Dark Skies Over the Harrowmark, Part 3

Pecker's Haven, Captain Pecker & Ysh Ma'el

How Gregorius Pecker came into possession of the island that was to take his name, nobody really knows. What all skyfarers of the Harrowmark know is that he and his ghurish monkey, Fetch, are surprsingly good at manning the cannon and swivel gun should a ship refuse to pay Pecker's mooring fees. Many also claim that, in the fumes of the grog that Fetch regularly supplies to its master, the retired captain tells with spite of the great sky beast that took his left hand and leg.
If this story is true, probably only Ysh Ma'el knows. But those that ask him, soon find out that the wizard is half-crazed and the only thing that they can get from him are incoherent mutterings of impending doom and of ghostly lights surrounding Pecker on the deck of a ship.
So it is that the pirates and sailors of the Harrowmark skies leave the two men alone, happy to at least have a place where warm grog is never in short supply.

Pecker's Haven drifting close to Blackrock

Gregorius Pecker, Fetch and Ysh Ma'el

Marking some hundred or so students' essays absorbed quite a lot of my time, but I got there. My floating island is finally finished!

For the house I went for a palette of greys, rather than the red roof and white walls of John Blanches' paintings appearing in Games Workshop publications. This way, it ties better with Saul's Harrowmark buildings and it remains close to what largely inspired the Harrowmark, Blanche's Voodoo Forest black & white drawings.

Everything else, was painted using the same combination of greys, browns, greens and aged metal.

Finally, I have rebased and touched up the painting on Captain Pecker and the other long term resident of Pecker's Haven, Ysh Ma'el. I made them ages ago, to be a Pit Fighter and Warlock for my Dwarf Pirates, when I used to play them as a Mordheim warband. Since the Dwarf Pirates were repainted to fit into the Free Companies of the Gilded Hand, Pecker and Ysh Ma'el had languished in a box, still on their square bases.

Pecker, being an old metal model, didn't quite fill a 32mm base (my favourites for human-sized models), so I've added the Powder Monkey from the Free Guild Handgunners.

Ysh Ma'el is a Battle Wizard, with the crystal ball swapped for the astrolabe from the same kit, a greenstuff hat and a resculpted sleeve. Funny thing is I can't recall why I resculpted the sleeve...

Now, the question is whether to build a crew for them and make them the central characters for our sky battle (whenever that will be!). The alternative is to keep them as NPCs and instead build a ghostly ship and crew to serve Kalyustar...

Free Companies of the Gilded Hand - 8

Lord Captain Rodrik

Rodrik Harlsjen has never shown any inclination for the subtlety of magic and politics, although he could count a score of ancestors in the inner circle of the Gilded Hand. And yet, he now sits at their inner councils as their foremost military advisor. He rose to prominence at the head of his own Free Company, Rodrik's Valiants, during the final stages of the Season of War. In a series of running skirmishes, the Valiants hunted down the plague-ridden servants of the Horned Rat that had infiltrated the Pen, the shanty town were merchants grots, mercenary orruks, maneaters and other unsavoury but useful types are confined by order of the Gilded Hand. Over the following months, Rodrik's men one by one fell to unknown diseases. But their captain's skills at inspiring a rowdy bunch of militiamen recruited from the populace of inner Venithya did not go unnoticed. In the years to follow, Rodrik was tasked to lead both small and large armies and has secured new trade routes, cleared pockets of Chaos worshippers and repelled marauding orruks more than any other general in the payroll of the Gilded Hand. As the Season of Woe begun, the old veteran was quick to realise that the unquiet dead were the real threat and made sure that all men under his command were ready to fight such an unnatural enemy. It was this foresight, and his unparalleled skill to inspire the soldiery by fighting in the first line, that earned him the title of Lord Captain and his position within the Gilded Hand. As magic itself seems to be dying in Chamon, the alchemists of the Gilded Hand trust that Rodrik will keep their mercenaries as an effective bulwark against any force menacing Venithya.

The inspiration for Lord Captain Rodrik comes from both the cover of the Dogs of War Army Book and the model of Roderigo Delmonte, Captain of the Alcatani Fellowship.

The body of the Freeguild General on foot was already perfect to represent both the model and the illustration. The kit also comes with a nice head with an eye patch. For the arms, I used one with hammer from the old Empire Knights of the White Wolf, while the one with dagger is from the Empire Militia with a hand swap and a dagger from the Freeguild Handgunners. Finally a pelt, again from the Knights of the White Wolf, and a pistol from the Duardin Thunderers completed the base model.

