Frippery & Vacillation - an Empire army from Altdorf

[PaxImperator]

One and a half weeks after starting them, I've finished the unit of 10 handgunners. That's pretty darn fast by my standards!  :D  Enough talking. More pictures!

Entire unit:


Back rank:


Rear view:


I'm happy how they turned out. There's just enough yellow on all of them and I was able to get the yellow, red and blue nice and bright. I'm still not sure how to shade the yellow feathers. Soft tone darkens them too much so I opted to just give them a very subtle highlight of my base yellow + white. I might come back to those later or I might not.

For my own future reference:

Yellow cloth:	72.006 Sun Yellow basecoat, AP soft tone shade, 50/50 72.006 Sun Yellow/72.001 Dead White
Yellow feathers:	72.006 Sun Yellow basecoat, 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
Red:	72.010 Bloody Red basecoat, 72.086 Red ink, 50/50 AP dark tone/AP speedpaint medium shade, 72.009 Hot Orange highlight
Black:	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, 72.004 Elf Skintone highlight
Wood:	70.874 Tan Earth basecoat, 72.061 Khaki highlight
Metal:	72.054 Gunmetal basecoat

All paints are Vallejo, except AP (= The Army Painter)

Next up will be the part of this 500-point chunk that I have been dreading: the block of 25 spearmen. There are three reasons for that: there's a whopping 25 of them, 12 of them are based 4 models to a base and I'd like to do a freehand design on the banner. *gulp*  :o This is what they look like now.

Front view:


Rear view:


The current freehand design on the banner was my attempt to transfer the lion's head shield bosses to the flag. The idea of a lion's head was fine in principle but I should have used a proper heraldic lion's head for reference. I'm thinking this time I'll try for a lion rampant holding the shield from the Altdorf coat of arms, kind of like this:



Altdorf coat of arms:



To keep it manageable I'll paint this unit in three batches of 10, 10 and 5, moving from the back to the front of the unit. I'm not sure how to paint everything yet but I'll figure it out as I go along. I'm considering whether to paint the spear tassels yellow. That would be one way of getting some yellow on every model but perhaps that would be a bit much if I also paint some of the hats and feathers yellow as I'm planning to do? I'm also considering what to do with the shields. Brightening the red and replacing the black with blue might work, but I could also emulate the 'Eavy Metal team's 6th edition Talabheim army, which had yellow lion heads on black shields. It looked surprisingly good against the red and white background of the Talabheim uniform.

[Rowsdower]

Great job

[PaxImperator]

Thanks Rowsdower!

I've designated another two lucky test models to try out my ideas for cutting corners. The experiment is threefold: see how many layers of grey/white I need to get a bright red, see if I can pre-shade the red by applying the white selectively rather than as even coats, and see if I can paint blue straight over black. 

Starting stage:


Left model - red half: cold grey blue half: cold grey
Right model- red half: cold grey blue half:


Left model - red half: dead white blue half:
Right model- red half: dead white blue half:


Left model - red half: dead white blue half:
Right model- red half: dead white blue half:


Left model - red half: dead white blue half:
Right model- red half: blue half:


Left model - red half: bloody red blue half: magic blue
Right model- red half: bloody red blue half: magic blue


Left model - red half: bloody red blue half: magic blue
Right model- red half: bloody red blue half: magic blue


Left model - red half: red ink blue half:
Right model- red half: red ink blue half:


Left model - red half: red ink blue half:
Right model- red half: blue half:


My conclusions are:
- My best red recipe* so far is: grey, white, white, red, red, red ink, red ink
- My best blue recipe is: blue, blue
- I can get some natural shading out of my new way of applying the white paint!

*It's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but the red on the left model is just as bright and saturated as that on the handgunners and halberdiers I painted earlier.

In short: awesome. This is going to save me so much time!  :biggriin:  Now to apply these lessons to the other 8 models in this batch...

[Archilector_Malaga]

This an excellent post. It's been very interesting to read your progression through time. You also have a good hand for painting, I'd say, as I can see a very neat painting in all your minis.
Seeing the colour schemes you tend to go for, I'd give you a piece of advice here, which I hope you don't mind:

-Red: Use "charred brown" as a base just adding a bit of the red tone you're using as your "main red". Then add ochre to the red gradually in several steps to highlight. That'll give depth to your red (the same will happen with other colours)

-Blue: Basically it's the same principle as above. Use the same blue tone if you want, and add black until you get a good contrast for the base. Then use the "main blue" over the base, leaving the base tone visible where it corresponds. Add any pale blue to the main tone gradually in several steps.

