Author Topic: Jambalaya's Empire plog (Read 12090 times)

jambalaya · « **on:** January 09, 2014, 04:36:16 AM »

Hello folks,

After two and a half years of assembling/painting/playing Wood Elves, I embarked on my journey to start an Empire army last November. I took some time thinking about the fluff, and ended up deciding doing in lines of mercenaries. I think it's going to be a mix of Cathay, Osterland, Araby, whatever I can think of in my head.

I started off with converting/painting unit of 38 greatswords who guard the Eastern Sea of Cathay. Assembling/Painting an Empire army is certainly a daunting task, but it feels rewarding with every model painted. So without further ado, here are the pics of the greatswords:

Some of the greatswords, including musician and standard bearer...the greatswords in general were converted using old dark elf warriors and the chaos marauders bits. There were some wood elf hooded heads added as well.

I am thinking maybe I will go back to the drawing board and do some surgical procedures for the standard bearer (make the banner bigger and try to actually draw a dragon, not some green squigly lines).

Here is my warrior priest, getting ready for Mardi Gras:

Putting them all together, I have a unit of greatswords and a warrior priest:

It is still a work in progress, as I will have to base them and give these fellas a moving tray.

Still waiting for boxes of empire knights that I ordered few weeks back...so next time when I convert those, I will try to post the step-by-step progress.

Thank you for viewing, and your feedbacks and comments are always welcome.

Durloth · « **Reply #1 on:** January 09, 2014, 07:54:22 AM »

This will definitively be an army with a unique look. Do you have the possibility of playing it both as an Empire, High Elf and Dark Elf army in mind? "Three for the price of one"

Zjivago · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2014, 10:04:08 AM »

Top marks for originality. The painting isnt atall bad, though not to keen on the colour scheme myself, love to see more though.

righteousfury · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2014, 03:19:40 PM »

A border princes army perhaps.

jambalaya · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2014, 04:32:28 AM »

Hello, thanks for your feedbacks

@Durloth...yeah I think this unit at least could be played as Executioners, I think they look nasty enough to be one. High Elves, hmm...not sure how that would fit in.

@ Zjivago...I started on greatswords project with some of the characters from Mortal Kombat in my mind (i.e. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, etc). Initially, I called the project "The Blue Dragon Templars"..and hence I chose the colour scheme to blue/green. For the cloaks and the hood, I applied thick coat of Moot Green and then made an attempt to wash them with Lothern Blue to bring out more of emeral-like colour. Now this was before I realized that citadel had a paint called Sotek Green (which I purchased for future project).

@righteousfury...I just read up on Border Princes, and this is almost the fluff that I am leaning towards...with bit of Oriental touch.

I have a box of celestial hurricanum waiting to be assembled...but I am going to hold off on this until I finish everything else.

Again...let's keep those feedbacks coming. Thank you.

Warhammer-Weib · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2014, 07:24:06 PM »

I like their wild look und unique colour scheme!

jambalaya · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2014, 05:35:09 AM »

Hello everyone, thank you all for your feedbacks...it's been a while since my last post.

I spent last couple of weeks waiting for my shipment of Knights to arrive, and while waiting...basing my greatswords and re-doing the banner on my greatswords standard bearer. I didn't like the way the banner looked before, so I decided to rip it out all together and start everything from the scratch.

My original idea was to carve out a dragon on the banner, but with my lack of experience with sculpting, I decided to plaster bit of green stuff onto the banner as shown below:

Not really something I had in mind, but I think it looks better than it looked before.

After painting the banner and attaching it back to the banner pole, here's how my GS standard bearer looks like:

Another thing I did was to figure out what to do with all the Chaos Marauders bits left after converting some of them into the Greaswords...and then came up with this test model, that will become halberdiers:

So far, I am happy with my progress. Thanx again for viewing, and bring on those Knights

jambalaya · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2014, 05:24:45 AM »

So, finally the shipments of my kniggits have arrived

...and with them (and some marauders bits), I created my unit of the ICK.

I present to you, the Order of Golden Falcon

..again your feedbacks would be much appreciated.

Kalrath · « **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2014, 10:42:23 AM »

The blades look really nice, how did you make them? Also like the horses bardings.

Not so sure about the big chunks connecting the blades to the shafts. Maybe you could trim them down a bit.

jambalaya · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2014, 07:05:08 PM »

Hi,

I took the inspiration for the blades from the following picture:

The first thing I did was to try to imitate the shape of the blade to create a prototype. Once I thought I got the shape that I wanted, I used the prototype as a template for the rest of the blades. Just make the green stuff flat and wide as possible (but not too thin), and then trace the shape of the template over it. The last thing I did for the blades was to sand the edges with a nail polisher (only because I didn't have a sandpaper with me).

You're right about the "chunks" that connect the blades and the shafts, they look bit cumbersome at the moment, so I might try the sanding approach to tone them down a bit. The ICK that you see here is still a work in progress. I am adding the capes to the riders, but not until I finish painting them. I might decorate the bardings a bit more, but hesitating at the moment (think this might be a little overboard).

Next week, I want to try to get to paint these guys. I am not sure what to do with the armour. For the skull shoulder pads, I am thinking auric armour gold and the other shoulder pads, a toss-up between ironbreaker or runefang steel (which I think I might also apply to the rest of the armour + shade of nuln oil). We will see..I have weekends to decide.

jambalaya · « **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2014, 06:35:16 AM »

Hello again,

So just a few updates up the ICK...took few weeks to paint the horses and think of better name for my ICK. I have idea about my fluff, so will try to finalize it as the riders are being painted.

