Hello all!
It seems like every time I post some pics here I start off with "pay in mind it's been SO long since I've last painted...". Maybe it's true then - I haven't really painted that much or regularly for years!
Thankfully I got really interested in Warhammer again through that ancient gem called Dark Omen. Check it out if you haven't. It was loads of fun and reminded me of the better notions of Warhammer. And then a mate came back from his around-the-world trip by January and immediately fired up a local leagueish tournament.
Which was super loads of fun, but that's a story for another time.
I think I posted some colour scheme musings of my Ravenguard of Arcanschloss a month or so back, but I don't remember what I wrote back then. Anyways, the story goes like this in a nut shell: Arcanschloss lies in the more remote parts of Western Talabecland, and was devastated by one of those undead incursions that plague Empire occasionally. The invasion was thwarted easily enough, but Arcanschloss was overrun before the empoeror had time to react sufficiently. Bad luck, it's the worse part of fate.
Grandbelos took in the refugees, lead by now widowed lady Melanie Scholl, an arch mage and stern leader, made sterner yet by the misfortunes of her people. She's an accomplished scholar and wizard, but also an independent ruler and a versatile politician, even though she is often overlooked because of her gender. Something she has learnt to use to her advantage as well.
Anyways, it's becoming time to reclaim their lost lands from the undead, left infesting the countryside without meaning or purpose. Talabecland or anyone else has had no resources to really reclaim the remote lands, and lady Scholl has been left to her own devices. Now with the help of Grandbelos they just might have a chance if she can find allies in the local barons and lords.
So much for background. You came for the models.
Melanie Scholl herself is an old paint job. From years back. But I revisited her a bit when I started painting Ravenguard. She's nothing fancy, but I thought I'd take new pics just for reference.
Melanie Scholl
From the back
http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww314/Kraus-88/figuja/9.jpgThe Ravenguard are metal Perry men at arms with polearms, at £7 per 6 models. For what they feel and look it's a bargain really.
The sculpts are awesome, but the molds have some minor issues. Firstly the metal is a wee bit soft, so I'd imagine the polearms will bend a bit in use. But that might be an issue of storage. I'll have to think of something for that. Additionally there are some chunks of metal in the trickier places, like where the shafts of polearms or scabbards of swords meet the legs. Some of those are impossible to remove, but they might be a result of the sculpt. Some of those details might be really fragile without those chunks. It's just they present challenges in painting, because they're not really a part of the models themselves. I just kinda ignored them painting them black or blending them into metal or something.
I worried the yellow and red on tabards would be too sharp, but they work better than brown I tried as well. You can see that in the first pic here. Will repaint it. Those tabards are good space for free hands and transfers as well.
So that's roughly 18 models with a filer ogre, and might work as a detachment atm. Once I'm finished they'll number 40, and will make for my first ever horde. I'll cheat four models with the ogre and four more with mounting three models on 20x80 bases. It's kinda stupid though, since I paid roughly 10e for six of those bases from ebay (including postage), which would've given me an extra 6 models of these if I would've ordered some more once I did the rest. Oh well.
What I'm a bit worried about is that my Grandbelos is rather starkly painted in Altdorfish colours, and while I'm enjoying the fluff of an army-wide detachment (will be eventually free company and mercenaries, 20 greatswords and these 40 halberdiers, maybe some archers or something) I'm worried it'll look stupid on the field with different colour schemes. Maybe it won't. At least both Arcanschloss and Grandbelos emphasize on red rather than the secondary colour. I began rebasing my Wolfenstein as well, and thankfully they're painted mostly in reds and browns as well, but still, the coherency of the army might suffer slightly.
Hopefully it won't.
