Chief Gray Lock – Painted Blood & Plunder Miniature Showcase

/ josephforster86

Last Updated on June 4, 2026

Firelock Games released an organized play kit for this year’s Summer of Plunder campaign with 6 brand new sculpts for commander profiles in the Raise the Black expansion. Daniel and Emily really did a great job on these sculpts and we’d like to showcase the Native Commander, Chief Gray Lock in this post.

Chief Gray Lock Model

This is an edgy model! Gray Lock stands with musket in one hand and a knife and fresh scalp in the other. The frontier warfare between Native tribes and settlers New England and Maine was brutal and bloody and this model brings that to the forefront!

Another interesting feature on this model is his wampum belt slung across his body.

Who Was Gray Lock?

Chief Gray Lock was a notable war leader for the Abenaki in the first decades of the 18th century. He led many guerilla raids against the ever advancing English settlers, always escaping after his small scale raids wreaked terror and havoc on farms and villages. In addition to his Gray Lock title (apparently due to a notable streak of gray or white hair), he earned the name “Wawanolet,” meaning “he who puts others off track.”

Gray Lock was one of the primary Abenaki leaders during Dummer’s War, 1722-1725 which was a result of lack of treaties and resolution to the fighting in Vermont and Maine at the conclusion of Queen Anne’s War. The western theater of this war, fought in Massachussets and Vermont, is known as “Gray Lock’s War.”

Preferring to work with smaller war bands, Gray Lock never performed a huge raid like the Deerfield Raid with hundreds of attackers, but with a small and quick group of men, he was exceedingly difficult to find or fight. Gray Lock is known to have raided Northfield, Rutland, Hatfield, Deerfield, and Fort Dummer itself.

Gray Lock’s home village was never discovered by the English, in spite of raids organized to do so.

In spite many attempts to negotiate with Gray Lock, and even sending valuable gifts like a Wampum belt, Gray Lock never made peace with the English. He drops out of English records in 1727, but records indicate he baptized a son in New France in 1740. His legacy lives on in the common use of the name “Wawanolet” among the Abenaki, and Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts, named in his honor.

You can find a full biography of Gray Lock in Raise the Black or on the excellent Dictionary of Canadian Biographies.

Depictions of Gray Lock

There are no known confirmed historical depictions of Gray Lock. There have been some notable wood carvings made in his honor over the years, but they are surrounded by some controversy.

The tall statue on the left was carved in the 1980’s but was recently removed due to wood decay. The depiction on the right was created by the Missisquoi Abenaki, and donated to replace the original carving, but it has not been accepted. The political situation sounds complicated. But these two wood carvings had some influence on the sculpt we have from Firelock Games, mostly in the hat and prominent nose.

Gray Lock in Blood & Plunder

Chief Gray Lock is a nasty raider in Blood & Plunder! He has a lot of great rules, but is limited to a small war band with his 1 Command Points and short Command Range.

He’s a tricky choice at 20pts for a Commander with 1 Command Point. But can survive like nobody’s business. Elusive helps him survive ranged attacks, along with likely having Hidden on most of his Faction’s Core Units. Cunning lets him retreat 5″ instead of 4″ when his unit becomes Shaken. This helps him survive against melee. Evade helps him stay out of melee if he actually gets caught being charged. Quick lets him catch up to those enemies and take them down with unexpected distances. Very Inspiring helps keep his men in good shape and make sure their Rally tests are effective.

In addition to all that, his extra ability lets him Cheat Death once without using a Fortune Point. He’s hard to kill! And when you finally kill him, he doesn’t die!

He is armed well with both a Firelock Musket and a Sidearm Pistol (very rare on Native units and leaders). His new model is equipped with a pistol!

Gray Lock is in the Raise the Black expansion book for Blood & Plunder, along with the 18th century iteration of the Wabanaki faction. The Wabanaki faction is a powerhouse Native faction in Blood & Plunder with great Faction rules and several Force Options for extra flexibility. Check out the full writeup on the Wabanaki factions in Blood & Plunder here.

Painting Chief Gray Lock

Natives are always a challenge for me to paint. A study in browns! We have browner skin tones, leather tones, wood tones and a bit of color on trade cloth and ornaments.

I used the Foundry set of 3 paints for South American Skin tone, starting with the Shade tone, then layering over the 119B and then the Light 119C. I added a bit of controlled wash over those layer to smooth things out an add some more shadows.

For the rest of the model I used a mix of Citadel, Vallejo and Monument paints. Painting the wampum belt was tricky but fun and I’m pretty happy with the results. I’m sure I could have gone down a deep and time consuming rabbit hole of trying to uncover the most authentic pattern possible for the time and place, but I just did a basic geometric design that seemed pretty common.

The other fun bit on the model is painting the grisly scalp. I used the Citadel technical paint Blood for the Blood God which looks wet and nasty. If you use a glossy paint like this, make sure to apply it after you spray your model with any varnish you plan to finish with.

And of course I had to give him a gray lock of hair! This was tricker than I thought but I got something in there. It could have been more dramatic, but I think this works.

Dr. D’s Chief Gray Lock

Dr. D has been painting up these commanders from the Organized Play Kit and has donated an entire set to be given away during the Summer of Plunder! Check out his paint job on Chief Gray Lock.

We got a nice gross scalp here along with the gray streaks of hair and blue accents.

Gray Lock’s Scenario in The Summer of Plunder

Each of the 6 Commanders from the Organized Play Kit gets featured in one of the scenarios in the kit. In this scenario, Gray Lock’s small war band surprises English colonists in the field. While the English outnumber the raiding Natives, they start the game unprepared and must retrieve their weapons before they can return fire.

The Natives also have the ability to move off the board and return to the game in a later turn! Can the English pin down their wiley assailants or will Gray Lock strike hard and fade away before the English can retaliate?

If you’re prepping to play Gray Lock’s Hatfield Raid later in this year’s campaign, the Farmed Fields from Firelock Games are a perfect terrain pieces for this scenario.

Farmed Field by Greg P

You can find the 2026 Summer of Plunder scenario book that includes that Hatfield Raid on the Firelock Games Download page.

Here are some more pics of Gray Lock in the light box.

And some shots of Gray Lock on the job.

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