Topic: Re: Nuigen's Altdorf army. The slow progress of my 500 point army (14-08-11)

[Nuigen]

I've been building this army for some time now and decided is was time to show you my progress.

I've painted the red by basecoating with Mechrite Red, and then a topcoat of Scab Red. The blue is painted using a Mordian Blue basecoat and a Regal Blue topcoat. I think the colors look more realistic this way. I haven't done the bases for most of my units, but I'll get around to it at some point.


Great cannon with crew. This is one of the first units I painted.



Handgunners, with banner, musician and marksman. The musician have a blue feather, which is something I'll try to use through out the entire army



My General. I wanted a unique look for him, so i decided to put him on a rhinox. I think he turned out quite well.




BSB. Pretty standard.



Spearmen, with banner, musician and champion. The champion is made to look like a warrior priest and you'll notice that the musician has a blue feather. The back row isn't finished yet.



WIP Pistoliers. I used the outrider heads to make them look more experienced.



This is the preceptor for my knights. 15 others is under way, but they will not be finished any time soon.

[Kirgan]

You need highlight on skin for start they are to dark 

[ChumpChange]

Yeah I suppose you could highlight the skin a bit, but I kinda like the gritty, empire soldier look. An army of these guys painted up will look excellent.
Also, I could not help but notice the unfinished war wagon looming in the background. PAINT THAT BAD BOY UP!!! It will make a great center piece to the army. Perhaps you could use it as an altar pulled by your rhinox-riding Arch Lector. Or, it could be a stand in stank. Either way get it painted.

[anvalous]

Great start!  Your colors work well and I think with some additional highlights, they'll really pop.  It looks like you've started the process (I think the best example from the pictures is the red saddle on your radical rhinox general), but another layer, or two, might help.  I have begun to use what I call the +1 theory.  I paint to the level that looks great at the 6"-12" range under my painting lamp, then add one more highlight so it looks bright when on the table.  It's helped my painting quite a lot.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[Nuigen]

First of all, thanks for the comments.

I have been thinking about doing some highlights, but I've seen too many bad highlight-jobs, so I want to do it right and I can't really get my self to start. If you have some advice please share.

[anvalous]

Highlighting doesn't have to be complicated.  Especially on single models.  I have 2 points of advice:

1.  Thin your paints.  As you add extra layers of color, you want to be able to make a transition smooth.  I find that smooth steps in thinned paints make it easier to blend.  I've also found that an extended or general paint medium can really help this process as it maintains the paint's body, even when thin.

2.  Use your palette.  I will slowly mix my highlight color into my basecoat color to also aid in the transition.  This is the part that is easier with a single model than a whole regiment as I find controlling mix consistency is important and easier to achieve when you're actively working with the mix (avoids separation, settling, etc.).  Make sure to keep the mix thinned and gradually apply it to the raised points of your model that you want to highlight.

Hope that helps a bit... we've got several excellent painters on this site that will probably have more sound advice than I!

Oh!  One final point - don't be afraid to do a test model!  Take a RnF dude and practice before you go after your general.  It will take a bit more time, but it'll improve your feel.  Good luck and post pictures!

[Nuigen]

So i got i package today containing a chariot base that I was going to use for my War Wagon, but it turned out to be too narrow, which just shows me that I need to be better at measuring before i buy something. But I guess I can use it for my cannon.

Anyway I also got the bases for the inserts I'm going to use in the War Wagon, and it seems that 40mm square bases fits quite well in the wagon.

This is a picture of my progress on the War Wagon. Still a long way to go, but it's comming along nicely.



These Hounds of Orion also arrived today, I'm not quite sure what to do with them, but they'll probably be used as a unit-filler somewhere. I think they'll make for great wardogs because of their size and I like the way they look. They're also some of the only dogs available.

[DariusZero]

Rhinox general looks awesome, invest some more paint work on him maybe( as Avalous said). War wagon is allways welcome. 

[Nuigen]

So I've been playing some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with some friends, and I like the system. It's nice to get away from d&d 3.5 once in a while and compared to some of the other crap I've tried WFR seems like a solid system.

Anyway, I decided to paint my Stirlander character so I can use him on the battle mat.

I'm not sure that it's quite as good a paint job as I had hoped it would be. I had alot of problems with the yellow areas but it worked out in the end. So I'm fairly pleased with it.

Here's the result:











I'm going to do some more work on my war wagon soon, and I have some pistoliers that I'm going to paint which is going to be exciting since I've never painted horses before.

C&C Welcome as always

[Vredesbyrd]

The WFRP guy looks good, what career are you playing currently?

[Nuigen]

Currently Squire, going on to Veteran and then Champion.

I'm not using a greatsword yet, but I'm going to later. That's also the reason that he is carrying a sword and shield.

[Vredesbyrd]

Ah very cool, I plan on making a mini for my final career and optimal equipment eventually too. Just need to wait for the bitz to be available again on the various bitz sites. Currently a Sergeant, aiming for Black Guard of Morr.

How's the War Wagon coming along? It's a lovely old model and you're doing a great job of it so far.

[Nuigen]

Well the War Wagon went on break when i ordered the wrong base for it, and I'm currently waiting for some money to turn up so I can order the right one.

The missing mini showed up thou, so thats nice, so when I find some more 1x10mm wood I can start the inserts.

