Smash Bash 2023: Mordheim Pitfighter Conversion

Smash Bash, an annual miniature competition to create gruesome and evocative miniatures, is hosting its third competition entitled Brackish Birth! Entries are due by April 28th, this month. To celebrate the third year of the competition, Totally Not Panicking commissioned Lux Thantor Miniatures to create Schopenhauer, an Undead Knight. I thought it might be fun to convert the model to enter the competition, creating a pitfighter for Mordheim, a battered and downtrodden warrior birthed in blood. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian was on my mind when creating the model; the pitfighter is a practitioner of mankinds’ ultimate trade: war. And like the character Toadvine, the pitfighter would have a necklace of ears!

The model has various fish motifs, like the oversized shoulderpad, perfect for Mordheim!

The pitfighter’s head and arm are from the Chaos Legionnaires warband from Warcry.

Most of the warrior’s mace was created using various sizes of interlocking brass tubing by Albion Alloys.

I sculpted a necklace of severed ears around the neck of the pitfighter. A gruesome series of trophies.

I used Milliput to roughly sculpt a series of crumbling bricks. I find Milliput works very well for sculpting convincing rocks and bricks.

The pitfighter next to an old Ratling Sniper.

- Adam Wier