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well i need to have a lightbox too.... it really is quite frustrating to see the stuff in bad pics....

I agree, and with English weather being unpredictable as always (Today it has rained, been sunny and very windy, sometimes all at the sametime!) it makes taking decent photos difficult.

So going to pick up a "light bin" and see if that helps.

well...here is me crossing fngers on your behalf

Well hopefully I will have light box and then many many new photos!

yup....


well i am off for now... need to get an eyeshut^^

see ya tomorrow! *waves*

Night Vik

So a very long overdue update.

Not on life, that is recorded elsewhere lol.

But I have been unable to focus for a while but it seems to be coming back and as such I have decided that I will get my first 500 points of empire completed before long!

So First up the completed Witch hunter. He was a fantastic model to work on (even if Finecast Resin is the devil of all materials to have a model made of!) I have gone for a more yellow based brown and neutral look rather than the reddish brown GW choose.


Next up is the Swordsmen. Originally my army was based on the schemes of Altdorf, but I have since changed to Hochland as such Blue is slowly being repainted to green. Need to get some more Knightly orders Shield Sprues before I can finish them all mind!


Next up would be the detachment of Free Company. My aim with these is to use browns, greens, red, black and off-white to make them stand out and match to the rest of the army.


The archers where originally huntsmen under the old book, but are going to be used as Archers now. Still going to keep the uniform mostly brown with green sleeves and trousers, and the red coming from feathers. And on the arrows too!


Crossbow men, I like the longer and harder hitting range compared to handgunners. Hence the inclusion in this quite small army.


And finally it brings me to the army shot. 51 models strong and exactly 500 points. Designed under the old Border Patrol Rules it gives me a good solid core to an Empire Army I feel.


Hopefully over the next 10 days I will be able to get them all complete and maybe then begin learning how to play Warhammer 8th Ed properly.

Stay tuned.

the witch hunter looks simply amazing! and if you would be so kind a dayligt pic to better apreciate the job you did on him would be so nice!

and when i finally get my fist paycheck in years this model will be mine too...

the army is already big... tho the points... i am marveling at the points count for fantasy armies... the whole lot only 500 points? man that must be a huge amount of work and money to get it to 1000... what is your long time goal?

and good to see you back!... hope the personal life is treating you well...

I plan to get some more photos of the Witch hunter tomorrow when the light is a bit better (it was bright when I went to town, but when I got back had gone a little grey). Think I will also get a photo of my Priest, Captain with Banner and General/Captain done too.

After this core is done my aim is to get the next 500 points done, which is 20 Spearmen, 20 handgunners and a wizard or two. After that going to aim to work on the knights (quite happy with the conversions ^^) and and pistolliers.

Personal life is a bit of a muddle but wading through it Your brick work walls and the lamp are very impressive terrain pieces.

why thank you! *blushes* it was a pain in the rear tho^^... and i am not even half way through yet^^

sounds interresting ... by the way... have you heard of the "das schwarze auge"? a german bases RPG which also has a table top variant ... which i happen to own quite a fiew interesting looking miniatures... knights and so on... if you are interested i could show you some of my stuff... if you ever need some different looking minis we might arrange something...

That does sound interesting, not heard of it before. But I am in the process of diving into a lot of information/sources on mixing Tabletop and RPGs. Something that I am keen on getting into.

Mind I will add the undercoated knights to the list of photos tomorrow. Mainly to show of the conversions xD

I am drafting some rules for a unit I still feel is missing from the Empire book, that of Empire scouts (light Cav with bows). So I may end up converting some of them up in the near future too.

well for now i am looking forward to better pics of that WH...

and if you ever need some help with minis let me know...

and mixing tabletop and rpg... well munda and mortheim is only just a fist step but certianly not the end of that idea!

Mordheim is very interesting and appealing to me. And something I am looking to pick up the rulebook sometime.

There is something about having a story behind an army that is very appealing. I do have some back ground for this patrol done, need to type it up and post it some time. Tomorrow with the photos if I can get round to it.

yup... fluff has to be there for me too... i still have a big scheme for my army to name each mini... for me that is essential... and to have character development then is only the next logical step...

if i hadn´t invested into 40k so much i probably would have been neck deep into mordheim by now too...^^

tho a gang one day would not been that much i think..^^

That is what I am thinking (plus it give me an excuse to buy more of my favourite Empire kits and another Witch Hunter too!) ^^ so I think is going to be one of my next investments.

I name every Character, most squads, tanks (and warmachines too!) and sometimes when I am bored write short stories about my forces.

Guess that I might have to do some Guardsmen in the coming future too. But for the next 10 Days I plan to work hard on the Empire stuff

you do that... empire even may look brigt for a change of the ol grim dark clichee...^^

I tend to have a brighter palette. My painting style is bold, solid and often bright (my space marines are purple and blue!) and my Empire army is to follow suit. If I did get into Mordhiem I would use a similar pallet.

Every wargamer develops their own style, and I think that is how it should, otherwise it all looks exactly the same and everything is "Grim Darker" than the stuff before it. A lot of The league of Extraordinary Riveters stuff is distinct in that sense. Both painting styles and indeed construction and army presentation.

i think that whole hobby is meant to be a good way to express ones individuality... if peeps only do follow an art book of how to paint their SM then they are doing it wrong for me...

but that is just personal taste...

have you looked into shasolenzabi´s stuff? he does some truly unique looking IG... with camo... truly awsome looking...

and with an empire warband bold schemes is just to the point... they are meant to look exactly that way^^

I have seen Shaso's guard, very impressive, I have tried camo patterns in the past, can't quite get it right. On tanks and such it can be very fun to trial.

