Righto, considering the first two months have already passed Ill post up an update on what Ive already done this year, as well as a couple of photo's Ive been meaning to post up for a while now anyway.
First up Ill do my Empire. This year I have converted one squad of highwaymen (about to start on the second tonight) and Im just adding the finishing touches to my Knights of Sigmars Blood. I also have the main models for my detachment, just to show what they will look like. Photos are mostly good quality although the white metal figures dont like being snapped, but you'll see them better when painted.
My first unit of highwaymen. They are built from marauder horsemen (with all the Chaos carefully filed off) with militia bodies and a mixture of militia and new handgunner, state troop and flagellant heads. The pistols come from the militia and handgunner sprues, the flaming torch is made from a club and a goblin tassle. The champion has a blunderbuss as his repeater pistol as I wanted something more primitive but still capable of spewing out the equivalent of four shots a turn. Plus it feels more like a "Ahm gunna git mah guun!" hillbilly type of weapon, which suits the March of Doom styled force I have. The greenstuff needs a little cleaning up as does some of the flash etc, but apart from that its pretty much ready for painting.
The two units of Knights, including Warrior Priests. I wanted them to look less like prissy noble's sons setting off to make a name for themselves and more like veteran warriors who have devoted their entire lives to ridding the world of Sigmar's foes. I've always loved the imagery of feudal Knights Templar charging in, some with lances some with heavy maces & hammers, ready to smite all those who stand before them and God. Not that Im religious myself, but if those guys still rocked around Id probably would be just because of the pure bad-assery (shutup its a word!). Because of this I chose to base my knights of Bretonnians with all the frilly French nonsense trimmed away. I chose only two different helmet styles for the troops, instead focusing on different torso's and shields to make them unique. The torsos are a mix of Bretonnian (without frilly bits!), current Empire Knight and Greatsword torsos. The standards and lances come from the Empire knights with the banner top coming from the greatswords. Im currently waiting on the 2nd to arrive in the mail. The champions both have hand weapons, one wielding a morning star (after an impressive piece of artwork from Medieval- Total War II) and the other wielding a good 'ol hammer of Sigmar. The morning star head came from a skeleton box whilst the hammer an old Chaos warrior box, and both were attached to cut down Bretonnian standard arms. The musicians both have Bretonnian torsos and horns as well as chainmail hoods rather than a full helm. The metal hood came from the Avatars of War priest whilst the other was from a Bretonnian archer with hood, the chainmail modelled on afterwards. Again, definately needs a bit of work on the current greenstuff and flash, trimming the 'grass' between the horses feet and ground, and giving all the horses chainmail barding around their heads to make them look less 'Bretonnian heavy armour' and more 'Empire full plate'.
The two warrior priests are also included in these units as they dont ever leave them. The first is the model on foot with double-handed hammer and in my opinion one of the most badass models ever made. I've put him on one of the new Chaos Knight steeds, as well as a cut down set of legs (more just the excess cloth that has been cut down) although I still need to do a fair bit of blending work on this model. His steed has a hammer of Sigmar icon on his face barding as well as two parchments to replace what were giant leering skulls, these will have scriptures written on them once finished. The 2nd warrior priest isnt much of a conversion at all. He is the Warrior Monk from Gamezone, although I gave him a tome and also a shield which was left over from the Avatars of War priest.
Lastly we have the detachment, or the start of it anyway. As you can see it will be a witch hunter's dog pack, the three hounds leading the witch hunter and his small mob to the scent trail of heresy! Just need a couple more milita models to finish the unit, hopefully with flaming torches and pitchforks amongst their other weapons for good measure
Thats all I've done on my army this year worthy of note, the crossbowmen and flagellants are pretty much straight out of the box so I didnt bother to snap them, got another box to assemble first then Ill get them up. Here are some photos of some of the work Im doing for my flatmate:
WIP shot of his Dragon Mage. As you can see there is still a fair bit of greenstuff work left to do, I need to blend the rocks and feet as well as the tail and arm sections of the dragon itself. Building up the shoulders will be the next step, then putting the scales on before finally the mage himself. I based the idea off the Carnasaur dragon in the back of the Bretonnian book, but I wanted to make it a tad more impressive. I added a giant GW Rock(tm) for him to be perched on and gave him a more impressive wingspan, opting for the Balrog wings rather than dragon. Suffice to say my Balrog is now walking everywhere till I get him a new pair! I do have to admit I am doing this partly because its awesome and I want to (who can resist a mate saying "Heres my Carnasaur, I want a kickarse dragon"!?!) but also as practice for sculpting scales and upper torso on a big beast, as I still need to make my Wyvern for the Chaos Orcs. Two birds with one stone I guess
Anyway I hope you all enjoy, Im off to hack apart some Marauder Horsemen!
Arfa da Grate
