Marienburgers, pirates and other rascals

[Duke Donald]

Hi All,

I have started digesting the new Empire book and it inspired me to start a new army. It will be a mercenary army hunting treasures around the world, and in particular in Lustria (which will give me some fluffy reasons to fight lizardmen). As the title of the thread says it, the army will be comprised of Marienburgers and pirates but also a variety of exotic allies that have joined them in their past voyages in Araby, Cathay and Africa.

So far, I have a painted a captain. This is a mini I always liked but never knew what to do with it. I also wanted to include some demigryphs in the army but don't like the models much. Thus, I decided to go for rhino-riders. As I had a couple of mournfangs lying around, I recycled these. I haven't decided on the riders yet but I'll probably go for a Sub-Saharan African look.



Please let me know what you think. I'd be particularly grateful for suggestions/criticisms on the rhinos and ideas for the riders.

[Grain Weevil]

Hehe...although my hearth bleeding on the sight of full GS-covered mournfangs, thats a lot of good work here! I really like the rhinos.
As about the riders the sub-Saharan theme will fit well, I think.
And the captain thats one really good looking man

[Duke Donald]

@ Grain Weevil
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you like the rhinos. I felt a bit guilty when I covered the first two mournfangs, but couldn't resist buying another two and doing the same to them. I could have built the armature instead but using the mournfangs saves me some time. It also ensures they're all about the same and have similar proportions. That said, the amount of greenstuff I had to use may have costed me nearly as much as the mournfangs, despite the fact that I buy greenstuff in bulk. I've started working on some details, here's an update.

The captain with the warhammer is an amazing mini and the details are so crisp that it essentially painted itself.

[Student]

Great idea for counts as demigryph riders. I look forward to seeing them finished.

[Duke Donald]

@ Student
Thanks for the encouragements. It may take a while until they're done.

Anyway, I made some progress on the rhinos and have started working on a test mini for the riders.

[Mohaniker]

Love the Demigryph idea, can't wait to see how they turn out. What is the rest of your army going to be made up of? I'm attempting a similar Marienburg force, there are so many possibilities with them.

[Duke Donald]

@ Mohaniker

Thanks for the nice comments. I'm still not entirely decided where this project is going. However, I want to include the Huricanum and possibly the Luminark as contraptions on the back of an elephant. For the infantry, I'm planning to include pikemen converted from greatswords counting as spearmen and probably some Araby archers.

The general idea is that the burgers of Marienburg have become anxious with the changes they're seeing in the army of the Empire and the increasing costs of recruiting infantry (i.e. the new book). Thus, They've charged one of their most trusted generals to travel the world and recruit the most exotic mercenaries to match the power and prestige of the Empire.

Several units which I have in mind, including the rhino-riders would also be fitting in the Araby army I'm planning to build in the long term. They could also have a place in a "colonial Empire" army.

[Astraeos]

Those Rhinos are awesome, so awesome I gotta subscribe!

[Duke Donald]

@ Astraeos
Thanks for the praise; this is much appreciated. Sadly I haven't made any progress on them since my last post but I'm planning to get back to them soon again.

In the mean time I can just show the first five WIP minis from a pikemen unit.

[nando_cadiz]

They are great. They are a great job. I think I would use rubber brushes perfect to get smooth skin of a rhinoceros. You use them???

[Boreas_NL]

Wow! Those Pikemen are awesome! Tall Pikes, lots of booze and great use of Greatsword bits, I might have to try and use those arms for my Pikemen, too...

Consider me subscribed!

[Astraeos]

Nice use of Greatswords, I like the guy drinking!

[Duke Donald]

@ nando_cadiz
Thanks. I'm still trying to find the inspiration to add details on them, but I'm looking forward to finishing them. I've never used rubber brushes to sculpt but have heard good things about them. I mostly use the standard GW sculpting tool. However, to get smooth surfaces, I use water, and when I'm unhappy with the finish, I dip the sculpting tool in a bit of olive oil (I guess any oily /greasy substance would do).

