‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Army Showcase: My Brettonian Exiles Conversions
Today let’s take a look at my Warhammer: The Old World converted Brettonian Exiles army and how I built them. It’s hobby time my friends!
It’s no secret that I love the Old World. I think its an amazing game and an amazing hobby. Overall I think its one of the best GW games, and just plain games, out there for hobbyists. The freedom the game allows for some stunning and fun armies. There is so much conversion potential that its just a ton of fun hobby-wise. Now I myself love converting models and armies, and did just that for The Old World. I figured I’d show off how I built the army and what’s in it. Today lets take a look at the characters and some extra objectives.
The Converted Brettonian Exiles Army
Back at the end of 8th Edition I was working on a heavily converted Empire army. The end of Warhammer Fantasy shelved that project, but I kept bits of it around. When ToW started I read about the Brettonian Exiles and got very excited. I’d always want to run that kind of Mercenary force, so I started to work repurposing my old project. The army is very loosely based around the real life mercenary company known as the White Company, led by Sir John Hawkwood. It’s supposed to represent a force fighting in the Border Princes, while it’s led my Exiled Brettonians and Empire Nobles, they mostly fight for money. I mostly use them as Brettonian Exiles, but the army is designed so that I can use them as Empire or Renegade Crowns as well (I’ve been doing a lot of Crowns lately).
Some of the army’s lore from a recent narrative event.
One of the conceits in my own lore is that the Company worships both The Lady and Sigmar, seeing them as the ultimate power couple, so you’ll find icons for both in the ranks. Pretty much every model in the army is converted, with very few exceptions. Its also all made of GW parts/bits (with the exception of generic hobby bits). I did all the conversions myself and came up with the paint schemes, but a good friend of mine does the painting, as I am not much of a painter myself and kind of hate it. So I don’t want to take any credit for the actual paint job. With that said lets look at the army.
Characters Overview
Starting off we’ve got the characters for the army, which have some of the least conversion work in them. They include a Two Barons/Dukes on Royal Pegs, a BSB on foot, horse and Peg, a Baron on horse and various wizards on foot and mounted.
Pegasus Barons
The two Peg Baron have relatively little conversion work done. The first just has the “broken blade” conversion, while the second, (My General Jeanne) has a head swap from an AoS model. The head comes from the Freeguild Command Corps.
The BSBs
The BSBs are supposed to be the same person at various points/loadouts, so all use the same head (from AoS again). That’s the only conversion for the Peg BSB. The other two are completely scratch built. They use various Foot Knight and Empire bits, as well as the made to order Bret BSB standard.
The body for the foot BSB comes from the Foot Knights, as does the army. The banner comes from the Empire troops, but the topper is again Foot Knights. The head (that I used for all) comes from the Freeguild cannon. The cape comes from the Empire general box I think, and there are a few other randoms. She came out looking kind of posed like Boromir from Lord of the Rings. I think its pretty good, but wish I could have done more to armor up the one arm.
Her mounted version is mostly made of pistoleers (legs/horse) and amour knights for the toros and helmet/arm. The head is AoS again. The banner is Bret MTO, however my copy came without the army/pole to put it on, so I made this from the Empire General lance.
Mounted Baron
The body of the mounted baron comes from the Bret made-to-order again. The horse is from the Empire General set, with a Pegasus head to change things up a bit. I used a few pistoleer bundles to cover up the rear.
Wizards
I’ve got a pair of mounted wizards for the force. The Damsel is the metal damsel but swapped over to a pistoleer horse to better fit the army. A very simple conversion, but effective. The other wizard is made from a pistoleer horse/legs, flagellant body/head/arms and a sword/staff from the plastic empire Wizards. I think it makes for a pretty fun frazzled outcast wizard.
I think these might be the only three models in the army with no changes made to them. The damsel is just a metal damsel. The middle wizard is from the AoS Freeguild Command Corp again. I think she makes for a pretty cool “dark wizard” vibe. These Brets will do anything to gain power to get back their homes, and working with some questionable wizards is on the table.
Lastly I’ve got an old empire Witch Hunter that I’ve been using as a wizard for like 25 years. I just ended including him in the army because he’s a bit of a good luck talisman for me! You can see he’s not even on the right base, but sometimes tradition wins out.
Objectives
The baggage train is something I had a lot of fun building. The cart itself is made from some wood for a little hobby lobby kit. The wheels are TK chariot wheels, and the horse is the original horse that my mounted damsel game on. I then just filled it with bits and bobs, some wooded barrels and weapons and shields from Brets and Empire sets. You’ve even got a Cathay barrel in there (from the ogre loader) since the army is supposed to be made up of all types. I added a lot of wine, since when I play the army I dress up as a wine merchant!
Lastly a made up a few objectives on 40mms. These are again a mix of faction stuff. I really am happy with the dying Orc (from Empire archers) at the Crossroad sign (from the Empire Manor). A few hobby lobby wood barrels, with weapons and shields from Empire, Brets and even Cathay made up another one. I used a gryphon from the Empire manor and the angel thingy from the Empire BSB for another. Lastly I used bits from the foot knights, Empire Knights, pistoleers and Empire Archers to make a knight praying at a roadside shrine.
I really like how this one came out as it’s pretty evocative to me. To fit the theme of the army its supposed to be an Empire knight praying at a shrine to the Lady. I think this is a great example of the little bits of storytelling that Old World encourages you to do.
Inspiration For All
Anyway, that’s it for today, hope you enjoyed. I don’t claim to be an expert at converting things, but I do find it to be a lot of fun. Hopfully this can help inspire some people and show off what you can do with ToW bits and armies. And I know there is still a ton of the army left. So next time I’ll show of the rest of the army and what I’ve been working on to expand it.
Let us know what conversions you are working on, down in the comments!
