Frippery & Vacillation - an Empire army from Altdorf

[Albrecht von Hinkel]

Great work on the pistoliers (or are they Road Wardens?) and the inspired kitbash! How's the army overall looking now?

[PaxImperator]

Thanks! They're definitely pistoliers. I'm building this army for 6th edition. As it stands now, it includes:

• 25 spearmen
• 25 swordsmen
• 10 halberdiers
• 10 handgunners
• 5 pistoliers
• 1 cannon
• 1 captain

I'll post some group shots again once I've completed another 20isn infantry and a mortar.

[PaxImperator]

Another week, another update. It has been cold and wet here for weeks now, so unfortunately I haven't been able to prime the captain or any other models. Instead I've focused on repainting the last six handgunners from my old Carroburg army. Here they are!





I've removed Carroburg from the thread title in honour of these being the last models in Carroburg colours I had to repaint. Looking forward to working from white basecoats from now on. :) You'll notice quite a few scraggy grey beards with this lot. I figure that for all its wealth the city state of Altdorf probably does not offer its workers great pension plans, so it made sense to include some older soldiers. You may be able to tell from their uniforms that these models will be spread across three units. We have red/blue halved, blue/red halved and red/blue quartered. The units are sitting at 5 or 6 models each. Eventually I'd like to get them up to 10 each, including a marksman with Hochland long rifle and a musician, but that's a plan for the longer term.

In the short term, I have 1 captain, 1 mortar with crew, 2 halberdiers and 12 free company to prime and paint. If the weather doesn't improve soon I'll have to think of something else to occupy myself. Maybe build movement trays or repaint some knights. To be continued...

------------

EDIT:

I've decided to just get to work on the free company. Black basecoats be damned. I know what I said about the handgunners being the last models in Carroburg colours I had to repaint, but technically it's not repainting if the models weren't finished in the first place, right? Right.  :biggriin:

Here they are in all their unfinished glory as I left them nearly two decades ago:





These will of course be led by the demoted captain to bring them up to twelve models. Not too unhappy with the old paint jobs. The main thing I'd do differently today is change some of the poses, but these should be perfectly serviceable as they are. Since I took this picture I've already removed all mould lines that younger me missed and I'm very eager to get some paint on them. They're a very welcome diversion after painting 80-odd state troops.

[PaxImperator]

I've been painting up the free company. It's been a lot of fun but slow going because my process has been very haphazard as I've been trying out all sorts of different colours. I've put partial basecoats on several models so time to critique my own work.

My thinking with these three was that muted versions of my army's bright blue/red/yellow primary colours might look good. I'm happy with the look of the left and middle model, both using 70.982 Cavalry Brown to stand in for bright red. The blue's the same bright colour I've used on my state troops. The tan's will be the same I've used on my artillery crew's shirts (70.874 Tan Earth, 72.061 Khaki and 72.034 Bone White). These colours work well together and cavalry brown's a lovely paint. Covers very well and I love the hue. My only concern is how the cavalry brown will look in a unit where some models have bright red on them.

The right model continues my thinking that muted versions of my army's primary colours might look good, replacing bright blue with blueish grey (72.048 Sombre Grey). Somehow it's ended up looking... lilac?  :o Urgh. I'll be painting over those sleeves in a hurry.



The next two models share an unfortunate yellow placement mishap below the belt. I don't think the yellow works on the knee patch or the codpiece. The left model's trousers look slightly off to me too. I used 72.045 Charred Brown. Other than that, pretty happy with these models.



Finally the three models that I'm happiest with and that are furthest along:



After several painting sessions' experimentation, I've decided to change my process. I was basically trying every paint I had on at least part of some model. It's been fun and educational but it's time to narrow things down now. The above three models use the exact same palette as my state troops with only the addition of the dark brown on the left model's trousers (70.941 Burnt Umber). I didn't see a good place to put any yellow on these particular models, but it's still in the line-up for the odd feather or other detail. Once I've completed these three I'll evaluate my palette, especially whether cavalry brown is in or out. Of course if you have any thoughts on my choice of colours, I'd love to hear them.