-Yellow: Mix the main tone with a not very dark brown for the base, and then apply the main yellow colour you're using over the base. I'd highlight adding some bright bone colour such as Citadel "screaming skull" or similar to the main yellow tone.

Yous skins are already very good, so I would add much there other than maybe highlighting adding a bit of bone to the flesh tone that you're using.

Congrats for your minis and I hope to see more of your work!

[PaxImperator]

Thanks! Much appreciated.  :happy:  I'm going to try your tips. The yellow recipe looks like it would be useful across the entire army. For the red and blue, I'll have to see if/how I can make it work without spending too much extra time per model. If I can make it look good but the time investment is on the high end, I might have to limit it to front rank models/characters/artillery crews or some other subset of models.

A few quick questions about the red recipe: Would you apply this over a white basecoat, and would you expect any trouble getting a bright red if you're working your way up from charred brown? How many coats would you expect to need?

[Archilector_Malaga]

Thanks! Much appreciated.  :happy:  I'm going to try your tips. The yellow recipe looks like it would be useful across the entire army. For the red and blue, I'll have to see if/how I can make it work without spending too much extra time per model. If I can make it look good but the time investment is on the high end, I might have to limit it to front rank models/characters/artillery crews or some other subset of models.

A few quick questions about the red recipe: Would you apply this over a white basecoat, and would you expect any trouble getting a bright red if you're working your way up from charred brown? How many coats would you expect to need?

That's a good question. You can add some of the red tone you're using to the charred brown to create a more smooth base. Then apply the red colour directly over that base. In 2 or 3 steps adding ochre to that red tone and painting a smaller surface towards the light you will get a convincing bright red.
I would never recommend priming in white unless you're planning to do slap-chop (which I've never been a fan of)

1. Charred + some red
2. Red over the base
3. Add ochre to red
4. Add ochre again to the mixture

If you want and you have or want to spend some more time on the red, you can apply a wash with the same red to smoothen the transitions if you see the contrast is too aggressive or it looks more orange-ish than red.

I hope it helps  :smile2:

[PaxImperator]

Cheers! :smile2:

Now that we're on the cusp of a new weekend and I have high hopes of getting in a few hours of uninterrupted painting, I though it would be fun and motivational to share a work-in-progress shot of my first ten spearmen. I'll post another update once the weekend's over. Here they are:



As you can see the eight regular models are close to catching up to the two test models from my earlier post. Just two thin coats of blue and I can start shading and highlighting. In the end I opted to paint the spear tassels yellow because they're one of the few places I can easily get some yellow paint in. Although I'm not a big fan of the slung shields on some of the models, they do afford me some good opportunities to place yellow accents. Thanks younger me! I'll save the shields till last because they get in the way a lot and I'm still undecided on what colours to paint them in. I'm slowly coming around to the view that they're too big to be painted in anything other than my two primary colours of red and blue though.

[PaxImperator]

Now that the weekend's come and gone, let's see how I did:



Very happy with the progress. I'm currently averaging about 10 models every one and a half weeks. At this rate I'll finish my first 500 points in another three weeks. Quite the morale boost!

As you might be able to tell from the pictures, I have yet to paint these models' spear shafts and shields. I also need to highlight the black/grey and clean up some metallic parts. The one shield with a bright red lion's head is a test.

[PaxImperator]

I think I've changed my mind on the spearmen's shields. Observe:


From left to right: 1st shield attempt, random spearman to show off the uniform, 2nd shield attempt (wip)

My first try saw me mix three blue paints to get five shades of blue with which I painstakingly shaded the shield. I added a red lion's head annnd... it was just lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. The red just sort of blends into the background. So I painted the lion's head on the second shield yellow and even though it's not yet done I already like the result better. The yellow really stands out against the black background and the red and blue already on the model. It is, of course, a copy of the spearmen's shields in the GW studio's Talabheim army. I think the 'Eavy Metal team really were onto something when they picked those colours.

So what do you think? Am I going mad? Is there a way to make red on blue really pop? Which shield do you prefer?

[PaxImperator]

In the end I had to go with yellow over black. I'll share some pictures later this week, once I have something worth sharing.

Meanwhile I've made a mock-up for the unit's flag. As I mentioned before it's based on the coat of arms of a little-known town in Germany called Altdorf. Funny coincidence, that.  :D  This is just a mock-up to get the basic idea across. The shield still needs to have its proper iconography added. Right now I'm thinking I should also make the red-and-blue border wider to show off my army's main colours better. That would also free up space in the four corners for little yellow squares with a black twin-tailed comet or suchlike inside. What do you think?

[PaxImperator]

It has been pointed out to me that the alternating red and blue on the flag's border looks a bit off.  Here are two more tries, one with a solid red border and another with alternating red and blue.

