I made the first of this batch mainly to illustrate a costume that I might try to make for myself in the future. I have to admit, there are elements of 18th century fashion that I happen to really like (frock coats, for instance). On the other hand, I have this strange affinity for the tall hats of 17th century Dutch origin, known in the Americas as "Pilgrim hats."
The frock coat on this character, "Inquisitor K," isn't as neat as I'd like, because it's a pirate coat. However, it's the only one that Hero Forge currently has with the characteristic French cuffs. By the way, that sword, a Turkish kilij, is one that I actually have in my collection. It's a really nice sword, though I'd probably wear my shashka with an 18th century costume instead.
Back to the subject of that hat, it's called an "inquisitor's hat" or "witch hunter's hat" in Hero Forge. I suppose the reason for that is because so many Inquisitors in Warhammer 40,000 seem to like it. Whatever the case, that ultimately gave me ideas for this character (including the name "Inquisitor K" in the first place).
It's actually a bit more stylised than the Dutch hats of the 17th century, with a shaped top and brim, which isn't even round:
I do occasionally plait my hair, by the way. I do not, however, own a blunderbuss, but it seems like an ideal weapon for shooting witches off their broomsticks (or out of their flying mortars if you're hunting witches in a Slavic nation).
I decided to make another version with this character on horseback:
This took a lot of tweaking, particularly of the braid, but I like the results:
After playing around a bit, I decided to make some more witch hunters. I don't know if this will ever go anywhere, but much like the catgirl character featured in my last post, if someone else has a story idea, I'd be happy to provide some miniatures for it. Right now, I have only two other witch hunters. The first of these is Inquisitor C, a Scotsman:
The witch hunters all wear the same hat and cape, and they carry the same blunderbuss and lantern. They all have the same pose as well, even though they are not the same size. Inquisitor C, for instance, is much taller than the other two.
I thought a Scotsman would make a good witch hunter, given that the occult history of Scotland and the other Celtic lands. Englishmen and mainlanders, on the other hand, had sanitised their own history in favour of Christianity so long ago that if witches existed, they wouldn't have the slightest clue how to deal with them.
Of course, when people hear the word "inquisition" in any historical context, they usually think of Spain. Therefore, I thought it fitting to make a Spanish witch hunter as well, Inquisitor P:
Other than the witch hunter's hat, he's dressed as a conquistador (mostly). Other than that, there's not much to say.
Perhaps I'll make some witch figurines to go along with these guys. Again, I'm not sure what I'd do with them, since this is not a type of story I'm interested in writing, but perhaps someone I know would like to.