Reiksguard Unit Complete!!

 For my January submission to the Call of the Crown painting challenge I have produced a unit of 15 Reiksguard knights to act as the elite heavily armored warriors of Salzburg. 

This unit consists of all metal Reiksguard models from the 1991 release with the Armored Halberd hero added as the leader of the unit because I think he fits stylistically. The "original" hero of this unit has been demoted to unit Champion and he sports the golden armor to recognize his considerable skill.

Here is the complete unit...

...and here is a look at the individual ranks...

Front Rank

Second Rank

Third Rank

For shields I chose to use one from the old Marauder Fighter shield sprue...which has also supplied shields for my Bretonian halberdmen (the stag shield), and there are still plenty more options that I'll employ where needed in this army.  For example I'll probably use a different one from this sprue for my spear unit.

For the unit banner I have combined the two common elements of the other Salzburg Regimental banners.  The human units tend to incorporate the "Imperial eagle" motif, and the dwarf units tend to display the "Mountain and sunburst" emblems.  As this unit will represent the Warrior elite of Salzburg it incorporates both elements into one banner.  In hindsight I should have put the white eagle on a red background instead of blue...as it would contrast with the other half of the flag better...but oh well.

I do have the figures to increase this unit to 20 troops...but they would be non-traditional Reiksguard figures from the Marauder fighters range, and one classic Citadel foot knight...what do you all think about incorporating these guys into these classic models? I can't stand the idea of inserting any more copies of the existing figures...so these would bring a certain amount of "diversity" to the ranks.

Next up I'll be moving onto another unit of halberds and some missile support for these infantry units.

Cheers,

Blue

Armored Halberdmen

 I've recently transitioned to working on my puff and slash Empire army.  These units will join my puff and slash dwarf army to represent the Human Corps from the City/state of Salzburg. I'm Participating in the Call of the Crown 2 painting challenge as motivation to get a good amount of these figures painted in the next few months.  

First off the desk are the Armored Halberdmen (Human Linebreakers in Oathmark). This unit is composed of all metal miniatures dating from the early 1990's released during the slow transition from 3rd edition WFB to 4th edition.  While I really appreciate the older more ragamuffin nature of the earlier Empire range (and will be using them for militia units in the future) its these figures that I fell in love with when they were released that I think of when discussing empire troops.  Its taken me quite a awhile and considerable amount of coin to collect the figures for this project but its long term goal that is fun to check off. 

From the excellent Empire range of Halberdmen released at the time I have chosen to form this unit from only those models that are wearing heavier armor...all the others will be part of another lightly armored unit. this has meant the use of several duplicate models...so I've attempted to add as much diversity to this unit as possible by modifying a few of the figures and incorporating "non-traditional" troopers like the bloke with the hook halberd from the War Wagon model.  I've also chosen to use one of the fantastic Marauder Reiksguard figures as this units leader because he is outfitted with a Halberd and doesn't really fit with my other Reiksguard figures.

Here is the completed 20-man strong unit Photographed in front of the wonderful backdrop from Trish! 😍

and here are some pics of the back ranks.

...and here is a separate shot of the Command section and two troopers which constituted my December submission for the painting challenge.

Lots of really amazing sculpts in this range and they were a lot of fun to paint.

Next up I'll be working on a Reiksguard infantry unit.

Cheers,

Blue