   

I'm not sold on the middle one because the red's overpowering the blue. The right one looks like the best of the lot to me. What do you think? I'm very open to alternatives and suggestions.

Finally, here are the first 10 spearmen! I was saving them until I'd completed the next 10 too, but decided to post them now because I probably won't be able to finish the next 10 this weekend. I hope you like them! The yellow on the shields looked just right to me after I'd applied the 50/50 AP soft tone/flow medium mix over the yellow, so I've chosen not to manually highlight them. The lion's head looked a bit too pale on the one I did try it on.

5th rank:


4th rank:

[PaxImperator]

3rd rank:


2nd rank:


That's a +3 rank bonus right there plus possibly a +1 outnumber bonus too!  :happy:  I hope you like them. Now it's 'just' a matter of painting the front rank, including that standard bearer...

I've noticed that as I've been painting more miniatures, I've started erring towards fewer yellow details on the uniforms for variety. There are a few reasons for that. The spearmen's bulky shields and close-order formation obscure a lot so I didn't want to waste precious time on too much detail. Also, between the shield bosses and spear tassels the spearmen were already pushing the boundaries in terms of how much yellow I could add to them. And finally every bit of yellow necessitates about three layers of grey/white to get up to the desired brightness due to the black undercoat, which wasn't helping either. The halberdiers by contrast were wildly experimental as they were the first models I tested my colour scheme on. Both the halberdiers and handgunners also lack shields and won't have as many models standing around them to hide all the yellow details. I'll try for some more variation again with the spearmen's front rank, the cannon crew and the captain.

[Albrecht von Hinkel]

Great work! I love these minis and your colour scheme is gorgeous. Looking forward to seeing the finished banner!  :smile2:

[PaxImperator]

Thanks for the kind words Albrecht!

It's really finally happening. I've printed the flag twice, once as normal and once with a grid. The idea is to temporarily draw/paint that same grid on the flag to help me get the lion's proportions right. I made a bendy ruler out of a strip of paper to help with the grid. After getting the lion's contours on the flag, the rest should be relatively simple. The coat of arms is still missing a griffon's head, but I reckon I can improvise that. Wish me luck! *deep breath*

[Naitsabes]

That's quite the amount of carful planning with grids and measurements! A bit of a look behind the magician's curtain.

I like the thicker red-blue border too. Go with that.

[Albrecht von Hinkel]

That's a great approach to the banner. I would love to see WIP shots. I'm working out how to paint the banner for my own Halberdiers now. I want it to be a griffon, but I haven't worked out quite how yet...

[PaxImperator]

Ask and you shall receive. :smile2: As you might be able to tell I've been dreading this part of the project. It's resulted in me procrastinating more unfortunately. I've still made some progress though:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

The yellow took a LOT of layers to get an even(ish) finish. It seems that the bigger the surface is, the harder it becomes to make it look good. I could have probably skipped the last few layers because much of the yellow was eventually painted over in black anyway.

1. Here I've drawn literal guidelines in pencil to help get the lion's proportions right. I've also printed the lion with a grid just like this one. The print actually has an 8x8 grid but that was too finnicky to paint on the flag. Getting the lines to be straight was actually deceptively hard, even with my improvised flexible ruler. I already knew the flag isn't a perfect square, but it's not even a perfect rectangle either! It fans out a bit as you get further from the pole.
2. Here I was basically floundering about with black paint, trying to avoid the lion's outline as long as I could. This was going nowhere because by the time I'd eyeballed a good spot to start on the outline, the paint in my brush was already starting to dry.
3. The solution was to use the pencil to sketch the outline. It proved too hard to follow the lion's exact outline so I've simplified a few things here and there. The only way to tell is to read this thread anyway.
4. A few coats of black later and the flag almost looks finished! Almost, because there's a lot more left to do...
5. ... like paint the borders and details red and blue.
6. The tiny blue crown was nearly impossible to see from a distance so I repainted it red. The borders also got a few more layers of red paint and ink. I also started work on the blue squares in the borders.
7. In the bottom right corner I mistakenly painted too many blue squares. You can still just about see the ongoing repairs in slightly brighter red paint.
8. Fixed the border and got started on the heraldy. The hammer's done, the crown and griffon's head have had their outline sketched. Next time I should do this in reverse order because I ran out of space for the griffon's head.
9. Expanded the bottom blue field to accommodate the griffon's head and filled in the crown and griffon's head with white and red.
10. Went over the white with yellow and added a few small details to the griffon's head. Done!

So there we are. I hope this is useful. I still have to paint over the pencil grid on the lion, finish the border, detail the lion, freehand the designs on the shield, do a lot of touch-ups, then do everything again on the other side. Better get to it then. It's been more work than I thought but not as hard as I feared, so I'm picking up the pace now.

