Welcome to my army “thread”, where I will share my progress in painting an Empire army.
In essence, it should be an “Cult of Ulric” army, but because I want to play the 5th edition of WFB, and also the TOW version (although it seems less and less interesting), and also because I have a soft spot for different “iconic / oldschool” models, I’ll think of a little fluff twists.
So the theme of the army is an army lead by the Grandmaster of the White Wolf, joined by other knight / mercenary contingents.
One contingent is made of Kislevites, considering that the northern provinces border with Kislev, that many Kislevites worship Ulric, and that the cult of Ursun and Ulric remain in very good relations.
Another contingent is more “original”, because it will be made of TheAssaultGroup bear-themed humans and dwarves. According to some warhammer fluff, the older “version” of Ulric, was Ursash - hunter of bears. So another small cult / knightly order / mercenary group could be found, that uses the bear / Ursash as their patron. It should get rather well with both Ulric and Ursun followers.
So basically, because of the miniatures I want to use, instead of “pure” Ulric themed force, it will be something like a “northern crusade” army, in which few knightly orders work together, under the leadership of the White Wolf grandmaster, because he brings most of the troops and has the authority of the most important order.
I won’t use any plastic miniatures, maybe some printed ones, if they really fit the theme / I modify them to fit it.
As my dwarf and dark elf armies, already have snow bases, I won’t make goblin green bases - sorry to all the goblin green cultists out there!
First model that I painted was Arnulf “the Irritable”. The wind of Ghyr blows strong in Middenheim, so it was natural for him to learn to wield it. He wears the pelt of a bear he hunted himself, which earns him respect from the many knights in the army, which are otherwise suspicious towards magicians.
The model was pleasant to paint, although I would say, it isn’t a model that can easily achieve a “wow factor”. I tried to stay near the painting scheme that the original studio model had, but with some twists, when I felt different colors work better.
The horse dapples were a new experience for me, and generally, the only horses I painted before were dark rider steeds, all in black. So I have limited experience with painting horses - something that will probably change quite a bit, after painting 30-40 mounted models:P
The winged lancers are good, oldschool models, which also are playable in 5th edition. These are also “Polish flavor”, which obviously is an added benefit
The unit, having gryphon heads on their shields, and a great bear on their banner (not yet done:P), represents Kislev nobles, which were ordered to lend help to the grandmaster.
Painting them was real fun, although maybe painting 8 knights at the same time was a bit tedious. It takes so long to see some results, when trying to paint 8 horses at the same time… Especially considering, I wanted to paint the horses in different ways, not have them all painted in the same color. Some people would argue that it makes the unit more “cohesive”, but for me, this should be reserved for “super elite”, and winged lancers are not on that level. If I would paint the 6 edition Gryphon Legion minis, then, perhaps all the horses would have the same color and warpaint.
As “always” I aimed for a more “red period” style, than the later “realistic” style. So there is quite a lot of blue and red on the minis. This was also the first time I added small flags to each lance. All in all, I am quite proud of this unit, I invested quite a lot of time and effort to do some “extra work”. Freehand shields, few extra details on command group boots.
Next, I shall work on the horse archers and steam tank. I regard all these units / machines as stuff on which I regain my skills after a long break, so that I can bring “all my might” on the white wolf knights:)
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