Of course, the pelt is of a wolf, while I wanted to have a lion, and the head is bald, while I needed long flowing hair. That's where the Green Stuff came handy. The hairs were easy. The lion's head required trimming down the long snout of the wolf and then resculpting the details. In the end , the lion looks like one of those you see in Buddhist temples, but that's fine! All kind of animals exist in the Mortal Realms, right?

When it came to paint the model, I kept the dark copper of Roderigo, but turned it into burnished gold. together with the red on the clothing, this ties Rodrik with my other Freeguild Captain, Aldrik Tarsyn. From the illustration, I kept the streak of blonde hair, but turned it white. I reasoned that, together with the beard, this would be a nice hint at the time that has passed for that character. Think of it, that illustration is now twentyone years old and the World-that-Was is no more...it would be strange if the character still looked the same.

Because of the golden armour, painting the lion pelt in natural browns will have created no contrast, so I went for a black and white striped pattern. This also allowed me to differentiate between Rodrik's hair and the lion's mane.

With him, my Free Companies are almost done. There is just one more companies on the painting desk. Stay tuned, as I want to finish them before the new edition hits us!

Free Companies of the Gilded Hand - 7

'Young' Aldrik Tarsyn, Castellan of Iridiumspire

Unlike most officers in the Free Companies, Aldrik Tarsyn can not trace his origins to a family of true Venithyans. Rather, he was born in the Sprawl, the slum that spread around Iridiumspire since the end of the Realmgate Wars to host the reclaimed tribes of the Glittering Plains. Luckly for Aldrik, Karol's Cuirassiers had recruited from his people through the entire Age of Chaos, and at the age of sixteen he was able to leave the Sprawl and join the Iridiumspire garrison. He quickly distinugished himself among the ranks of the Cuirassiers for his recklesness. It was during the purge of the Irongrove Brayherds that this side of his character led him to charge, alone, the gor pack that had felled Castellan Valmont. Picking up the banner the old veteran had carried, Aldrik charged his stallion into the gors. Seeing the young men bashing horned skulls in with the ironwood haft, the faltering lines of the Free Companies rallied and charged back into the fray. As the gors routed, Aldrik was hailed a hero and Karol himself recommended him to the Gilded Hand Elders for the role of Castellan. The first ever soldier to become Castellan before the age of twentyfive, he has however proven to be a skilled commander, over time temepring his recklesness and developing a keen flare for strategy. Yet, he still regularly rides with the Cuirassiers, accepting Karol's half-mocking remarks about his age.

As an officer in the Free Companies, I gave Aldrik golden armour, but I kept his horse barding in the same colours of his former regiment, glossy black and brass. As always, I've added touches of red and yellow on the reins, tassels, caparison and flag. To break things a little, I've painted Aldrik's clothes in green, creating a contrast I really like with the burnished gold of the armour.

I've also painted the rest of the Cuirassiers, swapping the red on Voland's Venator feathers for yellow. As Pistoliers don't have shields, I needed to find another area that I could paint white. As my bases are in a shade of brown, going for the original brown horses would have resulted in little contrast (something that the rearing stance of Aldrik's stallion prevented) so the horses were the perfect spot to use some white and stick to the original colour scheme.

They, and the rest of the Free Companies, have had their blood baptism as an army at the latest Triumph & Treachery event at Warhammer World. Stay tuned, and I'll let you know how things went.

Free Companies of the Gilded Hand - 6

Aldrik the Young, Castellan of Iridiumspire

Aldrik is the first Freeguild Hero I'm adding to my Free Companies. This time around I just worked with the bits I had without trying to replicate any of the classic Dogs of War models. I had the Freeguild General kit and I'm planning a Freeguild General on foot to accompany Fernando's Fancy Fencers, the Venithyan Marksmen and a few more infantry units. So, the mounted general was the perfect opportunity to give some support to Karol's Cuirassiers.

This meant that Aldrik needed a pistol. I had one in my bits box attached to a satchel, from the Pistoliers I think. I clipped away the satchel and handle and glued the barrel to the Freeguild General's arm holding a mace. I also gave Aldrik a banner since I intend to use the General on foot as my army general in larger games, and a Stately Warbanner is definetely a nice addition. Because I want my Free Companies to look as mundane as possibile I swapped the angel of death banner for the banner from the Imperial Knights. I've choosen the skull with laurel top as it perfectly matches the laurel and skeleton on the horse crest. Finally, since I'm keeping the General's heads for my unit champions, I've emebellished a Freeguildguard's head with the feathers from the same kit.

As I was working on Aldrik I've also built the rest of Karol's Cuirassiers, as planned using the Imperial Knights bodies and the feathered helms and pistol arms from the Freeguild infantry.

I'm still working on the details of Aldrik's backstory, but meanwhile you can (re)read that of the Cuirassiers here.