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!

OWAC IV - The Hammerers - Part I

After the paymaster joined my mercenary army last month, I had to protect him with some hardened bodyguards: the MM16 hammerers. 

Although they are among the best sculpts of the Marauder dwarfs range, I've always found these models quite difficult to integrate into a Renaissance army, as their heavy armours don't fit with the puff and slash style of the MB1 pikemen or MM15 quarellers. The second thing that made me hesitate for almost three decades is the fact that the helmets and ornaments are very different from one miniature to the other: not so easy to build a consistent regiment with such various models.

Finally, I have solved my self-inflicted problems by imagining that each clan would provide one champion to the bodyguard unit to 1. defend the paymaster and his precious cart, and 2. ensure that the other clans don't get to close to the gold. So, instead of having a unified theme for the whole regiment, each bodyguard will bear the colours of his own clan. 

Keeping in mind the parallel between the Dwarf Clans of the Grey Mountains and the Old Swiss Confederacy, I have used the coats of arms of the eight first cantons composing the federation. Below, from left to right: Glarus, Zug, Unterwalden, Schwyz, Uri, Zürich, Lucerne, (Unterwalden again) and Berne.

 

For the canton of Glarus, a dwarf ancestor replaces Saint Fridolin on a red field:

 

For the forest-canton of Unterwalden, I have replaced the white-and-red key by a silver key on a red-and-white field, whose colors matched the metallic feathers on the helmet. 

The white cross on a red field is directly inspired from the coat of arms of the canton of Scwhyz:

And I have painted the colors and coats of arms of the cantons of Lucerne and Zug without any modification:

That's it for the first rank!