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

Blue's 2019 recap post!!! What a long strange trip it's been...

Hi all,

I wanted to take the opportunity to post a brief recap of my "Year in Hobby: 2019 edition"  ...since that seems to be the type of thing you do at the end of one year and the beginning of another.

It was a productive year of hobbying for me.  I painted a quite a few figures...worked on some terrain pieces...had good games with good friends ...and finally made it to BOYL for the first time.

One of the highlights of the year for me in 2019 was my participation in the second iteration of the Old World Army Challenge.  You may remember that for the first OWAC I painted up a small army of Wood elfs....this year I returned to my absolute favorite army and all but finished it off!  The Puff and Slash Dwarf army!

Imperial Army of Salsburg, Dwarf Corps, Pikes

Hi all,

Up next in our look at the Dwarf portion of the Grand Army of Slasburg is a unit that is something special...at least to me.

Seeing this advertisement in White Dwarf in 1991 was a pivotal moment in my hobby career...

Imperial Army of Salsburg, Dwarf Corps, Hand Gunners

Hi all,

Next up from the Dwarf Corps are the renowned Dwarf Hand Gunners of the Imperial Army.  These troops are drawn from across social spectrum of Salsburg with a mix of troops from the city itself as well as the surrounding areas.

The Dwarf hand gunners are equipped with the absolute best weapons that dwarven ingenuity can create.  While their human counterparts are still relying on matchlock arquebuses as the main firearm, the majority of the dwarf corps hand gunners are using either flintlock or wheel lock firearms, both of which are much more reliable than the matchlock.

These troops form a powerful team when used in conjunction with the pike blocks.  They can provide those pikes with a ranged offensive capability while the pikes keep the hand gunners safe from cavalry.

here they are:

Imperial Army of Salsburg, Dwarf Corps, Crossbows

Hi all,

This is what I hope is the start of a string of posts about the Imperial Army of Salsburg, Dwarf Corps.  Today we start with a look at two units of missile support troops for the Corps...in this case Crossbows.

The Salsburg Dwarf Corps is composed of both troops from Salsburg proper (Guard) and also troops from the areas immediately surrounding the great city (Yeoman).  While both regions produce excellent troops for the Corps there are often stylistic differences in dress between the two.  The Guard troops from Salsburg itself have more thoroughly adopted the Puff and Slash influences of the Imperial style of dress.  The Yeomanry troops from the surrounding towns and villages tend to employ the same colors as their city counterparts but with less flash and more practicality (at least to their mind).

It is between the two units of crossbow armed troops that this stylistic difference is most apparent.

The Salsburg Guard crossbows are decked out in the finest puff and slash kit that silver can buy and the troops are as proud of it as they are their own beards!

Puff and Slash Dwarf Army....The Grind Continues...Part Duex!

Back with a brief update on the progress being made on the large group of marauder puff and slash dwarfs that I have been working through.  The group has expanded to 33 figures with the addition of a three figures from the classic Marauder Pike Dwarf unit...namely the Leader, Standard Bearer and a trooper.

After being out of town for a week doing some field work I immediately got back to work upon my return.

The first things I accomplished was base coating and highlighting the many Gold bitz on these figures. 

Puff and Slash Dwarf Army...the Grind continues!

Hi all,

After the OWAC and the tremendous progress that was made toward completing my Puff and Slash Dwarf Army I have been continuing to plug away at the last troops for this force.  I am determined to finish up this army ASAP...

...to that end I've been fairly diligent about working through a large group of figures all at once to try and push this across the finish line.  So...I assembled a group of 30 minis that will fill out my existing units to their final size as well and complete an entirely new unit of heavy infantry.  This process has involved Batch Painting one of the largest group of figures I have ever tried to complete in a single go....and significant progress is being made.

However...no I've had to leave town for week to do some field work and I was not able to finish these batch before I left.

So...I thought I would get some WIP pics up on this blog to let you know what I've been working on and to help motivate me to push it thru once I'm finally back at the painting desk!  My excitement level is fading as I get down to the details so I need all the encouragement I can get!

Ok...As usual I started with Dark Grey Auto Primer for all figures...then I applied the base colors to the major areas.

Dwarf Army Progress Shots...Almost There!!

Hi all,

As most of you probably know I have spent the past six months painting frantically for the second Old World Army Challenge.  It was, once again, a grueling effort but I did manage to finish and add a significant new contingent to my Puff and Slash Dwarf Army...which is my oldest army and one of the largest.

As I was finishing the challenge and and preparing to take some shots of the entire 1000 point force that I had managed to paint...I thought it would also be a good idea to combine them with all my other Empire Dwarf figures to show the current status of the entire army.

This proved to be a lot of fun and, though the set up and prep work took some time I think it was worth the effort.  Now this army is NOT complete...several of the units will be further expanded....several have a few partially painted figures....almost all units are still lacking banners...and there is one entire unit not represented at all in these pics.  Despite these deficiencies I find this kind of photography to be very inspiring and feel that it really gives me a feel for where the army as going as well as indicating what needs to be finished up.

For this photo shoot I used two of my modular terrain tiles and a number of the houses and walls that I scratch built in the last two years...as well as a portion of the Might Fortress.  I'm still having trouble with the backdrop situation, but for the time being I used a sheet of green foam board as my backdrop...less than ideal but sufficient for now.

Anyway...lets take a look...

Here is the Dwarf line of battle for the Grand Army of Salsburg.

...Somewhere in a Fly-Over State....MONOLITH!!!

Hi all,

Well here is the second of my Photo-Dump posts.  Last time we looked at some of the excellent gaming that happened at Oldhammer in the Jerz...

...this time lets look at some pics from a slightly smaller event.

Just one week after the "Jerz Incident" I found my self on a plane flying across the country...past major Metro areas...

But ending my trip in the middle of some random Fly-Over state whose name I forget...

Here I met up with the rest of the Monolith boys (minus K) and and we quickly sequestered ourselves in the basement for the entire weekend...

...it was Glorious!!!

...it was like I was 14 again...except with much better terrain and completely painted armies!

There were games of Rogue Trader, Warhammer Fantasy 3rd ed, Rogue Ops,....we attempted to capture Ambulls and to free Frogs frozen in Carbonite.  We fought Zombies, Orks, A horde of Chaos...Squat operators...the Emperors finest, Space Pirates, exploding Dogs and all manner of other combatants.

Hell...we even played Heroquest!!!

As I said...

...it was Glorious.

Luckily my compatriots were much better at taking pictures and documenting the battles for future Blogging...to get the real story check out the following Blog posts of those more talented than myself.

Ambull Hunting
Beach Landing RT Style
HeroQuest
Chaos Vs. Dwarfs
Rogue Ops
Rogue Ops 2

I contented myself with just gaming as much as possible and having a great time doing it...

#winning

Anyway...Like I did with the Jerz event...here is a photo dump of some of my favorite pics from a really amazing weekend of Oldhammering...

Sad...

the Emperor's forces hit the beach!

Ork, Dumpster Diving

Some of the Ugly citizens of GraveSkul

Genestealers Attack!

MONOLITH!!!

Renegades Advance!

Knock Knock!

Air lifting Slann Solo to safety!

The Tiger is BURNING!!!

And on the Fantasy side...

Dwarf Main Line

PIKES!!!

Dwarf Warriors emerge from the mine

Vasken Kills my General...sigh

Classic Warhammer Armies Pose by Grove

HellHouonds

IMPACT!!

The Meatgrinder

Overhead at the start

Cav Goes in

Slayers

Snarf Snarf

STAMPEDE!

Zweihanders

 Cheers for now!!

Blue