Jaeckel Alone

Another simple conversion of a Marauder Miniature Troll Slayer: the horns are from a Beastmen plastic sprue, the gong is from the old Zombie plastic sprue, and the hammer/bone is just a blob of Milliput fixed onto the former axe handle.

In terms of paint job, I used the same range of colours as on the previous models.

 

And that's it! Still the two most difficult miniatures to paint before considering the unit complete: the standard bearer and the champion 😛

 

To be honest, painting these miniatures is less pleasant than I expected. Blame their age, and possibly a recast on some of them, leading to blurred details and rounded edges. Another point of insatisfaction is these damn bases, which I have reworked once again, ending up with my usual 'moss and stone' recipe. And finally, I am not comfortable with my choice of colors. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the muted tones used for the AOS Slaves to Darkness 'official' miniatures to paint my models. Well... too late 😑

On the plus side, I really enjoyed converting basic warriors into the hornblower and the standard bearer. Speaking of the banner, the rune circled by the Chaos symbol means 'Wanaz' in Khazalid - or in Old Worlder, a 'disreputable Dwarf with an unkempt beard'. In short: the signature of a band of very bad boys. 😁

Extract from 'Dwarfs: Stone and Steel', an Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplement by Alfred Nuñez, Jr (2002)

 

One of the pleasures of searching inspiration in historical references is to browse old books online. Lucky me, the history of the Old Swiss Confederation was covered by several chronicles, including the Tschachtlanchronik, the Chronicon Helvetiae (Part I, Part II and Part III) and the Illustrated Chronicle by Diebold Schilling of Lucerne (Luzerner Schillling). Hundreds and hundreds of illustrations to contemplate, find colour schemes, ideas for banners, and more generally, anything that can make your regiments stand out. 

For this second month, my initial plan was to paint the content of the MB1 box as is, using a very Swiss color scheme, white and red. But I've learnt two things from my unit of halberdiers: red is not an easy color, and the black & yellow couple works quite well. I have therefore opted for pikemen from the BlackHorns clan, whose coat of arms shows a black auroch's head on a yellow background... yep, you've probably recognized the coat of arms of the Canton of Uri. 

Once decided for Ur... sorry BlackHorns colors, something I couldn't avoid was the famous hornblower, wearing the bull outfit!

Luzerner Schilling - Detail of page 74

My first attempt is a conversion from the hornblower of the MM11 command group: I have simply swapped the original instrument for a bretonnian bit, and added two horns stolen from a Chaos Marauder. 

The second model is based on an MB1 pikeman: I have trimmed down his hat, given him horns (again from a Marauder's helm) and greenstuff ears, and equipped him with a small horn (another bretonnian bit). Et voilà!

I think the second model better captures the original idea. In any case, both will join my regiment of pikemen.

And here is the musician of my regiment of spearmen. I've slightly converted a Citadel Imperial Dwarf by replacing the original axe by a weapon from Hasslefree Miniatures. In my opinion, it works quite well. What do you think?

I know, I know, I was supposed to finish my crossbowmen then... Bam ! Clam announced the theme of the final Brush Slave League round: cavalry... Not exactly good news for a dwarf painter :(   

Fortunately, White Knight has just released two packs of dwarf knights. Their style is clearly inspired from Renaissance armies, but by avoiding fancy plumets, I thought I could give them a medieval look (and I was wrong).

Anyway, my first painted knight was the musician of the band: not much to say, except I've filled the hole in his helmet to avoid adding a crest on top of it. Contrary to my previous dwarves, I've decided here to use pure black mixed with Dark sea blue to deepen the shadows of my NMMs. I'm reasonnably satisfied with the result, except the trumpet, to 'flat', and the flag, because I've been unable to paint a decent black cross on it...

Hurray! We're close to the end of this unit! I had several possibilies for the musician of the regiment, since I've got 3 different hornblowers equipped with an axe. But finally, I've chosen this norse drummer, which carries a nice two-handed weapon in the back.

This model is great and I really enjoyed painting it.