Thursday, January 21, 2021

OWAC IV - The halberdiers


First month and first regiment for the OWAC IV: the halberdiers. Inspired by Nico's regiment, I have converted a few models, as the halberdiers are rather rare in the Marauder Miniatures range: two MM10 and two MM 15 references, and that's it! You may recognize the loader of the splendid siege gun MM13, the seargent of the mythic MB1 regiment and one MM10 clansman usually equipped with a two-handed hammer.

Regarding the colour scheme, I had in mind a vague parallel between these dwarf mercenaries coming from the Grey Mountains, and the formidable Swiss, fighting to protect their Old Confederacy, or going down the Alps to sell their services to foreign armies. 

As the white cross was the major field recognition sign of the Swiss, I have tried to find a rune that would do a similar job for my mercenaries. Keeping in mind that it had to be simple, as it was made of white cloth sewn onto the hose or the doublet, or directly painted on the breast or back plates of armours, I haven't found anything satisfying. So far, I have used the white cross on only one model: I may rework this once the pikemen regiment is complete, as I should have more space on the clothes to figure out a recognition sign. Below, a few examples of the white cross, either sewn on the clothes or painted on the armours.

Diebold Schilling the Younger, Luzerner Chronik (1509–1513)
 

For the colours of the different regiments, my plan is to use some typical Swiss flags, slightly transformed to avoid any copyright issues :op

Diebold Schilling the Younger, Luzerner Chronik (1509–1513)

The halberdiers come from the Frostpeak Hold: their coat of arms consists of a black boar charging upwards on a yellow diagonal with a red background (yup, replace the boar by a bear, and you have the banner of the Canton of Bern). The main colours for this regiment are therefore red and black, with touches of (brownish) yellow and (dirty) white. Regarding the hats, after a test with a vivid blue, I've finally opted for peacock feathers, with more subdued tones of green, brown and blue.

OK, enough writing, time for pictures, by order of painting.

MM10 reference DW21

MM15
 

Same model, slightly converted to make a standard bearer:


The white cross mentioned in the introduction. I love his beaver teeth :)

MM10 reference DW26

MM11/7
MM15

MM15

Modified MM13 gunner

Modified MB1 seargent

Modified MM10 DW7

And the complete regiment:

See you next month with pikemen (hopefully).

27 comments:

  1. Bernese Dwarven Halberdiers, I love it! A great unit, I can't wait to see what you do with the pikemen or should that be pikedwarves!

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    1. Ah! Thanks, glad you like them. The pikedwarves should come from the Canton of Uri (if I can paint a decent cow).

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    2. A dwarf musician with a great horn and dressed as a Cow as the Swiss did (there is one in Uri colours in the first Schilling picture you have posted) would look brilliant!

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    3. You read my thoughts :) The hornblower is ready, unfortunately, my sculpting skills were too poor to give him a cow costume. Just horns on the helmet, I'm afraid.

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  2. Incredible work as always, that banner is very impressive!

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  3. Comme toujours, c'est superbe.
    J'aime beaucoup la manière dont tu as ajouté de la couleur à ta palette habituelle, et la bannière est vraiment très belle, surtout vu la taille des surfaces lisses.

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    1. Merci. J'aurais aimé accentuer les contrastes sur cette bannière, mais j'ai pas réussi...

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  4. Characterful and gorgeous halberdiers, wonderful painting!

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  5. So funny !! I was painting yesterday with Nico, and talking about you to, I didn't know you mentioned him above ahah (I speed read you message on OWAC). Your dwarves are amazing, you did a wonderful job !

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    1. Thanks! I wish i had Nico's skills to convert miniatures

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  6. J'adore ! Et les barbes sont réussies, très important pour des nains :)

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    1. Merci ! Ca va être important pour tes vikings aussi :p

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  7. Merci pour le lien, cette version suisse est formidable. Le clin d'oeil pour le drapeau du canton de Bern et top de top. Un jour ca sera l'affrontement legendaire entre les Lansquenets et les mercenaires Suisse :)

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    1. Hé hé. Il va me falloir un peu de temps avant de pouvoir aligner de quoi affronter ces sales copieurs de lansquenets :p

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  8. Des nains suisses ! Super idée comme toujours.
    Bon courage pour la suite.

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  9. Great job as always, congratulations! Are you planning to create more customized bases for some units of your mercenary army in Altdorf's service, or will they all have generic rocky bases for uniformity?

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    1. Generic bases! I have already prepared the 50 bases for this army, too late to change my plans :)

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  10. Pour rester dans le thème et garder le noir et le jaune comme couleurs, tu devrais t'inspirer du canton de Schaffausen pour ta 3e unité. Le bélier risque par contre de représenter un sacré challenge à peindre... ce canton à rejoint la Confédération en 1501, mais a combattu aux côtés de Zurich dès 1457.

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    1. Merci pour le conseil. J'avoue considérer lucerne et son bleu et blanc, mais pas sûr que ça marche avec les autres régiments.

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