Visitors to Dead Dick’s Tavern may recall me lamenting the fact that I don’t get to play many games any more, especially roleplaying games. Since I opened an Instagram account about a year ago, I’ve met some pretty cool hobbyists and gamers, many of whom live much too far away from me for us to ever be able to sit around the same table. Because of remote play during the COVID pandemic, that hasn’t been as much of an obstacle, and I’ve been able to get some gaming in with some very cool people.
One of them, my friend Bruno, has a YouTube channel called The Chronicles of the Crimson Hound, and through this, he has come up with something truly ingenious that all but guarantees he gets to play a ton of games. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy the guy.
Bruno created a character: the Crimson Hound, a vampiric vigilante super hero in a cyberpunk-style city. Bruno’s brilliance is that he gets other people to GM games for the Crimson Hound, using whatever rules system and running whatever story they like; then he puts the game sessions up on YouTube. So far, the folks running the games have mostly been gamers who have websites and podcasts of their own; so viewers get to see a variety of game mastering styles and get a feel for diverse methods of storytelling and gaming. The serials are broken down into sessions of about 15 minutes each, so they’re great to listen to while you’re…oh, say, cooking dinner or painting miniatures. Check them out!
Anyway, Bruno asked me to GM a game for the Crimson Hound, which made me feel immensely flattered. Run a game for a vampiric vigilante in a pulp/cyberpunk setting? Yes, please! On YouTube? No, thank you. Some folks, like Bruno, are handsome and charismatic enough to be on YouTube. Others, like me, are far too handsome for YouTube but lack any charisma whatsoever. Sad, but true.
Still, I felt bad because Bruno was kind enough to playtest one of my Call of Cthulhu adventures that I am planning to submit to the Miskatonic Repository. In other words, when I asked, he said yes; while when he asked, I declined. Kind of a dick move on my part. (See? No charisma.)
So, as a way to say thanks, I decided to immortalize Bruno’s creation, The Crimson Hound, for Forgotten Heroes. The Crimson Hound isn’t “forgotten”, of course; his legend is only just beginning! But this challenge gave me all the excuse I needed to practice my green stuff kung-fu. (Special thanks to Dave from Wargames Terrain Workshop for the quick assist in answering my noob sculptor questions.) Besides, Carrion Crow is usually pretty lenient when it comes to enforcing the rules.
The base miniature was Captain Griffon, by Reaper, from their Chronoscope line. (If I remember right, Bruno wanted to use this miniature himself for the Hound, once upon a time.) I couldn’t find anything better in my rather extensive pile of Heroclix. I had considered using a Robin miniature as a base, but I picture the Hound is bigger (and cooler) than Robin.
In his single-minded pursuit of vigilante justice, the Crimson Hound has used stun batons, handguns and even an enchanted short sword. I considered giving him one or more of these, but in the end I decided just to stick with his bare hands. The Hound is a brute, after all. He’s not too subtle when it comes to kicking ass.
I added some green stuff to bulk out his shoulders and his collar, and sculpted his mask and his knee pads. Then I let him dry and sanded him down with an emery board, because Dave said to.
Of course, unbeknownst to Bruno, while I was IN THE MIDDLE OF sculpting and painting the Crimson Hound, Bruno put up a new Instagram post, showing the Hound’s upcoming NEW COSTUME. In other words, not this one anymore.
D’oh!
Here he is, all painted up. I tried to be as faithful to the top picture as I could, but there was no way in hell I was going to even attempt that belt. It’s way beyond my green stuff skillz. As it is, looks like I could have done a better job sanding him down. Hope you like him, Bruno!
Here’s a funny little anecdote: for my final touch, I decided to give the red parts of the costume a light wash of Citadel’s Bloodletter glaze, which really does a good job of highlighting and tying together the different shades of red. It was supposed to be the very last thing I did, but shortly after the application, I noticed a bunch of mysterious white spots all over the model, wherever I put the Bloodletter. Seems my glaze went bad somehow, and I had to redo all the red. Isn’t that funny? Ha ha ha.
