Character Creation, Start to Finish

Well, start to ready-to-paint, anyways.

So for my first real post on this blog, I figured I'd give a bit of a walk-through on how I build characters in the 28mm scale.  I am currently working on a slew of models for Inquisimunda warbands, which are inspired by characters I have created for a web comic I hope to get off the ground in the near future.  

To begin, I generally have an idea what I want the character to look like.  I'll do some rough sketches, and spend at least a few days re-working the design until I finally settle on something that I am happy with.  Once I know that the character design is not something I will change my mind about, I do a character sheet, which looks like this:

 

Immediately after doing the character sheet, I will write out a short bio piece about the character, including any personality traits I am trying to capture in his design, as well as his preferred method of fighting:

Inquisitor Antoni Jesaiah Moretti is the son of the famous Witch Hunter of the Ordos Hereticus, Orazio Pietro Moretti.  Upon completion of his schooling in the Schola Progenium, Antoni was inducted into his father's retinue as an Interrogator.  The reverence displayed to him by his father's other subordinates did nothing to cool his already inflated ego, and Antoni was put on the fast-track to Inquisitor status.  He took great joy in the interrogation of prisoners, especially those accused of heresy and blasphemy of the Imperial Creed.  Antoni developed a cruel streak, and while others worried about his state of mind, they did not dare voice their concerns to his father.  Despite, or perhaps because of, his fiery temper and often belligerent mannerisms, Antoni has the gift of an orator, and is effortlessly able to stir local populaces to take up arms and lay down their lives to support his quests.  He is also a superb duelist, and many heretics have met their end through the barrel of his hellpistol.

 So, at this point the groundwork is done.  My next step is to start brainstorming which pieces I will use to put him together.  Often times, the most brilliant parts of a conversion are the bits that come together on a whim, without being planned ahead of time.  However, I've learned that if you don't plan out at least two thirds of your model, and simply dive in expecting divine inspiration to guide you from start to finish, what you end up with will not be what you set out to accomplish.  With that in mind, for this particular character, I picked up a Mordheim Witch Hunter and Commissar Yarrick off eBay.  Rooting through my bits box, I found the sword from an Emperor's Champion.  Originally I had planned to build his hellpistol from scratch, using plastic rods and green stuff, but I found the Warlock Engineer from the Island of Blood set, and decided to use his pistol instead.  A few random plastic bits and green stuff to fill in the gaps, and I had this before me:

I'm very happy with him, and all that remains is to paint him.  I will wait until I get more members of his warband put together to do that, to ensure the color scheme remains consistent.

Let me know what you guys think!  In the coming days, weeks and months I will be posting more of these, but most likely broken up into multiple posts.  I'm looking forward to hearing feedback and suggestions, especially when I post character sheets and am unsure of which bits I am going to be using.