Swords sold separately |
This part of my project to turn a 5th Edition
Dogs of War army into an 8th Edition Empire army (albeit a mercenary
one). Pikes will become spears, light cavalry will become pistoliers, the
paymaster will become a warrior priest (switching spiritual incentives for
material ones). I hope to have them ready
in time for MidWoffBoot ’12. (Yes, you may tremble.)
Given this lot already resemble an elite unit in full plate armour, Greatswords are the obvious choice. I’m still working on how I can convert their pikes into plausible great weapons (replacing them with the big swords from the Mordheim sprue was one thought – but I don’t have enough of them, and the ‘legs braced’ stance of all the models suggests it would look weird with anything other than a polearm).
In the meantime, I thought I’d celebrate by completely
changing their colour scheme (this may be a common thread in a lot of my
projects). I really wasn’t happy with this paint job and, as such, these poor
pikemen haven’t been featuring in any of my army lists drafts.
Here’s an insight into my battle strategy: while
some generals will pick a flavour theme and follow it, others will choose an
army that exploits the rules to best effect. After some debate internal I’ve
realised that I generally favour units based on how happy I am with how they
look. The more satisfying the paint job, the more likely they are to see table
time. As a stratagem this is, quite obviously, insane.
I’ve nothing against the sculpts. Like a lot of the Dogs of
War range (assuming we can overlook Golfag’s Ogres), the miniatures are really
well done: characterful, great level of detail and, unusual for GW humans, with
proportional heads, hands and weapons.
All right, I’ve got something against the
sculpts. Those pikes were an absolute bugger to attach: difficult to superglue
directly on, and too small to pin. By the time they were assembled, I had
already had enough of them and just wanted them out of the way. It also didn’t help
that they were the last unit in a paint-an-army-in-a-week endeavour.
Sorry boys, Daddy doesn't love ya. |
They’re also a hassle to arrange. Their poses of
pikes-pointing-forwards looks lovely and dramatic, but they tend to jab into
each other. The arrangement you see is pretty much the only way they will rank
up (unlike the other pikemen units, who have different poses for the ranks –
the back ranks hold their spears vertical in an admirable nod to heath & safety).
To get a ‘burnished armour’ effect, I just covered the whole
model in Burnished Gold, washed with chestnut ink and drybushed to finish (you’ll
notice that even the musician has bronze shoes and tights – must be comfy). The
effect looks far too gold, and tends to blend into the flesh tones of their faces.
It’s a shame, as there is some great ‘lobstering’ detail on the armour that I
think could really be made to stand out. I’m going for a darker undercoat with
lighter drybrushing, and see what that does.
The other problem is their colour scheme (bronze armour and
pink-red finishes) is the same as my other pikeman unit – The Alcatani
Fellowship. This was fine when they were the only two units in the army (I really
don’t think ahead), but for the polyglot collection of a mercenary army, I’m
looking for more distinction. Since I happen to like The Alcatani Fellowship
more, so they get to keep their colours.
So bid farewell to Ricco’s Republican Guard: The Fighting
C-3POs!
No comments:
Post a Comment