CogFort E44D - Freeguild Handgunners
Description
Backing up the Freeguild Guard are the Handgunners on the ground, protecting them from frontline charges with suppressive fire or sniping chaos sorcerers from the tall towers of the Cogfort. Whats different about Cogfort handgunners weird cogrifles (yes I use add ‘cog’ to things for this army) which has upgrades to a standard freeguild rifle with ammunition clips for automatic reloading and a rotating firing clip for repeating fire. It’s the closest the Ironweld has gotten to the Corsair repeater crossbow.
Every member of a Freeguild Cogfort learn to fire a cog rifle as soon as they’re old enough to join up. There are two ways to become a dedicated hand-gunner; first through retirement from the guard. After taking enough hits, or losing some bits, as long as you have one good eye, you can join the handgunners - the feather in the cap signifies that you’ve earned your place. The second is if you’re identified as a talented shooter at a young age, at which point you may be drafted as a sharpshooter or sniper
Build
This unit was built with even fewer kits than the Cog Guard using the stock Skitarii Ranger rifles and the Guard heads. I love the Skitarii rifles because in 40k they are made to look like really old tech from Earth’s past, which means they look like slightly futuristic tech for our gunpowder and shot era of fantasy. It makes the idea of infusing magic and machine much more plausible.
This unit was made from the following kits:
Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii Rangers - Bodies & Rifles
Cities of Sigmar Freeguild Guard - Heads with Feathers.
That’s it? This isn’t like me at all.
Paint
Armor Paint Scheme
This was the first unit I tested the oxidized armor paints on. You can see 3 stages to the right. The base color is a leafy green and on top of that I use trollslayer orange to make a rusty wash that seeps into the recesses. From there I drybrush a flourescent green, and then drybrush with torquoise, leaving some of the flourescent green showing. Obviously this is the first step because it’s all over the model.
The rusted & oxidized armor becomes very prominent on these bodies, but there is a lot of cloth to break it up. I tried a few different looks on coats. Right now I’m using the blue because I don’t have any blue army…we will see.
Because the handgunners live much longer than cog guard, they get more colorful coats but they also decorates their coats. Those coats get passed on to the next handgunner person who replaces them. I’m really looking forward to painting some really cool seals and patches to show personality.
