JohnR's Estalians - Heroes of Might and Magic (632 pts)

 Leaders (and cannon) Month. 

Born the penniless son of Estalian fruit sellers, Diego Monte decided at an early age that peddling oranges in poverty wasn't for him and ran away to seek his fortune in the New World.

Decades later, Don Diego El Comte Del Monte (as he now calls himself) has returned. Commander of  the Galleon 'War Bastard' and captain of a powerful mercenary company.

Del Monte (pictured here with his army standard bearer Matias) is everything a mercenary captain should be: ruthless and brave but with a strong streak of pragmatism and a keen sense of self preservation.

This month I painted command groups for the crossbowmen and handgunners too:

Crossbowmen

Handgunners

The army has also acquired a cannon - probably from the deck of the War Bastard.

The cannon's name is Isabella. (She's named after the gun captain's eldest daughter). She's powerful and dangerous and the gun crew love her, though they admit she's pretty ugly. The cannon's not that good looking either.

Accompanying the army is the Magister Santiago Espinosa 'The Fray Bentos' and his assistant Pedro.

'Fray Bentos' is an honorary title from the Estalian College of Sorcery, of which Espinosa is a senior member. His years of study have given him great power but recently he has become obsessed with his own mortality and has begun to dabble in the dark arts in an attempt to delay the inevitable. So far Espinosa has managed to keep his new knowledge secret, though it has cost him an apprentice.

Pedro is Espinosa's new apprentice. He suspects that his predecessor might have learned an unpleasant secret about his master and that his death may not have been an accident. Pedro is clever and ambitious and determined not to suffer the same fate.

El Comte Del Monte: Level 20 Human Hero, light armour, shield, warhorse: 114 points
Matias: Level 5 Hero, light armour, shield, warhorse, army standard: 89 points

2x Tilean Crossbowmen (+2 Missile Elite) inc Standard : 36 points

2x Bandolleros Gringos (+1 Missile Elite) inc Standard: 33 points

'Isabella': 3 Man Cannon: 60 points

The Fray Bentos: Level 20 Human Wizard: 240 points
Espinosa knows the following spells: Battle Magic 1: Leg Breaking, Ignite Missiles, Enthuse, Cause Animosity. Battle Magic 2: Raze, Lightning Bolt. Battle Magic 3: Animate Sword, Cause Fear. Necromantic 1: Hand of Death, Zone of Life. Necromantic 2: Control Undead. Necromantic 3: Life in Death.

Pedro: Level 5 Human Wizard: 60 points

Pedro Knows the following spells: Battle Magic 1: Immunity from Poison, Cause Animosity, Fireball.

Here's how the army looks now:

I've almost run out of stuff to paint. I had planned to add a couple more regiments to the army but they're not Estalians and I'm worried that they won't really fit. Maybe I'll just mulligan June :-)

JohnR's Estalians - Count the Hooves and Divide by Four. (414 points.)

Rank and File Month 4 

My late uncle's go-to joke when we had to count sheep or cattle in a field.

Feel like I made good progress this month.

Estalian Caballeros led by Rocco 'The Tilean Stallion' Sindaco.

Among an army of swaggards and braggards Los Caballeros are the most boastful and rambunctious of the lot. Rumour has it that Rocco shares a certain characteristic in common with his horse. His comrades joke that he's a mutant; but the luckiest mutant alive!

Border Horse - 'Los Escorpiones' led by Estofado De Carne.

Invariably found in the vanguard of the army the life of a cavalry scout can be brutally short. On the upside, with a little luck, you can be the first amongst the enemy's baggage train and first in the queue at the whore house at the next town.

Rocco Sindaco: Level 10 Human Hero, light armour, shield, lance and warhorse: 66 points.

9 Estalian Caballeros (+1 Shock Elite): light armour, shields and lances, standard: 200 points.

Estofado De Carne: Level 5 Human Hero, light armour, shield, spear and warhorse: 40 points.

5 Border Horse: light armour, shields and spears, standard: 108 points.

It's starting to look like an army :)

The plan is to do characters next. Though I'll probably wind up painting more rank and file 😂

JohnR's Estalians - I need re-training (313 points)

 Rank and file month 3

A month is too long. After a couple of days I've forgotten my passwords, how to use blogger, the settings on my camera, what the OWAC rules are, the name of my missus and where I left the dog...

Anyhoo, here is this month's offering:

Estalian Hombres Villanos led by 'El Destello Corazón!'.

Mystery surrounds this infamous swordsman. Some say he's the illegitimate son of the Emperor Karl Franz and an Estalian serving wench. Others that he's seeking the six fingered orc who killed his father. Whatever the truth he's a dashing swords-master: irresistible to women, deadly to his enemies and adored by his men. 

