OWAC V - More crossbowmen

Back to my Swiss mercenar... sorry Grey Mountaineers, with a second regiment of quarellers, led by Wilhelm Tellson, renown for the deadly accuracy of his pistol crossbow... or the unbelievable luck of his page, Walter Swiftfoot. 

Of course, any ressemblance to legendary swiss characters is purely accidental...

Tell's Apple Shot - Relief sculpture around 1523 - Swiss National Museum

All the marksmen are clothed in the BlackHorns colours of black and yellow. A short summary of the colours I've used:

• Yellow: basecoat: VMC Plague Brown; shadow: GW Reikland Fleshshade and P3 Bloodstone; highlights: base + VMC Pale Sand and Ivory, then pure Ivory;
• Black: basecoat: VMC Extra Opaque Heavy Charcoil; shadows: GW Contrast Black Templar; highlights: the base + VGC Bone white; 
• White: basecoat Andrea white paint set (darkest tone); shadows: TMP Strong Tone shade; highlights: basecoat + VMC Ivory or VMC Sky Grey;
• Red: basecoat Andrea red paint set (2nd tone); shadows: VMC Dark Red and GW Contrast Flesh Tearers Red; highlights: VGC Hot Orange and VMC Basic Skin Tone.
  

In terms of miniatures, Wilhelm Tellson is a conversion of a MM11 champion, where the original handgun has been replaced by a pistol crossbow. 

 

 

The Swiftfoot brothers are MM64 halflings, transformed into musician and standard bearer. 

The other quarellers are basic MM15 models. 

The resulting rear and front ranks:

 

The whole band of apple shooters:

 

With this regiment, my collection of painted Marauder crossbowmen can be considered (almost) achieved! 

Next month, I should complete the 40 mandatory warriors with 10 additional pikemen.

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).