EDIT: Updated with the finishing touches on the banner's back. I've unfortunately been delayed by a cold but will have some more updates coming soon.

[PaxImperator]

Here's the first of those updates I promised. The unit's done!  :biggriin:



Very happy with the result too. It took a while but it was worth it. No resting on my laurels yet though, because I still have these to go:



... boy do these guys look dreary compared to the riot of colour that is my spearmen regiment. :D

The model on the left is my old captain. He's a kit bash of state troop and militia parts, plus an Ulrican amulet from the knightly orders box that younger me for some reason decided to glue to his left buttock by way of ornamentation. I have happy memories of Steed of Shadowsing him into Skaven weapons teams, enemy wizards and suchlike. Still though, he's just not enough of a peacock to lead my new army. What honest Reiklander would follow a man without even a single feather in his cap into combat? So I will sadly retire him to a free company detachment, where he will still look flashy compared to the riff raff around him. I have something fun planned for a replacement captain, but that'll have to wait till the next 500-point chunk.

The cannon was pretty decent but I still stripped it in methylated spirits to correct a few mistakes. The carriage's sides were uneven because of a casting defect so I smoothed them out with greenstuff. I also added ornamental handles to the barrel and rings to the front of the carriage, additions that younger me deemed unnecessary. Now that the cannon's stripped I can also give it a white basecoat to help make it nice and bright.  :happy:  I'm thinking bronze barrel, steel metal fittings and a red-and-blue carriage with some sort of freehand pattern to further beautify it.

[Naitsabes]

Congrats on finishing that cheery spearmen regiment.

Had to chuckle when I read about the old Captain's fate.

Keep it coming!

[Albrecht von Hinkel]

The banner (and unit) turned out great, well done! I'm looking forward to the cannon, your plan sounds very promising.

[Noigrim8]

Amazing, one of the best flags I've ever seen

[PaxImperator]

Thanks a lot for your very kind words!  :smile2:

Time for a work-in-progress shot:



Very happy with how the crew's shirts are turning out in particular. I just layered a tan and two cream colours on top of each other but the look's much improved compared to my previous efforts. I think the captain will need some yellow on him somewhere to tie him in with the rest of the army but I'm not sure where yet. I think the red and blue works together well on the cannon's carriage. I'm torn on whether to darken the red with ink as I've done on the uniforms, but will probably do so.

[Rowsdower]

Great job.
I tried doing banners like that and gave up

[PaxImperator]

Great job.
I tried doing banners like that and gave up

Thanks. Having just painted my first banner like that, I can relate.

While painting the gun it occurred to me that the first Empire great cannon I ever saw was this red-and-blue one by the 'Eavy Metal Team from the 90s. I guess on some level I've always thought of that one as the archetypal great cannon. It seems fitting that I'm going 'back to the source' here, as it were. Here they are, all finished:





Quite happy with how the freehand turned out. I wanted something curvy and graceful and this fits the bill nicely. I made a couple of sketches and picked the one I liked best. If I could have rebuilt it from scratch I would have left the wheels off during painting for easier brush access. Then I could have extended the pattern all the way to the front of the carriage too. I painted the pattern in white paint, then glazed it with thinned-down blue paint and red ink respectively. It worked well with the red ink but not so well with the blue paint, which was so thin that the pigment particles were spread out unevenly and there were bluer and whiter areas. This was easy enough to fix with some light blue paint.

Next up the captain, soon to be demoted to the free company:



I think I'll be happier with him once he's inside a unit. As characters go he's a bit underwhelming.

Finally two shots of the whole army because this first 500-point chunk is now DONE. Woohoo! ;D





This gives me:
Captain: great weapon, full plate armour
25 spearmen: full command
10 handgunners
10 halberdiers

Now for the next 500-point chunk to keep tricking my lizard brain into thinking I'm nearly done. Here's what I have planned:

62 Captain: halberd, full plate armour    
        
12        2 halberdiers
        
200    25 swordsmen: full command    
48        6 handgunners
60        12 free company (one of which already painted)
        
75    Mortar    
        
95    5 pistoliers    
        
552 points
        
55    models to paint

I'm a little over in terms of points to compensate for the fact that the 62-point captain I just painted has become a 5-point free company fighter. All in all, this will give me a nice little army of one hero, two 25-man combat blocks, each with its own 12-man combat detachment and 8-man ranged detachment plus two war machines and one light cavalry unit.

Next up... 25 swordsmen. Better start planning that banner well in advance.

[PowerSeries]

Excellent!  I was looking forward to seeing more.