Here are some pics (apologies in advance for humongous pics...still trying to figure out how to maintain the good photo quality after trimming them on photobucket):

...and riding the horses are the knights who have been waiting patiently to be painted...and painted they shall be (starting tomorrow with armour).

...and finally a little update on the greatswords that you saw previously...I also managed to put some grass beneath their feet

I want to finish this post off with a question...could somebody please guide me to some tips on building banners with green putty? Thank you in advance.

Darknight · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2014, 12:51:42 PM »

You may find it easier to use thin plasticard rather than putty - you can cut that to shape and then heat it with a hairdryer, bending it into folds.

If you do use putty, you should let it set up for a while and then roll it out using plenty of lubricant. Then, let it set up some more. The fresher the putty, the stickier it is and the harder it is to work with. The putty is quite flexible even when cured to the point of not being very sticky. You can roll it out with a dowel or rolling pin, using sheets of plasticard as spacers to make sure you have the same thickness throughout.

jambalaya · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2014, 05:10:05 PM »

Hi, thank you for your reply. I have few more questions actually about the banner and something else. Is there certain techniques or tools that can be used to draw emblems on the banner? I am seriously considering the plasticard route, but I am having some trouble drawing things on the banner.

Another question is about the photography. What is the usual setup for taking a picture? I see in some threads that people tend to use dark background with lightings, but would like to know more.

Overall, I think the Empire project so far has given me opportunity to learn more about many aspects about the hobby, in terms of painting, assembling photography and story telling....ah the joy of learning

jambalaya · « **Reply #13 on:** February 22, 2014, 09:45:10 PM »

Woohoo...more than 1,000 views so far...thank you all for your interest. Comments or no comments, I appreciate your time for viewing my posts.

Just managed to paint up the ICK (minus the banner). This is first time for me to paint cavalry unit, and I must say it's been a rewarding process.

Without further ado, here are some pics...

Now I need to put some grass under the hooves and put that banner on.

More to come...starting the assembly of regular knights on Monday.

jambalaya · « **Reply #14 on:** April 04, 2014, 05:50:27 AM »

hello...so, I've been busy with other obligations and hadn't had much time to paint...just managed to finish painting the knights order couple of hours ago.

...and this is how my army looks like now:

next week, I will be up and running converting the demi-gryph knights...thank you for viewing

...comments would always be appreciated.

Warhammer-Weib · « **Reply #15 on:** April 04, 2014, 08:18:21 AM »

Shiny armour - nice! If you want a more used, battle-tested look, you could try to use a very, very thin wash of Sick Green or turquoise.

Looking good so far

... with a bit more highlighting on the blue and green parts, they'd really stand out!

jambalaya · « **Reply #16 on:** April 08, 2014, 04:28:34 AM »

Hi again...

So as I have mentioned in the last post, I started converting my monstrous cavalry:

as some of you may already know, the mounts and the torsos are from Skorne Praetorian Ferox (Privateer Press). This is first time I am using their miniatures for conversion. A bit smaller than I expected, but I think they are still good for the fluff that I am sticking with. Will post more photos once I start paint these guys.

Thank you.

Commander Bernhardt · « **Reply #17 on:** April 08, 2014, 06:42:36 AM »

cool conversions!

Warhammer-Weib · « **Reply #18 on:** April 11, 2014, 05:49:08 PM »

Very cool!!! Can't wait to see them painted!

jambalaya · « **Reply #19 on:** April 12, 2014, 11:36:35 PM »

Hi all...thank you for all your kind feedbacks...let's keep 'em flowing

I am here not to post my progress (as I have just primed my montrous cavalry units yesterday), but actually to ask a question.

I was surfing through the internet and found the following picture from Privateer Press forum:

...and I am just sitting here wondering how the painting was done for the sabretooth's fur. That's kind of a color scheme that I am going for with my units. Any ideas? Thank you in advance.

Warhammer-Weib · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2014, 03:08:32 AM »

I guess I've got a link somewhere on my computer ... I'll look for it and post it when I am at home.

StealthKnightSteg · « **Reply #21 on:** April 13, 2014, 08:22:29 AM »

looks like some blue base, going up to ice blue and finishing off with white with some mix ups inbetween.
the black just looks black to me maybe with some black/grey highlights, but that could also be lightfall.

Warhammer-Weib · « **Reply #22 on:** April 13, 2014, 08:47:44 AM »

Here's the link I promised:

http://www.fightingtigersofveda.com/paintintro.htm

jambalaya · « **Reply #23 on:** April 13, 2014, 04:52:26 PM »

Hi,

Thank you all for your helpful feedback, definitely useful resources indeed. I will have a read and will try few things out, and hopefully get some sort of prototype out in few days.

jambalaya · « **Reply #24 on:** April 18, 2014, 07:32:14 PM »

So I figure I would post an image of my cats that are still being painted...I like how everything's turning out so far.

First thing you will notice is they are not in the same colour scheme as I have previously decided. I have quite a bit of paint pots that are begging to be used, and just didn't feel like acquiring more paints to get these guys in the scheme...also, I just didn't want to do something somebody has already done...well, that's how I do things anyways. Anyways, like I said...happy with what I've done so far.

Trying to finish these guys and the riders by end of next week, and hopefully move on to either the archers or cannons as local tourney is not too far away.

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Author Topic: Jambalaya's Empire plog (Read 12090 times)