'El Destello Corazón!' Level 15 hero, light armour and additional hand weapon: 83 points

21 Hombres Villanos +2 Shock Elite, hand weapons, light armour and shields, standard and musician: 230 points

The army so far:

Not sure if I'm allowed to post a group shot yet. If I'm not I'm sure The Overlord will delete it. Like I said: I can't remember the rules 😁

JohnR's 252 points, not bad for an evening's work.

Rank & File month #2

 I'm kidding of course.

Actually this month was a bit of a slog so I'm pretty happy to have added 22 mini's to the army:

It helped that the crossbowmen were started in January :)

These comprise the bulk of the army's missile troops and are used as skirmishers, or to support the infantry blocks in battle. As such they don't have their own command groups, though I might add these later.

10 Tilean Crossbowmen (+2 missile elite), light armour and crossbows: 120 points.

12 Estalian Bandolleros Gringos (+1 missile elite), light armour and handguns: 132 points.

Total: 252 points

Onward and upward, bring it on March !

Jaeckel's Dwarfs - Rank & File II - The pikemen (132 points)

For this second month, my initial plan was to paint the dwarfs 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!

Standard bearers are probably the most time consuming models in a regiment, and this one was no exception. Starting point:

Chronicon Helvetiae Part I - Page 230

And final result:

 
Another idea I found in the illustrated chronicles Luzerne Schilling is based on the following picture:

Luzerne Schilling - Page 123

Not sure of what these hairy men are supposed to be, but the beards tinted in the colors of the Cantons is a nice touch I had to try... with mitigated results I would say.

Nothing much to write about the other models:

My second rank:

And the full unit:

So, 10 pikemen with musician and standard bearer make 132 points...

I'll see if I can make more points next month!

Jaeckel's Dwarfs - Rank & File I - The halberdiers (144 points)

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 quite 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 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

The standard bearer is a conversion of the MM15 halberdier.

Moving on: the white cross mentioned in the introduction. I love his gigantic 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).

Paul's Border Princes Wrap Up Post

Well, 2020 might have been a complete global disaster, but at least my Border Princes force turned out pretty much as I'd intended, although it has certainly grown from the original 1400 pt list in my Intro Post

I know we are supposed to impersonate Big Bad Brian, but I went more HG Wells on this one ;)

Here's the monthly run down.

Month One:

10 Human Archers -100 pts
10 Human Archers - 100 pts
9 Human Crossbowmen -90 pts

Total for the month = 290 pts

Month Two:

Halfling Hero (Light Armour, Pistol, Hand weapon) - 69 pts
Halfling Wizard - 56 pts
Halfling Halberdier Champion - 34 pts
Halfling Halberdier Musician - 13 pts
Halfling Hot-pot Catapult - 50 pts

Total for the month = 222 pts

Month Three:

Human Hero (Light Armour, Flail) - 68 pts
11 Human Halberdiers inc. Standard Bearer (Light Armour, Shields, Halberd) - 120 pts
Dwarf Hero (Light Armour, Sword, Pistol) - 110 pts
10 Dwarf Thunderers (Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Handgun) - 130 pts

Total for the month = 428 pts

Month Four:

Human Cannon and 3 crew - 100 pts
Dwarf Cannon and 3 crew -110 pts
Human Wizard - 56 pts

Total for the month = 266 pts

Months Five and Six:

26 Halfling Halberdiers (inc. Standard Bearer) - Light Armour, Halberds (6.5 pts each) = 175.5 pts
14 Mixed Race Greatswords - Light Armour, Two Handed Sword (9 pts each) = 126
Great Sword Champion (Light Armour, Two Handed Sword) =  34

10 x Halfling Goat Riders (proxy for Kislev Horse archers) - Shields, Bows, and Hand weapons (16 pts each) = 160 pts
5 x Knights Panther - Barded Steed, Heavy Armour,  Shield, Lance, Sword (39 pts each) = 195 pts
Army General - Barded Steed, Heavy Armour,  Shield, Sword = 108 pts

Total for the months = 798.5 pts 

Grand Total = 2004.5 pts

And the close ups (apologies for the pictures on the potato phone) 

"What, no Ogres!?" I hear you cry... alas not, but they are definitely something to add in the future. However, I have made a start on a baggage train/civilan contingent with these halfling villagers and livestock I picked up from Foundry at BOYL last year (*sniffs* I'm sat here typing this on the weekend we should have been nerding it up in Newark :( )...

...with a view to fielding this guy! :D

WIP for August - he'll be painted up in the same red-cream-brown colour pallete as the rest of the army

Who said the OWAC was dead!? Long live the OWAC!