The Hostage – Blood & Plunder Painted Mini Showcase

/ josephforster86

Last Updated on November 26, 2025

We got another special Blood & Plunder character model to show off! The Hostage sculpt was part of the this year’s Summer of Plunder Organized Play Kit and it now available from Firelock Games in a set of Sailing Master, Pirate Fiddler, Hostage and Ship’s Wheel.

This article is part of a series showcasing several of the new Character models released by Firelock Games over the course of 2025. You can check out the Pirate Fiddler, Sharp-Eyed Lookout, Bosun, Sailing Master, Drunk Pirate model, and the Cook miniature.

Blood & Plunder Hostage Model

This guy is obviously not having a good time. Buccaneers, armies, and pirates often would work hard to capture either a local resident or a soldier of the opposing troops and extort important information from there. Or, more often, they would seize civilians as hostages for ransoms, just hoping to extract more plunder from the local populace.

The excellent detail is easy to see on the hands and rope behind the back.

This mini makes me think of this Howard Pyle image:

The sculptor must have looked at this image because the clothes, age of man, and pose all look very similar! I Love it!

Hostage Painted by Dr. D

Dr. D has again graciously sent us some pictures of his painted version of the Hostage.

Dr. D’s hostage has been through it! Maybe he’s had a recent dental appointment? Or maybe these Dutchmen think he knows where some plunder is and he’s holding out on them!

And another Hostage painted by Jason Trinque, friend of Dr. D (and used by permission).

Painting the Hostage

This is a pretty easy model to paint up. Shirt, paints, skin and hair and nothing complicated!

I used Citadel paints on my copy. The face is the trickiest part since he has such a heavy brow and so much hair going on.

Now I wish I had put some blood on my model…

I used a speed paint on the rope and hair, then went back and highlighted those areas with conventional paints.

Using the Hostage in Blood & Plunder

There are two classes of Characters in Blood & Plunder: “Fighting Men” and “Hostage and Advisors.” The “Hostage” character is a new “Hostage and Advisor” and will be included in the new Rise of Buccaneer: Jamaica book, but a we saw a little preview of it in this year’s Summer of Plunder organized play kit scenario booklet.

He’s much like the Captured Merchant, with a bit of a twist. Having the Hostage helps defend your unit and put Fatigue on the enemy for shooting at that unit. But, the hostage can be ransomed!

The only Special Rule he brings to your unit is High Standing which is a liability and turns off a lot of your special fast and sneaky movement rules on land.

I really like the potential player interaction this character could create. Would you pay a Fortune point to your enemy to remove this model from the board? That’s a steep cost! But it hurts to have a penalty shooting at the enemy’s Commander Unit!

How Can You Get a Hostage Model?

The Hostage originally came in the 2025 Summer of Plunder Organized Play Kit, but they just release that full set of minis on their website in one pack! You can get the SOP set of 4 minis (Sailing Master, Fiddler, Hostage and Ship’s Wheel) for $25.

Firelock Games has a large Kickstarter project scheduled for the first quarter of 2026, and I would be surprised if this mini wasn’t part of that project since the Hostage profile is in the expansion book.

Final Thoughts

The Hostage is a fun addition to the line of Character Firelock Games has been building for Blood & Plunder and it promises to be interesting with opportunities for player interaction on the game table.

Article by Joseph Forster. Minis painted by Dr. D, Jason Trinque, and Joseph Forster

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