Watch this space!

[PaxImperator]

Here's a quick and dirty snapshot to show the free company's current state.



The reds and blues are now where I think I'll keep them. Much as I like the reddish brown on the front row's three leftmost models, I don't think I'll repeat it. It doesn't look quite right to my eyes next to the bright red. In the second and third ranks there are three models with bright white on them that's due for a coat of yellow. It's been rather enjoyable seeing the puzzle pieces come together on this unit, hence the extra update. Still a lot to do, of course, but it feels like the tougher choices are now behind me.

I got a little adventurous with one model's trousers, which I decided should have red and blue stripes. My first attempt, on the left, had narrow blue stripes. I didn't work because it was hard to tell the blue stripes' colour from any reasonable distance. I've remedied that problem with by filling in half the red stripes with blue. Works for me, even if the close-up is very uncharitable to my freehand skills. More importantly, lesson learned about making red/blue bits big enough.

[PaxImperator]

I'm calling my free company done for now. Picture time!



You'll notice they don't have any static grass on their bases yet and not all base rims have been painted. I'm going to put the ones in the most difficult poses on multibases once I've painted up a few more. Right now they're a bit of a pain to rank up.



That's also the reason the demoted captain's not in the place of honour on the right side of the unit. For now I'll put it down to this unruly lot not standing on ceremony.





As the keen eyed among you may have noticed, I repainted the reddish brown on the three models from my last post. I think it's for the best even if the colour looked rather nice on its own. The dark brown overcoat on the rear ranker turned out especially well, I think.









Finally a shot of the free company next to a unit of properly uniformed state troops. I was wondering if the free company would fit in well enough with the state troops until I took this picture. I think the chosen colours are enough to tie them together.



With that out of the way, all that's left to paint in this batch are a mortar, three gunners, two halberdiers and the new captain. The trouble with the Empire mortar of course is that you could hold a shell inside its barrel without barrel and shell even touching each other. Younger me never thought to fix that with green stuff, but I have. Not perfect but much better.



So here's what's next on the painting desk. I'm saving the new captain for last.

[Sharkbelly]

Nice work! The barrel on the mortar looks much better.

[Grudgie]

Yea nice work on the mortar barrel I'm definitely stealing that haha

[PaxImperator]

Thanks! I should point out that I'm only the last in a long line of Empire players who've done this to their mortars. I didn't come up with it.

Meanwhile I've been plugging away at the mortar crew and halberdiers in what little time I've had available, so here's a work-in-progress update.



Most of the basecoats are down so it's 'just' a matter of highlighting and shading now. It was nice to be painting over a white basecoat again. The red especially was much easier to paint.

[Rowsdower]

Great job

[Degendorff]

Just wanted to drop that this is my favourite Brush and Palette thread. I really like your bright colours! Looking forward to any update from your project!

[GamesPoet]

I really like what you've done with the pistoliers, and the captain, outstanding!  :icon_cool: :eusa_clap: :::cheers:::

[PaxImperator]

Thank you very much for the kind words. You're making me blush!  :blush:

Update time! I finished that mortar crew and the two halberdiers that were still in the works.





After half a year this project's off the back burner again. Quite happy with how this lot turned out. Next up will be the mortar and the captain plus a group shot of the entire 1,000 pt army and we'll see after that.

[PaxImperator]

I've put some basecoats on the captain, as you can see:

 

Even with just these few colours on the model, the scheme's starting to come together already. The armour will be black with gold details. Even as I'm typing this, I've just realised this will be reminiscent of the old 5th edition Empire army book front cover art. I never even intended for that to happen but here we are. :)

I'm happy with the balance between red, blue and yellow on the front but less so on the back. I think there's a bit too much blue there. Also, the blue on the upper back is making it painfully obvious that for whatever strange reason the model's cuirass doesn't cover his upper back and chest. I was vaguely aware that this might be a problem while I was converting the mini, but painting the offending bits blue has really driven home to me how off it looks. It's too late to remodel it now so the best I can do is to paint it a discreet colour to camouflage it. Maybe a straight black would be best? Some extra fancy gold trim on the pauldrons might help to draw the eye away as well. I'm also debating whether to paint the left trouser leg red to even up the red:blue ratio on the back. Keen to hear your thoughts!

