Because of near-term gaming needs, and for the sake of variety, I took a break from the spearman conversions. Skirmishing pistol militia are apparently something you should have in T9A, apparently almost all Empire tournament lists have them. So apparently I need myself some.
I had a look at my old Free Company models from the good old 6e times. I have 8 models armed with a pistol (or in the case of one of them, two pistols). Not enough for a unit, min size is 10. Apart from those, I seem to have 17 other Free Company models. I decided that the pistol guys would get reassigned to become skirmishing pistol militia. The rest could be reformed into a Militia close combat support unit, maybe 15 strong or so. I already decided to give them a standard bearer (in T9A, all standards count towards CR, not just the first and the BSB), and that the emblem on the standard should be a hanging noose. Yeah, this will be a penal unit.
As for the pistol militia though, I'd need at least 2 more guys to get a playable unit. Since fielding two such units of 10 models is entirely viable and something you might do much of the time. Also, it lets me dilute the original 8 between two units. Most of them aren't bad at all, they're just rather limited in their selection of used bitz, I apparently didn't do kitbashing much back in the day. So, 12 extra skirmishing pistol militia guys is what I'll make.
I looked through my supply. I have a couple 6e militia pistols left, both the ones in the outstretched right hand and couched in the left hand. Also, it seems like I have plenty of the 7e handgunner box pistols, an outstretched puff-and-slash left arm holding a pistol, and another one held in a right hand, leaning against the shoulder. I should use those. Only that if I use the puffy ones, too many guys will have puffy arms. Better just cut it off by the wrist and stick the pistol-holding hand on another arm. When kitbashing isn't enough, convert!
Six first guys have been put together:
Note to self: When using a crappy mobile phone camera, flash is your friend, even if it isn't dark. The upper picture was taken with flash, and it just has better colour depth and shows detail better.
So I'm going to make just a few guys with two pistols, and the rest with one pistol each. Just to keep it WYSIWYG. I'm using a mix of the state troop puff-and-slash clothes and the militia. Being militia, these guys have to equip themselves using whatever, but some have managed to scavenge second-hand puff-and-slash clothes, or even bought some to be fancy. The middle guy in the bottom picture, him I envision as some kind of wannabe swashbuckler hero, therefore he has the full puffy set, breastplate, two pistols that he dual-wields, a sword and a buckler on his left hip, and (not seen in this pic) a long dagger on the right hip. My favourite so far, though, is the guy on the right in the top picture. Waist up, he wears an outfit as proper as any state trooper, though below waist, he has the most ragged pants found in the 6e militia box. I guess he blew all his money on a fancy outfit, managed to ruin the pants, and had to make do.
