Thursday, January 21, 2021

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).

21 comments:

  1. WOW! Very nice. Great choice in minis. Looking forward to seeing the completed army

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  2. Fabulous! Love the striped pants!

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  3. Mind blowingly good....I love every one of them

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  4. Excellent work! And you are right, MM10 has some serious buck teeth...

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  5. Nice work sir, I look forward to seeing more.

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  6. Absolutely stunning. Excellent job.

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  7. I had begun to organise some of my dwarfs into a small Landsnecht force, so I am watching what you do in the way of conversions closely 😀 as ever my friend, just superb!! Love that standard bearer 😍

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    1. Thanks. Check Nico's Realms of Chaos blog, his conversions are splendid.

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  8. So funny !! I was painting yesterday with Nico, and talking about you to, I didn't know you mentioned him above ahah (I speed read you message). Your dwarves are amazing, you did a wonderful job !

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  9. Lovely work as always sir - the standard bearer is particularly splendid!

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    1. Thanks! Not a fan of the flag, (lacking contrast), but thanks anyway :)

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    2. Gotta say painting convincing looking banners with the right amount of contrast and highlights on a more 2d surface is one of my bugbears too although I think the tassels do a great job of distracting the eye in your case ;)

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  10. Great job as ever! Nice subtle conversions again, and those peacock feathers really help tie the unit together.

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  11. Wow, these are sublime! Amazing paint job on beautiful models. Love the colour scheme and the soft but clear highlights. The peacock feathers and the striped trousers- very flamboyant. Not to mention the nmm on rank and file models. Excellent work.

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  12. These are outstanding. I love the modified gunner. Would it be possible to know where the modified halberds weapons are from?

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