Topic: My Bogenhafen Army Blog. (6th Edition)

[Joe Red Teeth]

In August I'm travelling to a few tournaments with my new Empire army. For the next 12 weeks, you'll see the units of my army being painted up.

It started 6 months ago when I decided to rebuild one of my old fantasy armies (My dwarves will have to wait a long time yet). Below is a picture of the start. I've finally got the other projects I've had finished and out of the way. It's full steam ahead on Empire each week until I'm done.

Feel free to critique my painting, and army composition. I'm confident in my skills as a painter, but my Army certainly isn't a competitive list.  If you can think of any tactics or use a similar (cannon free army) I'd love to learn from your experience.
I don't intend it to be competitive really, and as a fan of Nigel Stillman I will be sticking with the list until I've come up with tactics and strategies for it.

I'll show the 2,000 point Army List in the next post.

[Joe Red Teeth]

Lords

Elector Count, General (193pts)
Full Plate Armour and Great Weapon, Flying a Pegasus.
Magic Items: Holy Relic.

Heroes

Battle Wizard, Level 2 (105pts)
Riding a Warhorse

Captain, Battle Standard Bearer (83pts)
Full Plate Armour and Hand Weapon

Core

Knights Of the White Wolf, Knights of the Inner Circle. (296pts)
10x Knights on Warhorses. Includes Standard Bearer.

Knightly Order (123pts)
5x Knights on Warhorses. Includes Musician.

Spearmen (200pts)
25x Spearmen. Includes Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician.

Swordsmen (165pts)
20x Swordsmen. Includes Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician.

Special

Greatswords (284pts)
17x Greatswords. Includes Champion, Standard Bearer.
   Swordsmen Detachment (56pts)
   8x Swordsmen.

Mortar (75pts)

Pistoliers (95pts)
5x Pistolier on Warhorses.

Pistoliers (95pts)
5x Pistolier on Warhorses.

Rare

Golgfags Ogres, Dogs of War (285pts)
4x Ogres. Includes Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician.

Points Totals

193pts   Lords
188pts   Heroes
784pts   Core
549pts   Special
285pts   Rare

1999pts   Total

[Joe Red Teeth]

Some of the progress of the assembly pics of the troops;



Where I'm up to now, ready for paint;


All of the knights and Pistoliers will be painted up separately from their horses, And will be some of the last units I paint. I will allocate a week to each of the 12 components of the Army, and finish up in time for August. Some things like the mounted wizard and mortar will take much less time, allowing some extra work on the foot troops. Everything will be done after work, and on weekends.

[GamesPoet]

Quite the project!

And welcome to W-E.

[Rowsdower]

Giant blocks of troops, Just what i like to see

[TaraGreen]

Great work so far. And still a lot on your to-do list. I'd love to see pics of your progress! 

[Zygmund]

Love big units of infantry! Looking forward to see the painting progress.

But I'd say the Empire does need cannons. At least one, preferably two in a 2000pts list. The Empire Special is really crowded. You always have to leave out at least one preferred choice. Also, no BSB? There's a big risk even the Greatswords will run from combat, as Stubborn 8 isn't that good really.

There's a minor problem in the army composition:

Greatswords (248pts)
14x Greatswords. Includes Champion, Standard Bearer.
   Swordsmen Detachment
   8x Swordsmen.

A 14 strong parent may have max. 7 strong detachments.

Also the Swordsmen Detachment is a Core choice, even when taken as a detachment. So don't count towards Special. (This doesn't really matter in the 6th-7th eds. where the army composition is about slots, not percentages.)

-Z

[Joe Red Teeth]

Well, that just ruined my day. I HATE modifying lists.

The lvl 1 wizard will be swapped for a BSB. Magic items will disappear to add 3 more Greatswords.

I like troops and having as many as possible is the way I like to play. I should have invested in a BSB to protect the one part of the army I enjoy and use well. The extra wizard wasn't going to do much and realistically armies are either heavily invested in magic, or they're not.

