OWAC V - Conclusion

Well, now that I'm close to the 100 painted Marauder Dwarfs, maybe it's time for a few pictures of the mercenary forces collected so far. 

With 40 dwarfs warriors (pikemen and halberdiers) and 20 quarellers, the mandatory troops are done. Regarding the thunderers, I have reached the maximum allowed by the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book. Two wizards seem more than enough for a dwarf army, and all the hammerers I had are now painted. And of course, any decent mercenary army cannot go out without his paymaster 😎

So, what's left? 

• Warmachines for sure, and their design easily fits with the Swiss flavour of the army
• the army general on his fracking poney. One day I will paint him, I swear 😖
• More wild dwarfs would be nice if I could convert some slayers
• 10 Iron breakers should be OK too if I find the courage (NMM plus shields, double pain)
• More than enough models to align a third regiment of pikemen or a regiment of sworsdmen
  
• Last but not least... Longbeards! The only (but major) problem is that they do not fit at all with their budies. I have a couple of ideas, but it will require time and conversions. We'll see...
  

In the meantime:

Preparing OWAC V

After considering elves, skaven, and melniboneans, I've finally made up my mind for this new edition of the Old World Army Challenge: puff and slash dwarfs again 😜

For OWAC V, my plan is simple: add 10 pikemen and 10 crossbowmen to complete the mandatory troops (i.e. 40 Dwarf warriors and 20 crosssbowmen), boost the fire power of my mercenary dwarfs with 20 thunderers, and finally paint my mounted general 🐴

If time permits, I will paint a few extras, including wild dwarfs, new bodyguards for the paymaster, and a cart for the bishop.

My prepared miniatures so far:

 

And finally the wagon, based on a Perry Miniatures carroccio, with Fenryll wheels and a few GW bits.  

 

OWAC VI - The characters

As I am considering extending the painting of this army to the next OWAC, I've decided that my dwarf priest deserved additional thoughts and preparation. As for the mounted captain, my first attempt to paint the poney failed miserably... and instead of insisting, I have opted for other characters.

So, let's start with the first one, the Annalist of the company, who happens to be a dwarf wizard of the Marauder range, MM10 DW10.

The second character and current leader of the army is one of the Captains that takes command of the dogs of war when the General is not on the battlefield. The model is the well-known leader of the MB1 regiment:

The third character is one of the MM11 champions, that will lead the bodyguards of the paymaster.

I still have a few ideas to explore for my Swiss Grey Mountains mercenary dwarfs (such as clockworkers, a chocolate hot pot, or a "William Tell" quareller), plus a full box of Marauder dwarves waiting for their basecoat, but I have to admit that the initial impetus stemmed last month while painting my crossbowmen. 

So that's it for OWAC IV!

OWAC IV - The Crossbowmen

Enter the Frostbeards clan with this unit of quarellers! From the beginning of this OWAC, I wanted to paint something close to the banner of the shooters of Zürich (1513): I have therefore used the blue-and-white scheme of this canton to depict the Frostbeards. 

Written at the same epoch, the illustrated chronicle of Lucerne shows a similar flag, this time with an horizontal crossbow:

Illustrated Chronicle by Diebold Schilling of Lucerne (page 81)

 

In the end, I have opted for the vertical option, and decided to replace the upper red strip by painting in red the ribbons hanging from the pole, and sewn to the outer edge of the flag. As for the crossbow, I needed a more stylized design, and I have slightly adapted the model drawn by Gary Chalk in the Warhammer Armies book:

For the painting job, same technique already used for the BlackHorns and the FrostPeak banners: first, paint a grid on the flag undercoated in white, then draw the crossbow with light brown using the grid as a reference, then hide the grid by painting a background as uniform as possible, then paint the coat of arms, and finally (try to) suggest highlights and shadows on the flag itself. I've painted thin lines to figure the fabric of the banner, with limited success I would say. I've then tried to correct the mess, the result being worse... If I had doubts about blue-and-white schemes, I now have the confirmation that I suck at painting them :) Anyway...

As there is no crossbowman musician in the Marauder Miniatures range, I have slightly modified my second MM11 hornblower model by replacing the original axe by a more suitable weapon.

The other shooters are just ordinary MM15 models:

The second rank:

 The entire band:

 See you in June for the mercenary captain! (and hopefully a few additional dwarves).

OWAC IV - The Hammerers - Part II

Nothing much to say on the next 3 hammerers. Obviously the one with the bull on the helmet represents the clan of the BlackHorns, already providing a regiment of pikemen:

The warrior with the boar on the hammer and on the shield protects the interest of the FrostPeak clan, represented by a regiment of halberdiers.

And the last one used the colours of the Canton of Zürich (yeah, still looking for a proper name):

To complement the regiment, I have slightly converted a MM10 warrior into a musician by giving him a horn and changing his left hand, and painted one of the MM11 champions in the colours of the FrostPeak clan. 

The second part of the unit:

And the whole band...

... protecting the paymaster's chest!

See you next month!