Then again I might just paint my pistoliers first.

[steveb]

make your own base, you hopefully are going to do ground work on it, so it will be covered up.  If you dont have any, you can buy thick plastic sheets cheaper than the cost of a base, or cut one out of wood and varnish it before doing ground work, so that that moisture doesn't warp the wood. you can also cut two parralell grooves int eh bottom, and that also helps the base stay flat. Or you can go to michael's or hobby lobby or any other good craft store and but wooden bases and then go from there most cost less than a dollar.  good luck steveb

[Nuigen]

Thanks alot for the advice steveb. First of all, I live in Denmark so I won't get far for one dollar, since stuff generaly is more expensive here. That being said the GW bases are not that expensive compared to the other stuff (In Denmark at least), and they're easy to work with since you can use them as they are without any preperation. I also don't have the room to do woodwork. I am going to do some sculpting on the base so don't worry about that.

[Nuigen]

I did some simple basing on my handgunners and for the time I spend on it, I think it turned out ok. Most of you probably know this method, but in case someone doesn't, I'll go through it really fast.

It is really very basic (haha), I cover the base in PVA glue, then I cover it with some GW modelling sand and flick the bottom of the base to get the excess sand off and then let it dry for a while.

I then make some smaller dots of PVA glue on the sand, I take a small ball of GW grass which I then place on top of the glue dots. To make sure it sticks I press it down slightly and if you like you can also try to get all the grass pointing in the same direction. After letting it dry for a bit, just flick the bottom again to get the last loose grass and sand off.

Ok, that wasn't at all fast, but it's faster to do it than it is to explain it.

This is the result. Not a great picture I know.




I sometimes mix the GW grass with some other types of grass, for instance the Army Painter steppe grass which is darker and more curly. This will make the grass look more downtrodden.

I know that painting the base, either before the sand is glued on or after, also is very popular, but I like the look of this easy method. And if you're a bit clumsy like me, you don't run the risk of getting paint on the already finished mini.

PVA Glue by the way is the same as normal wood glue.

[StealthKnightSteg]

Nice work on the bases, but I would recommend painting the bases first with a similair color to the sand so that the edges of the bases don't stick out so much with the black as it is now.
 
That is why I paint it and I use normal sand (from the back yard so to speak) and paint the sand aswell.

[Nuigen]

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been moving in to a new apartment, so I've had all my stuff in boxes. Yesterday i finally got all my painting stuff set up, and today i found my camera, so I thought I might take some pictures. But my hands were shaking so badly due to me helping my dad move alot of firewood, because he cut his hand on a power saw ( smart move dad... ). So I had to put the camera on the table instead of holding it, that's why the pictures are so bad.

Here's a WIP picture of one of my pistoliers, sorry again for the bad picture. There's still alot of stuff that i need to do, but I guess I just wanted to show you something.



This is some of the new stuff I got, the priest from "The Blessing of Sigmar" is for my War Altar/War Wagon, but I'm not sure what I'll do with the kneeling guy with the gun, maybe I could use him in a unit filler. If you have any ideas please let me know. I'm not sure what I want to do with the Freelancer, but I really like the mini and i decided to buy it. Maybe I'll use him as a leader for the militia I have planned, but again please tell me if you have any ideas. I've decided to use an armoured horse for the mounted freelancer, since it looks better than the old medieval horse that came in the blister.




Sorry by the way, if I write too much unimportant information, but I like telling about my uneventful life.


C&C is most welcome.

[Erik Von Karlson]

Cool, thats a good idea to use that warrior priest for the war wagon, as for the kneeling guy maybe you could use him kneeling over a wounded comrade or something.

[Nuigen]

Cool, thats a good idea to use that warrior priest for the war wagon, as for the kneeling guy maybe you could use him kneeling over a wounded comrade or something.

Not bad... I could replace the gun he's holding ( or is designed to hold ) with some normal hands. In that way I can use the gun with a standing handgunner, and make it look like some sort of weapon inspection, which could make a cool unit filler.

[Nuigen]

I finally got around to do the insert for my war wagon/altar.

It's a 40mm square base with pieces of 1x10mm wood glued on. The statue is from the chapel kit. It's very simple looking and I'm considering whether to add some more bits like torches or shields, but I'm not sure what would look good.


Here it is in the wagon.


And with the still unpainted Warrior Priest. I think it's a very nice model for a war altar, since he looks like he's preaching.



I also got around to finish a pistolier and 2 horses. It's slow progress but I'm getting there.


C&C is always welcome.

[StealthKnightSteg]

I love the insert idea for your war wagon to make it a war altar... might consider it myself if I get around to it..
 
Might need some more additions though seems a bit one sided now with only the statue.

[Nuigen]

I love the insert idea for your war wagon to make it a war altar... might consider it myself if I get around to it..
 
Might need some more additions though seems a bit one sided now with only the statue.

I actually got an idea just after I posted. I think I'm going to paint up the baby griffon from the generals kit and stick it on the back.

[Nuigen]

I went ahead and glued the baby griffon to the back of the War wagon/altar insert.



I also finished building my latest project today. The pictures aren't that good, but you can see what it is. There be more on this later on.





C&C is always welcome.

[Erik Von Karlson]

The griffon general looks awesome and can't wait to see it painted, but, why is the shield upside down? Makes him look rather silly.