The deceased count (part I)

Something I've struggled with since the beginning of the White Lady project is how to transport the remains of Heinrich, Count of Schädelheim. If you remember the initial post in October 2023, there was an illustration from the Würzburg chronicle, by Lorenz Fries, depicting the old custom of bringing the heart of the deceased Würzburg bishops to the monastery of Ebrach in a glass vessel, in a cart lined with black cloth and pulled by four horses.

My initial plan was to convert an Empire war wagon, by adding a lower deck where the deceased count would be installed. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a coffin small enough to fit into that space. And running out of time, I have rather focused my efforts on the preparation of the rank & file troops for the OWAC.

My second move was to use the unreleased Marauder two-wheel cariole, transporting a casket or a jar with the heart of the count. This idea is not totally given up, but I stilll need to find the human or animal model pulling it.

I have also considered converting the EA16 Carroccio released by Perry Miniatures, based on an illustration depicting the funeral of King Richard II, in Richard Davey's book "A history of mourning" (1890). 

 

Below, the original version of Jean Froissart (14th century).

The plan was to merge the carroccio with a Heroquest sarcophagus. A lot of cutting, filing and modelling involved...  Cough cough... In the end, I turned to the black coach model that I had initially bought for extra bits. On reflection, I realized that it could do the job with a few adjustments including a waxen effigy laying on the coffin... and of course living horses :)

The coach itself has received very few modifications, essentially removing or hiding all the vampire themed decorations. The upper part of the coachman comes from the Marauder Miniatures MM62 monk, the horses and the driver are Perry miniatures, from the WR29 wagon horse team, and finally, the effigy of the deceased count is the Citadel F5 paladin Cyril d'Estiff.

 

Not entirely convinced by the proportions of the monk. I'll see if I can fix it before starting the painting job.  

The Dirty Eight

No pressure for the sixth month of the OWAC III, as I had already reached the 1000-point threshold in May. So, I came back to my initial plan (meaning before introducing the cannon-bell and its crew), and painted the bunch of beggars and fanatics I had prepared last December: the dirty eight.

A golden opportunity to finally use some of the ugliest miniatures of my Citadel pile: the C46 villagers (I know I know, nobody forced me to buy them). Anyway...

Let's start with two modest conversions, to represent the standard bearer and the musician. You'll recognize the usual bits of the flagellant plastic sprues.

MM62 - CZ6	MM62 - CZ6
C46 - Bolg	C46 - Bolg

Enter the beggars:

C46 Travelling Players - Beggard	C46 Travelling Players - Beggar
C46 Militia - Wiggle	C46 Militia - Wiggle
C46 Villagers - Beggar	C46 Villagers - Beggar
C46 Villagers - Leper	C46 Villagers - Leper

 And finally the only two fanatics of the bunch! (F2 fighters I assume designed by Aly Morrison):


The dirty eight!



Ready to fight (well... sort of)

Empire archer #9: the Hooded Man

One of the last unreleased Marauder Miniatures I've been able to grab in the last few years, the "hooded man" is a welcome addition to Pfeildorf's shooters, considering that we have only three models of archers available in the whole Marauder range (you've already seen them a couple of times).


About models you've already seen, third (and last) version of citizen CZ18:

The squire and the page

Two retainers follow Baron Markus Toppenheimer on the battlefield: the squire is a slightly converted MM62 citizen (reference CZ 12), while the page boy comes from the original "Battle Lord" pack designed by Mark Copplestone.

Charge!

And the models painted these last two months:

Human crew

Last addition to my battery of imperial cannons, this crewman is a minor conversion of a Marauder citizen (reference CZ16), possibly one of the worst sculpted model of the MM62 range :) (look at the size of the hands!).

Cannon #1 crew

Here are two MM62 citizen (CZ3 and CZ19) stlightly modified to use Marauder Miniatures in the crew of my war machines.


And the first imperial cannon is finally complete.

Next!

The dwarf cannoneer

Small addition to the cannon of the previous post: a Marauder Miniatures dwarf, initially servant of the Dwarf Organ Gun MM12.

With the second crewmember, a MM62 citizen:

Citizen CZ25

Undoubtedtly one of the worst models ever sculpted for the Marauder MM62 citizen range: reference CZ25. I don't understand the hair, the face and the pose... anyway, a true collector has to own and paint every single miniature, even the bad ones!

In a desperate attempt to improve the model, I have slightly converted it by removing the dagger in the right hand and replacing it by a GW plastic flag from the Dark Elf cavalry and some bit from an imperial plastic sprue (can't remember which one).

Below my attempts to find a proper scheme for my second unit of archers (with the help of Zibzee on the francophone Warhammer Forum, who supported thorns rather than stars).



And the final result: