Imperial Artisans ... The Painters, Crafters & Writers Guilds > The Brush and Palette

Frippery & Vacillation - an Empire army between Carroburg and Altdorf

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PaxImperator:
Way back in 2000 when I was 12 or 13, I got the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th edition starter box, the one with the orcs and the Empire. I’ve been in love with the Empire ever since. They were my first army. The puffy sleeves, the floppy hats, the ostentatious feathers... For me nothing quite hits the spot like Empire state troops. This thread documents the journey of rediscovery that will hopefully ensue as I reassemble, repaint and expand my Empire army of old.

This actually isn’t the first time I’m revisiting my Empire army. I initially painted the army in 2000 in the early stages of WHFB 6th edition. The colour scheme I chose was the blue and white of Middenland. I was in my early teens and it was my first army. Mistakes were made. I mostly painted the models in flat colours. No highlighting or shading. I wasn’t very diligent in removing mould lines either. I didn’t play a lot of games with the army either because I was soon distracted by Warhammer 40K 3rd and later 4th edition.

I came back to the Empire later during WHFB 6th edition. I'm not sure of the year anymore, but it must have been before WHFB 7th edition was released in 2006. By then I was in my mid-late teens and had much more hobby experience under my belt. I’d collected a sizeable Imperial Guard army, a decently sized Skaven army and expanded into a few abortive hobby projects like a small Space Marine force, the odd squad of Tau and Kroot and so on. Just your regular case of teenage lizard brain. Maybe it was the release of the Skaven army book in 2002 that rekindled my interest in WHFB? Whatever it was, it made me want to improve on the first iteration of my Empire army. By then I had long ago transferred from white to black primer, so out came the chaos black rattle can and I sprayed a number of painted Empire regiments black. The new colour scheme would be the red and black of Carroburg*.

* Which technically probably wasn’t accurate because the red and black uniform is a special distinction earned by the Carroburg Greatswords, heavily implying that other Carroburg troops wear different colours. But hey, red and black is a pretty cool colour scheme.

The Carroburg army would see quite a few 1,000 point pick-up games of WHFB 6th edition at the local Games Workshop. It’s from this period especially that I have fond memories and I look forward to making some new ones now that I’m coming back to the Empire.

Why am I even doing this? Quite a few reasons:
- I have a burning nostalgia for the 2000-2006 period that I hope to soothe.
- The army as it currently stands is unfinished: some 2,000 points still in Middenland colours or unpainted, approximately 1,000 points in Carroburg colours.
- I’ve decided that for me the only good Empire army is a brightly coloured one. Red and black over a black basecoat just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

All of which brings us to the following picture, showing my progression as a painter of Empire miniatures:



Going from left to right:
Crossbowman, c. 2000: Among the first 50 models I painted. White undercoat applied unevenly. No highlighting or shading. Missed a few spots. Plenty of mould lines. Awkward pose. I did thin my paints though! He’s finished except I never applied the green flock to his base.
Halberdier, c. 2000: More of the same, only slightly better. Probably among the first 100 models I painted. I even accidentally shaded the figure by thinning my enchanted blue way down! Never finished him though.
Spearman, c. 2006: He used to look like the models on the left, then I spray painted him chaos black to repaint him. I had learned to shade and highlight and had stepped up my basing game too. My brush control had improved too.
Free company fighter, 2022: After a hiatus of a decade or two, I was ready to get back into the hobby. Ordered a lot of Vallejo paints and set to work on a model I’d previously sprayed black but never painted in Carroburg colours. I still had to relearn a thing or two about painting. A lot of this model could be better but I’m not unhappy with him, all considered. This model really drove home to me that I’d have to work from a white undercoat if I was to get the vibrant colours I wanted.
Halberdier, 2024: After that free company fighter it took me two years to work up the courage for another Empire miniature. In between I practiced on other models, mostly Napoleonics. Very happy with how this one turned out. I think I'm at about the same level again as when I went on hiatus around 2008, which is very gratifying.

Here are some close-ups of the new test model.



I opted for Altdorf’s colours of red and blue. As a secondary, err.. primary colour I’ve added yellow. Because how often do you get the chance to use all three primary colours on a single model? The exact colours aren’t definitive yet. I want to try a few different formulations for the red and blue. Red's still such a hard colour to paint! I’ll also definitely try a different colour for the halberd shaft. I think the reddish brown detracts from the red of the uniform. I could go for a grey, a dark brown or a yellowish brown. The model's base, of course isn't finished yet.

If you'll excuse me, I have another 9 halberdiers on my desk to give a brighter future. Looking forward to sharing my progress on this project with you as I go. :)

PaxImperator:
Yesterday I set myself one simple task: Finish another test model and make sure it's a failure. It's the first time I'm approaching a model like this. My thinking is that it might be freeing to make failure my express goal because it lets me experiment and make guilt-free mistakes that I can learn from. (And then correct!) If I'd always played it safe I'd still be painting my models in flat colours like I did back in 2000. In particular, I wanted to try another way to paint the blue parts of the uniform and to put so much yellow on the model that it would drown out the red and blue, just to learn how far I could go with it.

Yesterday was a failure (and therefore a success?) but not in the way I had envisioned. Just as I was about to start on my second test model, a little voice in my head said: Wouldn't it be more efficient if you painted the skin on all 9 halberdiers at the same time? You already know how you're going to paint the skin anyway. Fair enough. So I get the other halberdiers out and am reminded they are all still black. OK, so I'll have to undercoat them first. Fine. But wait, they're still covered in mould lines! Can't have that, can we? So I get out my hobby knife and start cleaning off any remaining mould lines. But wait, says the voice in my head again. Wouldn't it be great if they had a few more feathers in their caps so you can paint them bright yellow? Yes, that sounds reasonable. So out come the glue and the bits box, and I set to work gluing feathers to hats and helmets. But wait, the Empire bits in my bits box are intermixed with goblin bits! Wouldn't it be great if they were organised properly? Well yes. So I start reorganising my bits box.

Having done that, just as I finally glue on the last feather, I realise there's a gap between one model's torso and arm. I really should fill that gap, shouldn't I? So I get out the green stuff and fill the gap. Not a bad job considering I hadn't touched green stuff since the late 2000s. But wait, there's some left over. What do I do with it? I know! I'll sculpt a purity seal on this one halberdier here. It'll be mostly obscured by his halberd so no biggie if it's not perfect. So I do that and am just admiring the result when I realise I have some more green stuff left over. No problem, I'll try sculpting on an extra bit of puffy trouser leg on this other halberdier. What could go wrong, right? Some thirty minutes into sculpting the puffy trouser leg I despaired of my chances of getting it right before bed time, so I cut my losses and scraped the green stuff off. As I was doing so, I remembered that green stuff has a curing time of 24 hours so there's no way I can still base coat the models white today. So instead, I just paint the skin on the second test model. As I should have done instead of listening to that little voice in my head. At least I now have an organised bits box and 8 models ready for priming!  ;D

Anyway, here's what the next 8 halberdiers look like:



The second from the left has the filled gap and the first from the right has the purity seal.

My mission for today and tomorrow will be to paint up that test model and not get distracted. Wish me luck!

Tiberius:
I also burn for the hobby from the period of 2000-2006.  I was also 13 in 2001 and got hooked on the hobby. I remember looking through my friends GW terrian book and my imagination being swept away looking at all those old 5th edition models.

Also, you hobby sessions sound a lot like mine, though I usually spend at least 15 minutes look for some crucial but missing piece or tool. Frustrating because during this time of my life I don’t get many of them!  Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the journey!

Rowsdower:
Great job on the halberdier. It screams 'Mid 90's'

PaxImperator:

--- Quote from: Tiberius on July 16, 2024, 04:55:22 AM ---I also burn for the hobby from the period of 2000-2006.  I was also 13 in 2001 and got hooked on the hobby. I remember looking through my friends GW terrian book and my imagination being swept away looking at all those old 5th edition models.

Also, you hobby sessions sound a lot like mine, though I usually spend at least 15 minutes look for some crucial but missing piece or tool. Frustrating because during this time of my life I don’t get many of them!  Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the journey!

--- End quote ---

Thanks and welcome aboard!


--- Quote from: Rowsdower on July 16, 2024, 02:13:03 PM ---Great job on the halberdier. It screams 'Mid 90's'

--- End quote ---

Haha cheers! I can see why you'd say that, what with the sculpt itself, the bright red uniform and the goblin green base.  :biggriin: I'm hoping to propel them a few years into the future with the base, which will be sand and static grass. I'll take mid-90s as a nice starting point though.

Anyway, I have succeeded in failing spectacularly. Let me show you a work-in-progress shot of my second test model:



My mistakes:

- The yellow stockings were probably a mistake. They draw the eye to the model's ankles, which must be the least interesting part of the model.
- It doesn't take much yellow to overpower the red and blue. The yellow hat and stockings are already pushing it. I kind of saw it coming when I was going to paint the jacket, so opted for buff instead of yellow. Which leads to:
- Buff goes terribly with yellow. Won't be using that paint again.
- I tried painting the eyes with a dark brown dot, a white dot inside of that and finally another brown dot inside of that for the pupil. Found out the eyes are just too small for me to do that.

Other learnings:
- Painted the blue with an additional layer (50/50 mix between base tone and highlight) and discovered it's now brighter than I'd like. Will stick to the original recipe.
- Painted red ink over the base red colour, which brightens it noticeably. Happy with the result and will use this technique on future models.

A side-by-side comparison between the finished (bar bases) test models:




Next I'll try some more variations in where I apply the red, blue and yellow on a few more test models. Stay tuned!

Finally, for my own future reference, I used these paints:

Model 1Model 2Yellow:72.006 Sun Yellow basecoat, AP soft tone shade, 50/50 72.006 Sun Yellow/72.001 Dead White"     "Blue:72.021 Magic Blue basecoat, 72.088 Blue ink, 72.023 Electric Blue highlight"     " + 50/50 Magic Blue/Electric Blue highlightRed:72.010 Bloody Red basecoat, AP strong tone shade, 72.009 Hot Orange highlight72.010 Bloody Red basecoat, 72.086 Red ink, 50/50 AP dark tone/AP speedpaint medium shade, 72.009 Hot Orange highlightBlack:70.862 Black Grey basecoat, 72.091 Black ink shade, 70.836 London Grey highlight"     "Skin:72.041 Dwarf Skin basecoat, AP Flesh Wash shade, Dwarf Skin highlight, 72.004 Elf Skintone highlight"     "Wood:72.044 Dark Fleshtone70.874 Tan EarthMetal:77.712 Steel basecoat, AP dark tone shade, 77.724 Silver highlight77.712 Steel basecoat, 77.724 Silver highlight
All paints are Vallejo, except AP (= The Army Painter)

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