Ha.
That’s probably it for my Forgotten Heroes submissions this year, although I could still pull something out last minute. Stranger things have happened. In the meantime, I will continue to watch the other participants with great interest!
Great work on Crimson Hound Keith, I think you have certainly done the character justice. How different is the new costume ? Will you be sending this model to Bruno, or keeping it for yourself ?
Glad the sculpting tip helped out mate, and always happy to help. Such a shame we live so far apart as I could show you in person the tricks with greenstuff.
The new costume is quite different, Dave. The Hound will be wearing armor and sporting a wolf helmet. Looks pretty cool.
I made this for Bruno, so it’s all his if he wants it. I may run the Hound through a Super Mission Force game before I send him off, though…it’s been way too long since I played that.
I often think how cool it would be to meet all the guys from Britain, yourself included. I know you all know each other, but do you live anywhere near one another, or do you just see each other at game shows now and then (pre-Covid, of course)?
I’ve met a few of the bloggers in person, but not all, which I would like to change over time. Mostly I meet up with them at shows, but everyone has an open invitation if they want to meet up for sculpting or painting advice, they’ve only got to ask. Have a road trip in the USA planned for a couple of years time, so will have to see if our route, is anywhere near any of the bloggers if they want to meet up.
Dave, if you’re anywhere near Southwestern Vermont when you visit the US, let me know. I’d love to meet you. You (along with a lot of other bloggers) have been a source of help, inspiration and friendliness and it would be great to say hi.
And Keith, the invite to play Cthulhu (or just sit around on the deck having a chat) is still open!
Thanks! I live way at the bottom of Massachusetts, so a drive to VT isn’t exactly short… Still, I do like the scenery in VT…
Will let you know closer to the trip, as we should have a full plan of where were going by then
Holy crap, that is a superb conversion! As Dave says you’ve really done Bruno’s character justice and your greenstuff skills are far better than you think. I wouldn’t even have attempted the mask on his face, or rather I would, and then after a couple of hours I’d have given up. The painting is excellent too and he looks fantastic.
Also, why has it never occurred to me to sand greenstuff??
Thanks! I’m not adept with green stuff to be sure, but this is the first time I wasn’t cursing out loud using it. While I definitely need to sand more, I think I am getting the hang of letting it set just enough to work with. Or maybe I just got lucky.
Now that is pretty neat!1 Bruno sounds like a cool guy too. I would have said that not only qualifies as a Forgotten Hero, but pretty much epitomises it! (A hero that has no official or a rubbish figure for him/her). So no problems on that score I would think (though Jez of course has the final say, but he has let me count a car, so….).
Greenstuff does sand pretty well, Bob Olley gave me a tip years ago, that you can scrub dry greenstuff with a nailbrush or toothbrush to get a smooth finish on it, though to my shame I’ve never tried this myself.
I’ve never tried contrast paints myself, are they glazes?
I’d say you’ve had a pretty good FH this year mate.
Cheers Roger.
Thanks, Roger. Bruno is a cool dude and I was happy to do this conversion. AFAIK Bloodletter is not a Contrast Paint, just a glaze. I’ve used it many times with great results. Maybe my bottle is just skunked, or maybe I didn’t shake it enough (unlikely).
I’ll have to try the brush trick. I think I don’t sand enough as a rule.
An excellent tribute. I remember well his playtest character’s dancing skills 🙂
She was one of the greats.
Does this count for Forgotten Heroes? Of course it does. You know me, I’m not precious about the “rules”, Keith, just happy that my humble little contest encourages people to take part and do something a little different.
A very cool conversion of an equally cool character. You’ve been very productive this year and pulled some truly obscure characters out of the bag.
Thanks, Jeremy. I love Forgotten Heroes, as you well know by now. It’s something I look forward to every year. I already know at least one hero I will make next year…the trick will be remembering it next June! Thanks for hosting again!