@ Boreas_NL
Thanks a lot for the nice feedback. I feel flattered you can draw some inspiration from the pikemen, as I got a lot of it from your plog.

@ Astraeos
Thanks for nice comment. I really like the greatsword kit. The pose, sculpting and amount of details is so much better than for the statetroops that I found it difficult to use any part form other kits.

I've managed to paint three of them and have started working on the other two. As I liked them I tried to improve on my usual rushed paintjobs. I hope it shows but any suggestion for further improvement is most welcome.

[was1974]

Those Pike men lookcool. I have the idea for helbadiers from great swords already awhile. I was thinking of using the great swords amrs too. But you convinced me. They work perfect. Great job on the Rhinos. I know how hard sculpting can be. Keep up the good work, I will keep watching

[Astraeos]

Nice work on the pikemen. I like how glassy you managed to make the bottle.

[Duke Donald]

@ was1974
Thanks, I agree greatswords make great state troops; a bit expensive though! But the problem then becomes what do you use as greatswords if you want to field some in an Empire army. Thanks for the encouragement on the rhinos.

@ Astraeos
Thanks again for the nice comment. I spent a long time on the bottles using numerous inks and washes but what make really does the trick is the final coat of gloss varnish. I suspect a simple paint of red and green, followed by highlights and a liberal green wash followed by a glossy coat would lead to a result close to this.

I've now finished painting the first five pikemen. As soon as I have some hobby time, I'll start converting another batch of five.

[Boreas_NL]

Oooh, painted pikes! Brilliant result! I agree with Astraeos on the drinking Pikemen and the bottle, both look great!

As for what models to use for Greatswords, you could try and get your hands on some of the classic models. I have a horde of both metal classics (4th and 6th edition) and they fit in without a problem. Ebay could well be the sollution you're looking for... Although you should/could expect to pay some serious money for these models.

[Astraeos]

Nice to see the finished Pikemen! If you need Greatswords that will look different from your Pikemen then maybe you can come up with a groovy counts-as conversion? Off the top of my head you could get some Marauders, swap the heads for the Middenheimer ones from the Empire knights, remove the Chaos Iconography, use the flail arms but replace the chains with axe or heads, maybe sculpt on some extra armour, perhaps use the fur cloaks and there you go! Norse Huscarls from a tribe that doesn't worship the chaos gods that have come in to the Empire seeking work as mercenaries.

[Morglum Necksnapper]

Your models look exciting, converted in a very good way. The paintjob is great too! Are you planning on converting all your models or are you mixing them with straight out of the box models?

[Duke Donald]

@ Boreas_NL
Thanks again for the nice feedback. I agree there are some nice Greatswords from earlier editions. I like in particular 6th edition ones. The main reason why I'm not buying more from ebay is that I always feel the need to convert my minis and can't stand working with metal. That said, it was more a general comment on teh problem of using Greatswords for state troops. I'm not even sure I want to build Greatswords at the moment; I like the concept of the unit but I still fail to understand their cost in gaming terms.

@ Astraeos
Cool idea! That said, I'd like to do some Norse Berserkers at some point but would probably have them counting as flagellants. However, I would rather start from Ungor or Flagellants bodies as I don't like the current marauders.

@ Morglum Necksnapper
Thanks for the nice comment, I quite enjoy converting minis and I tend to convert essentially all of them to a certain extent. However, I obviously put less work in the back ranks.

As I mentioned before, I like the Greatsword kit, but something has always been bugging me about their proportion. I appreciate that GW minis are heroic scale and while I have no problem with the oversized heads, hands and feet, I find the legs are generally too short. Thus, I decided to lengthen the legs of a few minis by about 1.5 mm. I've added an unconverted body on the right to show the difference. The increase in height is minimal but I feel that it greatly improves the general proportions. What do you think?