All right. After the doomed crusade of Pieter the Pious in 2020, I needed to paint some winners in 2021. Yeah, you named them: Dwarves! And to be more specific: the Marauder Miniatures landksnechts.
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Illustration by Paul Bonner
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To prepare the 4th edition of the Old World Army Challenge (OWAC), I have carefuly read Stuart Mulligan's wise advice on the Painting Landsknechts blog and of course, studied Nico's splendid Dwarf army, as his conversions solved the other issue I have with the Marauder Miniatures: the range is unfortunately incomplete (missing some standard bearers and musicians), and sometimes tends towards Middle-Age rather than Renaissance in terms of clothing. Well, I'll see what I can do...
The army is mainly composed of young dwarfs leaving the Grey Mountains and their impoverished clans to seek fortune in the Empire. They band together in free companies, elect their captain, and offer themselves for hire. Some still carry the colors of their native hold or clan: the black boar of the Frostpeak hold, the crosier of the IronBones clan or the double-key of the SureFoots.
The current employer of the army is the honourable Guild of Goldsmiths and Jewellers in Altdorf: its dwarf masters are more comfortable contracting mercenaries of their kind, either to escort convoys, protect trading posts, or claim distant lands with high mineral potential. As trust does not exclude control, it is not rare seeing the mercenary captain Borin Steelfist receiving direct orders from representatives of the Guild. In these occasions, the latters are flanked by hardened veterans, handsomely paid to protect the guildmasters with their lives.
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Illustration by Dave Andrews (Warhammer Armies)
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A few pictures of the preparation phase:
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| Characters |
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| Halberdiers |
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| Hammerers |
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| Pikemen |
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| Quarellers |
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| Thunderers |
I'm still waiting for a few models, and some conversions are not totally
finalized... and last but not least... 50 bases to prepare 😣
