The Infernal Headsman, Lord Executioner

This October, I put the finishing touches on a model that's been in the works for the better part of a year– The Infernal Headsman:

 

 

The Von Koss vampires hold dominion over most of their Lieutenants in the Legion of the Infernal Skull, but this nameless, faceless wraith was appointed by Nagash himself. The Infernal Headsman was tasked with enforcing the Great Necromancer's will, whether that be hunting and eliminating threats on the battlefield, or punishing failure within the ranks of the Legion.

While he would never openly oppose the will of Nagash, Lord Seth Von Koss does not appreciate being assigned a minder, and is suspicious of what the wraith's true intention might be. Seth has given the Headsman command of one of the Legion's most powerful units– The Execution Guard. But this munificent appointment is actually a ploy to keep the Headsman in check, for many of those wights have faithfully served the vampire lord since their days in the Blood Keep and would face oblivion before allowing harm to befall their master.

 

 

Converting the Headsman

I was inspired to work on this because of the spirits swirling around the model– They weren't like the standard spirit faces, they were skulls and the spirit trails already had a flame-like shape. I added a little putty to match my army's flaming skull motif.

 

 

 

Similarly, I sculpted fire over the smoke trail from the executioner's axe, and added a little flame to the tips of his robe. My plan was to match his color scheme to the burning robes of my Nagash model. I also removed the gallows from his back. It was a bit excessive; I think the executioner should be either a hangman or a headsman, and I went with "headsman" so I could focus on the flaming axe and skulls.

 

One final touch was to replace his spirit hands with skeletal hands, similar to the other wraiths in my army. I dug around my parts bot and came up with some Tomb King skeleton arms that had a similar grip on the weapon. Keeping everything lined up with the original pose was a bit tricky.

 

I wanted the Headsman to fit right alongside Nagash aesthetically, so I needed to make an additional square base for him.

 

I added magnets in the bases and the model, and two small pins to keep it from spinning. I sculpted some ground texture and pressed the model into it for a perfect fit on both bases.

 

 

The bases were then modeled with a mix of Skull Forge Scenics skulls and tombstones.

 

 

I painted the model in three components– The bases:

 

The flaming skulls:

 

And the figure itself:

 

Since he's just fire and black robes, he painted up pretty quickly. Then it was just a matter of touching up the skulls' attachment point and gluing them in place.

 

 

 

 

At last, the infernal headsman is ready to go forth in the name of Nagash and carry out his grim task!

 

'Til next time!