Stonewall Street's Stuttering Flying Start - Rank and file #1 (323 pts)

And so into 2022. The sheer optimism of living in the modern world and living in a country that isn't run by a crime syndicate washes over me.

Ahem.

But I'm already one twelfth of the way through. And hey. It's World Cup year. That always brings joy and peace to jolly old England.

People have been telling me not to overdo things. Just ten minis a month. Slow and steady. But I happened to have the chance to get off to a good start, and I'm not the kind of person to roll over ten minis I painted this month onto future months as a safety net.

After much faffing about around whether I would just paint a few units off the workbench, I thought I would concentrate on a division of my dwarf army that had both visual cohesion and also looked like they might be hardened and experienced mercenaries.

I dug out a bunch of "puff and slash" dwarfs that had sat around for some time, some of them since the 90s in case of the Marauders and some more recent from the White Knight and Runecast Ranges, as well as a few from the old Harlequin range now available (if you're prepared to wait) from Black Tree design.

A few years ago I saw an article in one of the Wargames magazines about a mercenary unit called the "Black Band" that (I think) were from Saxony but fought for the French. I liked the combination of dark armour, red and black cloth. I made up my mind to make a unit of two- handed  swordsmen for my dwarf detachment, ignoring the fact that - as far as I am aware - the real Black Band were largely pikemen.

So I've painted the first eleven. Eleven may sound like a weird number but the unit will be 21 strong and fight in three ranks of seven. Odd numbers keep Blue happy. As do the black base rims.

So on to a sad story. About five years ago I painted half a unit of puff and slash crossbows. The plan at the time, due to the fact that I had acquired a few multipart White Knight models was to boost the unit to twenty (my preferred number). 

At a gaming tournament of a game that I will not mention, I not only tipped the "troop" of ten off a movement tray onto the floor, but then later dropped the same unit down a stone staircase.

As a result I "put off" the second ten, simply because I knew that there was no point until I repaired, partially stripped and repainted the first ten.

I'm fairly proud to say that I have done both.

Due to the fact that the first ten this month were "repair jobs" (even though that was actually far, far more work than actually buying the models again and starting from scratch) - I won't be counting them in the OWAC or the points cost. I just thought that a precious few of you - and both readers of my BLOG - might like to see the whole unit with the newly painted chaps and the repaired and part-stripped and repainted stuff included.

To make it truly Oldhammer, I had in my mind a design for a banner I wanted the crossbow unit to have. An Orc or a Half-Orc tied to a stake being peppered with quarrels. Somewhere in the back of my mind I seemed to remember Aly Morrison using a similar image on a shield for the "Arcane Armorials" decal set.

Wanting to make all my detachment banners free-handed tapestry style renaissance pieces I stumbled across the fairy tale of San Sebastian, from which I assumed Aly took inspiration for his shield design.

I'd go into more detail if I had more time - but I don't, so I won't.

Next month I'll be finishing the "Black Band".

Month 1 Rank and File:

x11 "Hammerers" (Minus shields) including musician = 180 points (probably)

x10 Crossbows including standard = 143 points.

Total = 323 points.

21 dwarfs done.