The original unit that inspired my Projects of Shame was the Empire Company of Honor. This was one of the "famous units" presented in the Uniforms and Heraldry book that GW Published during Warhammer 6th edition. A Warhammer take on the historical "color plates" reference books for historical wargaming (and general military history). Sometime back in...2016(?)... I was flipping through the book and when I stopped on that page I immediately knew I needed to recreate that unit. It set me on a long odyssey to find miniatures that were reasonably close to these guys in the picture. I ended up buying probably 8 packs of Wargames Foundry landeskneckts and other renaissance billman, just to find 16 figs that were close enough (and I bought some packs of bills and halberds). You can see in this picture where I was trying to decide between a GW banner bearer and a Wargames Foundry banner bearer. I went with the Foundry fig because he was holding it up in the air, like the picture.
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| The final completed unit |
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| Not a great picture, but a different angle |
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| Another angle |
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| This picture was too dark... |
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| This picture was...slightly better? |
The order of these pictures got messed up when I uploaded them to Blogger, so try to follow along. When I looked at the banner from the artwork, I knew that banner was gonna be a problem. I have gotten much better at freehand-painting banners, but not good enough to tackle that thing. So...Internet to the rescue! I found this banner for Stirland. Then I found a Java web app recreation of MS Paint, where I uploaded the picture, and with some liberal use of the Fill tool turned the background from green to red. Then I printed it out and it was "close enough."
 | | "Triumphant" on this side of the banner |
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| "Altdorf" on the other side of the banner |
Most importantly for me, this unit, this project, is "done". It's inspired by the artwork, and I think it's good enough. I had to do a couple of head swaps and add a few plumes here and there. I am happy that I finally followed through and completed this unit.
The unit looks great. I like how the hero and the standard bearer are positioned to be looking at each other, like the are exhorting the other on. Excellent work.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, always nice to see homage to an official unit but with the players/gamers own take on it.
ReplyDeleteHave you given them any stats yet?
Do you play?