I won't be manipulating the list further. Tweaking army lists is something that can be done forever if you're not careful, and moves lists closer and closer to the 'agreed upon standard'. I do appreciate your input Zygmund and you have made the rarest of victories: Changing my list.

Tomorrow I'll post a test model, with the steps used to paint it up in Bogenhafen colours.

[Joe Red Teeth]

Finished a sample model I like, so will order in extra paints. This week will be doing final checks in case Greenstuff filler is needed on models (General's Pegasus for sure), and then start priming.




1. Undercoat with Scale75 'Ice Charm' Primer. (almost white primer, has a slight cold blue tint)
Zenithal highlight with Liquitex White Ink
Gloss varnish.

2. Leather painted brown; straps, belts, scabbards, shoes.
'Blued Armour' painted with paint mix of  1:1:1; blue, black and Vallejo Boltgun metal.
Sword, hilts and shield painted with Vallejo Boltgun metal.

3. Cutting in with 1:1 blue & white, to fix mistakes of dark paints spilling onto cloths etc.
I think this is a really important step. Dark Colours that spill onto light colours at this stage reduce the quality of the final model.

4. Purple cloth painted with 1:1; Scale 75 Sunset Purple and Glaze medium
Feather painted with 1:1:1; Scale 75 Sunset Purple, Glaze medium, Fluro Pink
Gloss varnish.

5. Flesh painted with 1:1; Vallejo Dwarf Flesh & Vallejo Pale Flesh.

6. BIG STEP, oil washes, All oils mixed with Abteilung 502 Matt effect thinner
Winton Lamp black over all brown items and Blued armour
Extra thin Winton Lamp black on feather
4:1 Winton Cobalt Violet Hue & Lamp black over all purple
Abteilung 502 Copper Oxide Blue over all white.
1:1 Winton lamp black & Winton Burnt Umber over all gunmetal
Winton Burnt umber on parchment and face and hands
Matt varnish.

7. Black on beard
Eyes done
Army Painter Shining silver highlighting any metal, inc. Blued armour
White highlights on all cloth and hat
Vallejo Tinny Tin & Army Painter Greedy Gold for any badges, trinkets etc.

8. Fluro Pink drybrush on feather (wasn't bright enough, wanted it slightly different hue than clothes)
Goblin Green Base
PVA Glue & Citadel flock
Victory lap around base with black.
Matt varnish.

[Archilector_Malaga]

Nice colour scheme and great job!

[Orfeo_Culzean]

Very promising, I will follow the project with interest and wish You inspiration! 

[Joe Red Teeth]

My General with Great weapon, on Pegasus.

The General wasn't too much bother, the only work was drilling out Luthor Hoss's head so I could drop in a nice bald one. I didn't like the metal crown the original model had. I also re-positioned the hammer as well as drilled and pinned it.

The Pegasus was a bit of nightmare, I couldn't get the pose I wanted for a while, I ended up drilling all the way up through its legs into the body and running two 1.57mm Brass rods into them and then into the bass. Greenstuffed a higher angle saddle so the general wasn't leaning back.

All the Bretonnian nonsense was chiseled off the model using a Master Tools 3mm chisel.

I don't really like the plastic wings of the Bretonnian Pegasus, they're far too wide and I didn't think it'd fit too well amongst units. I replaced the wings with some old Wood elf Great Eagle wings. Each wing has two sets of pins at different angles, to make sure they can't be knocked off. Drill holes were hidden with Greenstuff putty, and some putty work to blend the new wings into the body. Despite it being a plastic horse with tall metal wings, it isn't top heavy or unstable.

Quite happy with it, Next bit of work this weekend is gluing in 100+ Neodymium magnets into bases, then Priming 30 Spearmen. I'll work on them throughout next week, after work each evening, and should have them posted next weekend. 



I can't write very well on bases, so I like to write the position numbers of troops on small pieces of paper and glue them under the base, before I glue magnets in.

[Rowsdower]

Great job on the general. Sounds like a chore to assemble

[TaraGreen]

Nice work! 

[b0007452]

Awesome work pal - Will follow this closely, as a fellow Bogenhafen general