[Archilector_Malaga]

Excellent job with that colourful and coherent army!

That captain will look great in black armour.

[PaxImperator]

Thanks Archilector!

The mortar's done. The freehand design on the carriage didn't quite turn out the way I hoped but I feel it's time to move on.





The crewmen have had self-adhesive magnetic sheet applied to their bases to help with safe storage and transport. Self-adhesive in this case means self-removing. There just doesn't seem to be enough surface area to create a good durable bond. I'll have to fill up the base with some sort of material to increase the surface area and/or use super glue. (The mortar's base has a round neodymium magnet, which is working great.) For now these models are going into their assigned cookie tin so I can set my sights on that captain again.

[Rowsdower]

You can never have too many militia units
I'm jealous of this. At the moment, my house is being renovated and i cant do anything hobby related

[commandant]

That area of his back could be covered by his helmet though depending on what helmet he has.

[PaxImperator]

You can never have too many militia units
I'm jealous of this. At the moment, my house is being renovated and i cant do anything hobby related

Thanks!

That area of his back could be covered by his helmet though depending on what helmet he has.

True, although it doesn't appear to be the case with the helmet he's holding. I guess I'll just stop worrying about it because it shouldn't be that noticeable once he's inside a unit anyway.

Here are two WiP shots of the captain. We're nearly there as you can see.



The biggest things left to do are the metallics, highlighting the feather and fine tuning the furrows on his brow. I think the gold trim on his armour would look better if it's a bit brighter. The current gold colour is actually labeled as a brass. I'll probably give the laurel wreath an extreme highlight of silver to make it stand out more. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the blue shirt but I'm at a loss about what else to do with it and anyway it's so hard to reach because of the beard and pauldrons that I'll probably just leave it be.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them!

[PaxImperator]

The captain's done!



I'm pleased with how he's turned out. He'll be a worthy replacement for my old captain.

This completes the second 500-point chunk of the army, which means it's time for a group shot.



My phone camera sadly struggles to pick up all the details at this distance, but I think you'll get the idea. It was more gratifying to see the army all assembled like this than I had expected. It's given my motivation to paint a nice little boost. This begs the question what's next. Here's the list:

60    Wizard: lore of shadow 60    Wizard: lore of heavens 85    10 crossbowmen: musician 60    12 free company 123    5 Knights: musician 100    great cannon 488    What's definitely first is the great cannon, because I already started on it while working on the mortar. For after that, I've picked a nice variety of models that will hopefully keep me engaged during this next leg. Let's go! :D

[Rowsdower]

Great job on the old warhorse Captain

[PaxImperator]

Thanks Rowsdower!

Update time again because the cannon's done. :D











The pattern on the blue half of the carriage has more contrast in real life than the camera's showing. Very happy with how it's turned out. Picking the pattern was actually harder than painting it. I got it from a book called 'The Grammar of Ornament'. Apparently it originally was a page decoration in a medieval manuscript. Because it's a bit flowy any imperfections are harder to spot.

On to the next model: my shadow wizard.



This is how I left him sometime in the late naughties. I'll be touching him up a bit as part of this project. It feels a bit like cheating to count him as a model to be painted, but that's shadow wizards for you! I wouldn't mind another quick win to give a sense of momentum.

I converted the wizard from mostly free company parts. The hat's a plasticard disk topped with greenstuff and the hair, belt and back of the cloak are also greenstuff. He's not quite up to my current standards but I'm happy to keep him on board. He's the most archetypal wizard I could make with the skills and parts I had at my disposal.

[PaxImperator]

The shadow wizard's done.



The improvement isn't huge by any means, but hopefully you can tell the difference. I think it's most noticeable on the trousers, feathers and leather.

Time for the next batch of models, which will be five Reiksguard knights with a musician. Here's the unit as they were before:



I left this unit in varying stages of completion way back when.



