A new army poject (part II)

One thing that I find strangely soothing when building a new army is the whole preparation process: rummaging through the boxes of lead and unfinished projects, clipping off the tabs, pining the feet, scraping and filing the mold lines. And of course... the conversions, to make sure that each model has its own personality.

For the White Widow, I have decided to pick some rarely seen models in an Empire army: the spearmen. I guess they simply sucked in terms of game, plus the fact that GW had released only four models... which doesn't help to build full regiments. Below my rather basic conversions: I have used spearheads of undead warriors, skulls, imperial heads from various boxes, and a few bones stolen to the ghouls. Two gunners have also been transformed into a spearman and a standard/shield bearer.

The more demanding model was probably the Death Crier of the regiment, who's in charge of shouting the losses and chanting the exploits of the fallen brothers in arms. Starting from the illustration of a "clocheteur", I have used the body of a standard bearer, replaced the hand holding the sword by another one holding a bell from the flagellant sprue, and the hand holding the standard by the hand of an outrider, complemented by a small handle from the Kruelboyz, and an old Bretonnian lantern.

Les rues du vieux Paris by Victor Fournel

The second unit to join the White Widow will be archers. Since there are 9 different models, I have only played with skulls and arrows, to tie the regiment to the general theme of the army. No Death Crier here, just a horn blower converted to also bear the sinister standard of the company.

 

To conclude, here's my second attempt to refine the army colour scheme. 

• The leather coat has received a basecoat of VMC Chocolate Brown, darkened with a mix of black and Chocolate Brown, then highlighted with VMC Flat Earth, and VGC Bone White;
• The belt and the pouch have received a basecoat of VGC Heavy Sienna, darkened with a mix of VMC Dark Sea Blue and VMC Mahogany Brown, highlighted with VMC Cork Brown, then flesh tones;
  
• As for the shirt, the basecoat is pure GW Dawnstone, slightly darkened with Mechanicus Standard Grey, and highlighted with GW Grey Seer, VGC Light Grey and pure white.   

And a last model. Not convinced by the armour, I need to rework the NMM...

A new army project

At the end of OWAC VI, I have to admit that I was considering building a brand new Cities of Sigmar army. But the visit of the château of Chenonceau last summer, and in particular, the gloomy bedroom of Louise de Lorraine, rekindled the "oldhammer" flame. 

After the assassination of her husband, King Henri III, Louise de Lorraine fell into deep depression, and began to dress in mourning white clothes, being nicknamed the "White Queen". In the château of Chenonceau, she covered the walls of her room with black, only decorated with shovels, cornucopia shedding tears, thorns, and white feathers (in French, "penne", for feather, sounds like "peine", for pain).  

Examples of the symbols of mourning painted on the walls

This gloomy bedroom sparked my imagination, and I started to think about a bretonnian widow, refusing the death of her husband, and going to war with his remains. For nobles dying away from home, there is indeed an ancient ritual, the excarnation, where the body is dismembered prior to boiling in wine or water. The viscera are often buried at the place of death, but the heart and the bones are transported back to the deceased's home. 

I am still unsure about the baron's remains. After his skeleton was brought back from the battlefield, will it be installed on a throne, or lie in a coffin? That will depend on my (limited) conversion skills... What is certain is that it will not rest in peace in the family's vault 💀

As for her husband's heart, the baroness decided to keep it in a jar. And while she opted for white mourning clothes, she ordered her men at arms to wear black.

Source: Würzburg chronicle, by Lorenz Fries [1]

Source: Würzburg chronicle, by Lorenz Fries [2]

The sinister look of the White Lady's army is even exacerbeted by the generalisation of excarnation to ordinary men and creatures fallen on the battlefield. The skulls of the fiercest opponents are displayed as a warning to the enemy, while the remains of fallen soldiers are kept in portable shrines by their comrades, with the promise to lie one day in the Gardens of Mòrr.

And now some colours:

I have picked one of the imperial spearmen designed by the Perrys in the early 90s to make some tests:

• for the black clothes, I use a basecoat of VGC Heavy Charcoal, highlighted with GW Eshin Grey, and sometimes VMC Light Grey, and darkened with pure black; I have also used GW Stormvermin Fur on the feet of the model;
  
• for the skintones, nothing new: basecoat of VGC Heavy Skin Tone, shaded with GW Reikland Fleshshade, a deeper brown from the Andrea Flesh Paint Set (not far from the VMC Dark Fleshtone), VMC Black Red (sometimes mixed with black), highlighted with VGC Heavy Skin Tone and VMC Basic Skin Tone (sometimes with a touch of VGC Bone White). I'm also using some reds and VMC Tan to give some colors to the lips, nose and cheeks, plus thin washes of VMC Violet ink.
• for the white clothes, I need to do more tests. Here, I have used a mix of P3 Bastion Grey and VMC Neutral Grey, which was way too dark. I then struggled with GW Dawnstone, and VMC Light Grey. Adding GW Grey Seer helped a lot to get a moother result, but I need to find a simpler way to have a clean result;
• for the leather parts, the basecoast is VMC Chocolate Brown, darkened by adding black to the base, and highlighted with VMC Flat Earth and some VGC Bone White.

