The same four models, slightly converted, and painted in the usual colour scheme, except that I have forgotten the recipe used on the bones of the previous batch. This time, I'll log things properly. So, for my now 'greyish' skulls:
We're close to the end of this regiment!
More bowmen, not exactly fun to paint (blame my colour scheme). The death crier of the regiment brought a welcome variation, even if I had to paint this damn' skull three times to get a satisfying result. Anyway, one regiment done.
And the regiment completed:
Slowly recovering my left hand, I'm working on a second unit, the archers of the White Lady.
Last year, I had already painted two bowmen to prepare the colour scheme of the army. Here are 4 additional shooters.
And the first rank complete.
As explained in my preparation posts, most of the regiments of the White Lady will have a Death Crier, who chants and reminds to his brothers-in-arms the names and exploits of their fallen comrades. The bell is meant to frighten away evil spirits, while the lantern guides lost souls.
Here is the Death Crier accompanying the spearmen:
The starting point of this miniature was an illustration of a Death Crier (or Bellman of the Dead) one can find in several books:
On the left, Richard Davey's crier. On the right, an alternative and more sinister version that I am unable to source, but that finds an echo on the front page of Les Hymnes de la Fête des Morts en Basse-Bretagne, by Canon Pérennès (1925).
I have then tried to adapt the death's-heads, cross-bones and tears on the lower half of the coat, opting for the white version, more forgiving for my badly drawn skulls 💀. Hope you like it!
Well well well... can't say things are improving on the private side. Broke my hand, useless for everything, except complaining 😜
All I could do in the past weeks was gluing pieces of cork on bases and drybrushing them with different shades of grey. You may notice that compared to the previous post, I have also touched up a few details, and numbered the skulls (that was before the accident).
Anyway. 10 spearmen now ready for battle.
Family shot:
2024 started pretty badly on the family side, and I had to stop the OWAC army painting challenge rather abruptly.
On the plus side, it means that I have now some spare time to complete a few things pending for too long. Maybe a few citizen from Pfeildorf, some mercenary dwarves from the Grey Mountains, or a couple of additions to Castle Wittgenstein. Or maybe (let's be crazy) some new miniatures. I don't know...
In the meantime, here are the spearmen painted for the White Lady. I don't think I'll be able to finish this project any time soon.
The 7th edition of the OWAC is approaching. Below two new regiments prepared to join the army of the White Lady.
The Guard is composed of imperial foot knights designed in the early nineties by Michael Perry. Since GW released only 8 different models, including the leader, the musician and the standard bearer, I have added a captain, and made a few changes, gluing icons and candles wherever I could, and swapping some heads. Interestingly, the oldest plastic sprues (the Empire Soldiers Regiment Box) provide the finest and more realistic faces.
The Death Crier of the regiment is based on the Reiksguard standard bearer model: the left hand now holds a bell-mace instead of the original sword, while the right hand brandishes the second attribute of these mysterious characters, the lantern, guiding the souls of their fallen comrades.
The Mourners are based on the flagellant models released in the 2000s. Again, I had to deal with a limited set of models (6) to build a whole regiment. On top of that, I wanted to change their traditional imagery into something closer to the god of the dead. I have tried to remove the obvious references to the cult of Sigmar, and replaced the flails by tools more fit to the Gardens of Mòrr: gravedigger's shovels and pickaxes.
I guess a Death Crier was kind of redundant among Mourners, but I still made one, using the hand holding a lamp cut from an old Citadel F5 paladin, Sir Osram, and some bits from the flagellant plastic sprues. Below the four death criers prepared for the army.
I still need to work on the characters and the war machine. See you next year for the first painted regiment!
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.
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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.
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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.
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To conclude, here's my second attempt to refine the army colour scheme.
And a last model. Not convinced by the armour, I need to rework the NMM...
