old metal Sisters of Sigmar models. Looking over the small range, I selected the old Matriarch model, due to her older looking physiognomy and stouter frame, and started the conversion!

Mordheim 2019: Sister Superior

We are the Hammer of Sigmar.

Although I already built three Sisters for my Mordheim 2019 warband, the warband is still far from being complete, needing a few more heroes and regular warriors. Since heroes are so important in the game, since they are the only way to acquire wyrdstone, I felt it best to try to build another. Aside from the Auger and the Matriarch herself, the only other hero choice in the Sisters of Sigmar warband is the Sister Superior. I decided I wanted to create a heavily scarred Sister in battered platemail who has survived the last 20 years through her faith and grit.

Mordheim 2019: Anomaly

My God's have gone, into the fountain.

The corrupting touch of wyrdstone is manifested in many inexplicable ways. As the years stretch on, hushed rumors tell of rage and malevolence given invisible form, of agony haunting singular locations, that bring doom upon those that haplessly wander too close to the City of the Damned.

Conversion Corner: Sister of Sigmar Augur

The promise of an age of peace and prosperity is drowned in blood.

With the Mordheim 2019 event rapidly approaching, I thought it apt to devise a Sister of Sigmar conversion suitable for our Conversion Corner segment. Fortunately, Games Workshop had just released the Genestealer Cultist Locus model, which seemed ideal to create a robed Sister of Sigmar. With a little thought, I decided to try to convert the model into one of the hero choices for the warband, the blind Augur. Fortunately, the model came together quite quickly!

Mordheim 2019: First two sisters complete

Come with me, descend into the darkness.

While it has been a long time in coming, I am happy to say that the first two members of my Sisters of Sigmar warband for Mordheim 2019 are finally finished (being built, at least)! I shared some of the work in progress pictures earlier for both (first and second), but with this post I want to show the completed models. Each required extensive green stuff work to finish, but I think it makes the models more cohesive and distances them from the original models.

Mordheim 2019: Sisters of Sigmar WIP continues

Let pain be your guide.

A few weeks ago I revealed work-in-progress images of the first model in my SIsters of Sigmar warband for the upcoming Mordheim 2019 event. I have continued to work on the first model, doing more greenstuff work, focusing on resculpting her boots. The sculpting work is a slow process, so I also started work on a second sister for the warband. This one is based on the female acolyte model from the Warhammer Underworlds Eyes of the Nine warband. The model has an excellent sense of motion, that I thought would transition well into the warband. The major difficulty of using the acolyte is that she has very little clothing, which does not fit with the Sister of Sigmar aesthetic. As a result, the majority of my initial work has been focused on sculpting clothing on the model. I also replaced her sword with a hammer, more fitting with the Sigmar mentality. The model still needs a huge amount of work done on it, but I wanted to show its current progress to get feedback! Any comments and suggestions are welcome!

Mordheim 2019: Sister of Sigmar WIP

All progressions from a higher to a lower order are marked by ruins and mystery and a residue of nameless rage. - Cormac McCarthy

Earlier this year, Eric showed some initial models for a Roadside Picnic inspired undead warband, for the upcoming Mordheim 2019 event. Not content with building just one warband, I resolved to create a group of Sisters of Sigmar. When approaching creating a Sisters of Sigmar warband, I decided a complete overhaul of their design was necessary. The original Sisters of Sigmar models have not aged very well. They have a very caricatured Viking-warrior/nun aesthetic, complete with metal belly plates and starched robes. They are also posed very awkwardly, with nearly every one of them holding their oversized weapons aloft in one hand and a raised, clenched fist for the other. For my redesign, I wanted to go for a hooded/cloaked wanderer look. This warband has likely been through the ringer and are used to roughing it in the wilderness. While I am only at the work-in-progress stage on the first model, I wanted to show some pictures of the model and see what people think.