This side view shows it best. The middle model is the unit's original paint scheme with a rather ineffectual dusting of chaos black over it. That's because I was in the middle of repainting them into the scheme you see on the left and right model. They were to have black armour with silver trim, as can be seen on the left model. I never finished it though. The left model has lost its tail, a classic problem with these sculpts because the joint with the horse's backside is so small. Overall these sculpts haven't aged terribly well but I still like them enough to look forward to going to work on them.

My plan this time around is different again from my previous two schemes. I'm going for the classic Reiksguard scheme of shiny silver armour and red and white shields, plumes and lances. Reiksguard seem appropriate for an army from Altdorf and their colours should combine well with the infantry's exuberant uniforms.

[Artobans Ghost]

Excellent trip down memory lane. I started with my son who was 12 when I got him the 6th Ed starter in 2005 . Fell in love with the hobby and still love it. Desciples of Sigmar army, Regular empire (own army) ork , goblin , high elves, Dwarf, Tzeentch in warhammer, dark angels, Gaurdians of the Coventant, Oks, valhallan imperial, sisters of battle in 40K, AoS Cities of Sigmar - Matorean Army (Thanks GP) , Stormcast, skaven, beastmen, slaves of Darkness, Ogre Mawtribe, Gloomspite Gits.  Dragon Rampart various groups ( again thanks GP). Untold 40K, Warhammer, AoS books read. Now looking at the new 'Old World' have my eyes on the Cathay army
Presently without a hobby room. Maybe Next year.
My son and I still collect and build. He's 32 now, I'm 61 lol

[PaxImperator]

Glad to be of service.  :happy: That's quite the trip down memory lane! Whoever was it that said some of their fondest memories are of old toys from their childhood? It seems pertinent, even if I've probably butchered it.

Speaking of which, I've been experimenting on my Reiksguard knights to find a good armour recipe. Here's a side-by-side comparison of my three attempts:





Going from left to right, we have:
No. 1: Vallejo 77.712 steel basecoat, 50/50 Army Painter dark tone/flow medium shade applied selectively, 70.864 natural steel highlight, 72.052 silver highlight
No. 2: 70.864 natural steel basecoat, 50/50 dark tone/flow medium shade applied all over, 70.864 natural steel drybrush, 72.052 silver highlight
No. 3: 77.712 steel basecoat, 50/50 dark tone/flow medium shade applied selectively, 70.864 natural steel drybrush, 72.052 silver highlight

No. 1 has the best shading in my opinion, but the overall effect is too dark and the transition from basecoat to first layer is too stark. No. 2 is better in terms of brightness and transitions, but is much less shiny than the others because the dark tone wash dulls down everything it touches. No. 3's the brightest and shiniest, but the shading is not quite as good as on no. 1. I'm definitely leaning towards no. 3. I want these to be knights in shining armour much like the Reiksguard from GW's old studio army, only with better shading. No. 3 comes closest to that ideal. I'll paint their horses an extra dark shade of brown to make the armour look even brighter by comparison. Unfortunately I can't use the same trick on their shields and plumes because then they'd cease to be Reiksguard.

I don't think I've every put so much thought into metallics. Usually I just put down a single coat of whichever colour seems best, maybe shade it once and leave it at that, but that just wasn't an option with these models. It's been fun and educational for me to try harder with my metallics! I found Vallejo's special metallics range make for great basecoats. The mica particles have been ground to a really fine size so these paints are highly reflective and very smooth. Unfortunately they're really designed to be used with an airbrush so they're too runny for selective application with a brush in my experience. If anyone has any tips for shading metals without dulling them down, I'd love to hear them because Army Painter's dark tone just eats up the shine.

Another thing I'm still mulling is the colour for the lances and saddles. No. 1 is just a dark red; no. 2 is the same dark red mixed with a dark brown. No. 2 looks closer to what I'm trying to emulate and is also more in line with my own plan to offset the bright armour with dark colours elsewhere on the model, but that dark red on no. 1 does look rather nice...