Fifteen years ago, I created the artwork for one of our first mercenary characters, a green-skinned little entrepreneur by the name of Reinholdt, the gobber speculator.

Ol’ Reinholdt has seen his highs and lows on the tabletop over the past decade and a half, but I doubt anyone—including me—would have ever expected to see that merry merc show up on the battlefield like this. If nothing else, however, Reinholdt is an opportunist, so I like to think if the character were real, he’d appreciate the chance to find new employment through this latest incarnation…

Rinny!

Our convention exclusives are some of my favorite miniatures because just about anything goes so long as it’s an entertaining twist on the characters in the setting. From kilt-lifting trollkin to blighted Nyss bathing in bubbling blood, we’ve had a lot of fun lampooning the Iron Kingdoms and its inhabitants.

When we settled on Reinholdt for our next caricature to be released during this year’s Lock & Load, I felt I owed it to the little guy to take on the design of the miniature myself. I wanted to bring over as much of the original character design as possible but translated into a pinup-style persona that still preserved the essence of what the model does on the tabletop. The bowler, the trench coat, vest boots, and short pants are all there, if not a little shorter and a little snugger than they appeared on the original speculator. And his tools of the trade are all represented as a visual menu of what the character has to offer your chosen warcaster. To finish it off, I added a plushy in Rinny’s satchel as an ode to our favorite gobber.

Now, which of these lucky charms General Stryker would prefer to accompany him into battle is yours to decide, but I can tell you this: no one brings my character designs to life like Mr. Doug Hamilton, and I’m always thrilled to find out when something I’ve drawn is being sculpted by him.

I love collaborating with Matt on a project, and I was super-excited to see he was working on this new concept. Though I’ve worked on several models based on Matt’s artwork over the years, I still fanboy out a little bit every time this opportunity presents itself. The appeal of Matt’s style is the simplicity yet great character and personality that his work provides, an approach I feel suits my style of sculpting, which is also simpler and (hopefully) characterful! Another reason I enjoy working from his art is because I feel as if we’re on the same page, it’s as if I understand the message Matt is trying to convey in his concepts and can execute the intended message in the sculpt itself. Dare I say, we are a dynamic duo of sorts.

I didn’t realize how long Reinholdt had been around until starting on this project. As I think back to those early games, I guess he has always been there, and he’s certainly deserving of a new twist after so many years. Working on these alternate convention models is fun for us in the studio, and for our players, seeing these older models with a new look is always fun—it makes for some great conversations during the convention season. And everyone knows how I love to talk at conventions!

Rinny has a style to her reminiscent of Reinholdt (as Matt mentions in detail) yet was coy and cute as opposed to frumpy looking. The important goal would be to pull all of those elements together as a sculpt and then sneak the original into this new version, if you look closely.

Take a peek at what we’ve done to Reinholdt and pick her up at Lock & Load GameFest this summer. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of this convention twist on a classic character. Oh, and for the record, this won’t be the last time Matt and I team up for something special this year!