Bergjaeger #10: the unreleased hunter

At last! The tenth forester is finally done: this is an unreleased Marauder Miniatures warrior I bought last year, and to be honest, I've had some difficulties to find a proper color scheme. In addition, as I didn't want to cut the slotta bar off, I couldn't make the model stand on a rock, which makes him slightly smaller than the other miniatures he's supposed to lead... Anyway.


And here is the completed regiment:

Considering the hornblower as a musician and the druid/magic user as a staff bearer, this unit is 156 points worth, which means that my imperial force finally reaches the 1000-point threshold. Yippee!

It is time to unlock a first stretch goal... an element of the baggage train :) 

Bergjaeger #9: the staff bearer

This model is an unreleased Marauder Miniatures wizard (or Magic User) initially referenced MU3. It is now distributed by Warmonger Miniatures as a "Time Warped Wizard". To be honest, I understand why this model was not released, as the sculpting job is err... quite bad actually.

I've tried to improve it by replacing the original staff with a new one, stolen from a Rackham orc shaman. I will count him as a staff/standard bearer :)


And here is the third trio of foresters:

Bergjaegers #8: the twin brothers

The hornblower is a citizen (CZ9) from the Marauder MM62 range, the short one is the Leprechaun from the Talisman range. Quite fun to paint, even if I could have spent more time on some parts...

Bergjaeger #7: Astol the Archer

Another retinue from the Citadel F2 Fighters range: Astol the Archer. No conversion here.


The next model should be the musician of the unit.

Bergjaeger #6: Calder

Calder is not an archer, but with his bare feet and the riffle in his back, he couldn't but join my band of  hillbillies. Another great model from the Citadel Fighters/Dogs of War range :)


Second trio of Bergjaegers:

Bergjaeger #5: the Forester

Another Aly Morrison's sculpt, another Citadel F2 Fighter. The only modification here is the arrow stuck in the hat.

Bergjaeger #4: the Woodsman

Another Aly Morrison's design, this time for Talisman: the Woodsman. The bow and the arrows are additions coming from plastic sprues (Mordheim and Perry Miniatures). Rather fun to paint :)

Bergjaeger #3

This third scout comes from the MM62 Citizen range: I have slightly modified the original model by adding a bow and a few arrows in his back, so that he better fits in the band of foresters.


For the hawk, I've tried to follow the indications given by this picture:

And here is my first trio:

Jan Oak Heart, Berjaeger #2

This second scout comes from the Citadel F2 fighter range: another Aly Morrison's sculpt...


That's it for the moment...

Darvin the Bergjaeger

After completing the crossbowmen, I decided to start a new regiment of shooters: the scouts, also known as "Bergjaeger" in the Warhammer Fantasy Armies book.

These are trackers and hunters from the mountain regions of the Empire. They are exceptionally resourceful and much valued as scouts.

Possibly resourceful, but undoubtedly shabbily dressed according to the illustration (let's keep that in mind for the selection of models).

When Pfeildorf is in danger, trappers and hunters come down from the Grey Mountains, knowing that the city council can be very generous for its allies. Indeed, even if the city has its own contingents of archers, mustered among the population, with the support of the Bowyers’ and Fletchers’ Guild, the experience and camouflage skills of these hardened hillmen are much valued.

OK. Considering these few elements of context, I knew that I couldn't re-use the same colors as the remainder of the army (they're not from Pfeildorf), and I also needed to paint them in "camouflage" tones. Initially, I wanted to use desaturated brown and green tones, with a bright red for the tails of arrows (well, not so bright actually). As you can see on the Citadel "Dog of Wars" model, Darvin, the result wasn't very convincing.

Discussions with my pal Haekel made me realise that even if I used different colors, all of them had more or less the same value (or lightness), resulting in a rather dull model. It's easier to see in black and white: check the arrows, the green shirt and the brown hood, we can barely make the difference!


To improve the contrasts, I've given up the red tails idea, darkened the trousers, lightened the shirt and used a colder brown for the hood to make the face stand out. And, although it is barely visible on the picture, I've also reddened the noise to add a small touch of colour.


"Better, but the feet and the trousers are too clean!" said Haekel.

So, here is the final version, with more mud (VMC Leather Brown) on the lower parts. I hope you like it, as this guy should define the color scheme for the whole band.