Hi guys! In the first article of "How I met the Citizens" I'd love to talk you about how, more than one year ago (yes not so much!) I have started developing this crazy idea that gave me so many sleepless nights!

I always loved the Old World setting, the presence of only few magic stuff and the grimdark gothic element always appealed me, unlike the high fantasy stuff full of magic and huge armour and weapons were dragons are as common as pigeons. But as much as I loved the armies and the field battles, I was interested in the proper background of that world: who lived there, who produced the weapons and food used by the massive armies and how is a common city in that setting?

Then I have started reading lot of background books and I have started looking at tons of illustrations and artworks, always on the hunt of some non warrior characters..

And so it started..

After some weeks of thinking about how to turn all these ideas into something that wasn't present on the market I have decided to contact Heresylab and ask them if they were interested. And they were indeed! I gathered all the ideas, shown them elements to do the first 14 citizens and we started sculpting the first of them even before having the sketches! In fact some in the end never got one!

Here some of the first sketches, so much time has passed!

Back in the day the team was very small, with one sketch artist and one sculptor, but still was exciting to see the drawings turned into 3d models!

And of course, I've had to paint them!

I still remember the excitement of the first ks and the fear of not meeting the funding, but luckily it happened and that allowed the City to get his first citizens! In fact, even if the initial release was of 10 models we ended up releasing 14, not a bad start for a brand new and unknown line!

But who are the first citizens?

Apart from Johann the priest and Kurt the guard captain, they are a mix of street urchins, sellers of all sorts and there is even a kids driven construct called Spooky! But the star of the first batch was Magdelein the cat lady, because everybody loves a cat throwing lady!

But for me, my favourite model of the first wave and still one of my favourite ones is the witch, part because it has been a turning point for me in designing the citizens (a kind of level up!) and in part because it is one of the most characterful of them! A beautiful lady, living on the outskirts of the City, earning money making potions and some low magic tricks? Hell yes!

As usual, all these models are available as files in our library here on mmf, or as physical models in Heresylab store! Check them out and support the City so it can expand! You can also follow us on facebook for more pics of the painted models!

See you on the next episode in which we'll talk about the second wave of the citizens!

Axia - Tales of the Old World