The Marauder Pike Dwarfs were, and are, some of my all time favorite figures from the Golden Era. They are the figures that hooked me as a child and continue to do so today. Though they have been long discarded by modern Warhammer Bullshit fluff they will always hold a holy place in my Oldhammer dwarf army.
After completing the MM15 I pulled out my current pike unit...a 15 strong force that is mostly sporting paint jobs dating to the Regan administration. To these I added another 13 unpainted pike dwarfs and this is the resulting unit.
28 seems like the right size for a true pike block!!! No one likes a puny pike Block! Four ranks of seven will provide a formidable force on the field and act as a major deterrent to any mounted troops looking for easy infantry to pick off.
I'll be using my painted MM15 and some of the modular Marauder dwarfs for the front rank...in addition to the command section of course. I've also chosen to switch out the dwarf fife player that originally came with this unit for the MM15 drummer...who is one of the greatest Marauder sculpts ever...period. In hopes of diversifying the unit as much as possible I will also be converting a couple of crew members from the Marauder Siege gun into pikemen and adding the wounded MM15 dwarf (to stand under the banner in the second rank, as well as the MM15 with the Halberd to act as the sergeant in the back left rank.
My real question for this unit is what to do with the old Paint jobs...? The painting isn't bad...but it is not up to my current standards...but it is done....its a tough call. I think I will attempt to "freshen" up the paint jobs on the rank and file guys with some washes and highlighting...particularly for those in the back ranks. For the Commander and the standard bearer that will be front and center....I will probably strip those and start from scratch. I will however preserve the banner to use as a guide for its replacement.
So...time to get these guys primed and on the table! I feel some batch painting coming on!!!
Oh wait!!! There's more!!!
Not being satisfied with having one pike block....I've decided to add a second to my army....this one composed of White Knight Dwarf pikemen (now owned by TAG miniatures). I've painted a few of these back in the day...and while they fit very well with the marauder pikes...they are slightly larger than their marauder cousins....therefore I've decided that they need to be in a unit of their own.
I'll run these as the elite pike block with slightly heavier armor....to represent this I've picked mostly helmeted heads for these troops. This did require stealing some helmeted heads from a variety of WK troop types including some of his mounted light cavalry troopers. All in all I think this will be an impressive and HARD hitting regiment when it is complete.
have a look...
Oh yeah!!!! that is gonna look good on the table!! and scare the shit out of ABG's Stupid Chaos Cav!!! :)
Anyway...stay tuned....this winter is the puff and slash season!!! I would really like to make significant headway on my dwarf/empire army this winter before some anxiously awaited releases by Clam of his Ewal Dvergar Boar Riders...which are bound to divert my attention when they hit my mail box.
Anyway...cheers for now!
Blue
Nice! I always resist the temptation to repaint. For myself I feel that done is something to not take lightly and I like to see how I've progressed as a painter. Still not enough, but some. I did the same with my Broken Bone Boyz banner. My Clinton, or was it George HW, era banner was complete shit. But I used it as a starting point for my current one. I think your compromise of freshening up some and repainting others may be the best compromise.
ReplyDeleteYeah these are also based to a decent standard which would make stripping them even more painful...so I'll touch up what I can and hide them in the middle and back of the unit...:)
DeleteI look forward to seeing your progress with these!
ReplyDeleteawesome looking unit. Agree with Sean that sprucing up old models may be preferable to stripping completely. With so many unpainted models in my collection, I try to resist the temptation to strip OK-looking models until everything else is painted to a decent standard (which will probably be never!)
ReplyDeleteAgreed...I'll make them work...they are not terrible and can always be concealed if needed. At the same time I expect this unit to be a "centerpiece" unit...so I want it to look GOOD!
DeleteI totally agree with you, Blue, about the iconic nature of the Marauder dwarf pikeman. I can still remember being a kid and looking at the way they held the butt ends of their pikes in their palms. Just that little touch made them memorable and unique in my mind.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what you do!
I love the old Marauder Dwarves. The Long Beards are my favorite, but they all look good. I would finish unpainted models before repainting older models.
ReplyDeleteMan now I want to have some pikemen! Should I convert some into chaos dwarfs?
ReplyDeletePfff and my cavalry isnt even worried about these stunty little toothpick holders. I will crush them under steel shod hooves!