You'll recognize on the shield one of the symbols painted in Louise de Lorraine's bedroom.

That's all for the moment!

More peasants

Can't help adding peasants to my Castle Wittgenstein army. The last ones. I swear.

 

Four brothers. Simple villagers, and a true cannibal.

An a total of 20 peasants:

See you soon with a new project!

OWAC VI - Conclusion

Another OWAC, another army completed. After four participations, I realize that a strong background is the key (at least for me) to keep ideas flowing and renew my interest throughout the duration of the challenge. For the lost crusade of Pieter the Pious painted in 2020, I have looked for inspiration in John Blanche's illustrations for "Blood on the Reik". For the mercenary dwarfs painted in 2021 and 2022, the illustrated chronicles of Diebold Schilling were of great help. This year, flipping through the pages of "Death on the Reik", I have (re-)discovered an incredibly rich scenario, full of weird ideas, and nicely illustrated by late Martin McKenna.

Below the pictures of the resulting Castle Wittgenstein project.

Before moving on to the next project, I plan to complement a few things: more peasants (sigh...), maybe more crossbowmen, and probably a few riders. We'll see what I can do in the coming months. 

Thanks for stopping by on this blog!

More cannibals

The 6th edition of the OWAC is over, but I had a few miniatures left I wanted to paint to join Castle Wittgenstein: some of them are particularly ugly (can't remember why I bought them 😝), and it was my last chance to find a use for them. Anyway, I present you the 5 last cannibals prepared for the challenge, plus a small Confrontation miniature. The Citadel models are C46 villagers, and F4 mercenaries, all slightly converted to try to improve their look, or to better match to the theme.

The resulting band, composed of 16 miniatures, can be split into two units of 8 fleglers, as allowed by the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book.

 

 See you soon with the final shots of Castle Wittgenstein army!

OWAC VI - More NPCs

I have started the challenge with a clear idea of who would lead this army (Lady Margritte), but no miniature to play the role. I have considered a number of female models (Lucrezzia Belladonna, several lahmias and sisters of Sigmar, some Frostgrave magicians, and even the legendary Lady McDeath), but nothing really convincing. The light came last month through a comment, pointing towards a modest lady in the medieval pack MED209 by Wargames Foundry. The miniature is fine, but I wanted something closer to the scenario illustrations, with a more menacing look or... a hood. Perfect match with Samantha Phox, a sorceress model designed by Aly Morrison in the eighties. I gave her a staff to show her use of electricity to animate cadavers. She also received an undead familiar, probably one of the mutant cats cherished by her mother, Lady baronette Ingrid von Wittgenstein. Finally, since the miniature was a little bit small compared to more recent models, I have fixed Lady Margritte on a small stone stairway. In terms of painting, the final result is not at all what I had in mind: Mrs. Santa Claus and her zombie pet...  

Well, too late for changing plans 😑. 

Among many horrors, Lady Margritte has created the Wittgentsein Monster, a composite being made up from various body parts and internal organs gently provided by the villagers and beggars of Wittgendorf. 

Regarding the miniature, the quest was easy, and (unexpectedly) cheap: the exact model was proposed with the original scenario. Regarding the painting job, we can read the following details: "deathly white skin with green discolorations on the cheeks and lower jaw". I really tried... then followed another path.

The next inhabitant of the castle is Slurd, an old (and senile) retainer of the Wittgensteins, whose left hand has muted into a bird's talon. The original miniature is actually quite pleasant to paint, and the illustration by Martin McKenna helped me to figure out how to paint his claw. With an additional month, I would have probably given to Slurd a few beggars and muted servants, and built another unit of useless fighters. For the moment, he'll be on his own on the battlefield.

 Back to Wittgendorf, and the good doctor Jean Rousseaux. Poisoned by the very warp dust he's pouring in the booze distributed to the villagers and the beggars, his skin has started to flake, and he's hiding his affliction by plastering his face with white powder. The miniature is a previously unreleased Marauder Miniatures wizard, now sold by Wargames Foundry (referenced TWW-07). I have removed the beard with a modelling knife, and tried to keep the chubby face of Martin McKenna's illustration in the first release of Death on the Reik. The flask and the rapier are small additions echoing the equipment of the NPC in the scenario. In terms of painting, the powdered face was an interesting challenge. Not sure it's understandable without the background explained above though... 

 

Lovely characters...

Using Wargames Foundry models (referenced GPR066), I have created another double-headed sheep, used as a mascot for the regiment of peasants. With the time left, I have added a few Wittgendorfers to the band. 

They either come from the C46 villagers, or from the F4 Mercenaries. Except a fixed spearhead, there was absolutely no modification on these models.

That's it for the 6th month of OWAC VI!