And Empire as with pretty much every fantasy army can benefit from strong and bold schemes. I did do Slaanesh WOC before, bright purple with pink highlights. I have always done bright and bold, it is my thing I guess.

And I plan to do a Witch Hunter warband in the future. Light browns, white and black (with many bright coloured feathers!)

if it wouldn´t be so damn pricey still i would have had way more WH and inq stuff for my army as well... i like the fluff behind them and you have so much room for individuality...

As promised a short story. Or part of it anyway, designed to give a back story of the Witch Hunter and even the army too. Enjoy, and hopefully some photos to come tomorrow, hopefully I can catch the good weather haha

Oswald surveyed the ruins of the village. Many good men and women of the Empire had been murdered, mutilated and reduced to bloody ruins. The smell of charred flesh hung over the still smoking ruins of the Hochland village, the only sounds the careful foot steps of the State Troopers and the occasional spitting of dying embers.

Oswald Aldrech was a hard man. One who had been hardened further by a life lived bringing Sigmar’s Wrath to the enemies of the Empire. But even this destruction made anger burn in the depths of his stomach. He had been heading to this village on a summons from the local priest of Morr. The Priest feared that a cult had begun to take root amongst the farmers and trappers, and he feared it was connected to an increase in local beastman activity. Oswald had found the priest, or rather what was left of him. Impaled upon a statue of Morr, over looking the small cemetery, hands, tongue, eyes and feet had been crudely removed from his form.

The Sergeant who had led the small patrol force walked towards Oswald. His sword still drawn, grey shield held tight. He wasn’t a young man but with the green and red of Hochland, his steel helm topped with a large white feather and the grim look etched on his gaunt face, gave him the air of someone not to be messed with. “Well Witch Hunter Aldrech, what do you make of this?” He asked, more with a sense of knowing his own opinion, but play acting to an officer. It was true that rural folk tended to distrust outsiders, even more when they were in charge. But it was more true that Someone of Oswald’s position carried a great amount of fear from the common man and indeed noblemen often glared with suspicion at a Witch Hunter in their mist.

“I think Sergeant, that two incidents happened here. The Priest wrote informing my order of a possible cult element. And linked it to the beastmen. I am sure that you have noticed some of the unusual elements to this scene of wreckage. Firstly there are two distinct groups of villagers, one near the gate, cut down like animals before the slaughter. The other hacked apart in the manner of people who stood in defence of their home. The other thing that is to be noticed is there are no bodies of children to be found. Your men and the others haven’t seen a single child.” Oswald paused to let the concept fall into the sergeants hand, he watched the other man for a reaction, but he gave only the smallest of nods. “It would seem that the children were stolen by the beastmen, and perhaps the cultists let those dark creatures in, as the gate nor the wall shows any signs of damage. There were traitors to Hochland and the Empire in this village and I think we will have to hunt the hunters and rid this part of the Drakwald of their foulness.” The fever of a fanatic crept into Oswald’s one remaining grey eye and edge his voice. The Sergeant grunted in agreement.

At that moment, the a dreadful horn sounded in the distance. An ambush it seemed. Oswald and the Sergeant hurried to the centre of the village, already the Swordsmen had formed up, the militiamen following little order formed up on the flank of the Swordsmen. The Archers took up their lose formation, notching arrows to bows as they took cover in the burnt out barn. Finally the Crossbowmen formed up on the high ground close to the well. Oswald and the Sergeant found places among the Swordsmen. Oswald checked both his pistols were loaded and ready to fire. He also loosened his Reikland steel sword from its scabbard. A pregnant silence fell over the village, a gentle smoke laced wind ruffled the feathers and uniforms of the state troopers. It tugged at Oswald’s heavy brown leather coat, showing his enchanted armour briefly to the weak sun.

Then they came, a herd of braying angry half-men. The dreadful children of chaos. Gors and Ungors shoved and lashed out at each other to make entry to the village, so they could rend and main in the names of their unholy dark gods. A huge creature clad in shreds of gore smeared, red and green studded leather pounded his way into the village at the head of the Gor. Oswald knew then that he would allow Sigmar’s will to be done, and that dreadful horned creature would die in vengeance of the Empire’s blood that had been spilt…

simply cool... you definatly should continue that! on a personal note... i hope they get the kids back...not that i have high hopes tho...

So I promised some photo updates and due to having some good weather for a change, I managed to get a few decent photos of Empire Heroes.

First up the Witch Hunter, still think I may highlight the feathers a little more, and touch up the base.


Next up we have the Captains. The Banner was designed to be quite generic so that it can be used as any magic banner bar the Griffin Standard.
Front


Back


Just showing of the freehand banner a little bit. Yeah it is nothing more than a Templar Cross but that is one of the heraldic symbols of Hochland, so it fits...


Finally we have the Warrior Priest and the Engineer, who tends to hide in the big block of Handgunners and add his fire power to theirs.
Front


Back

firstly i have to compliment you for your bright and shapr pics... not often do we get such good pics here^^

second... the minis look very good...the banner i really like! the colors are very vibrat and you can´t be left untouched by them! the freehand is very good looking and i like that you have gone for bigger lines on the templar cross! that is setting the thing apart... tho a lil greyish highlight just for the cross i think would give this part a nice 3D effect...

peeps that ahve heard my musing the last coupla month probably know my views on non black rim of bases... which aren´t that nice but i guess if you can live with that i have to too^^

what i would like to know is will you give the white trousers of your WH some wash? and if so, which one? i think these could do with some...tho i´d be damned if i knew which one... need and answer for that too for my own men...

also i think most of your metal work could do with a wash or two... to add a bit of depth to it...

otherwise i have to say... good looking characterfull miniatures that look stunningly painted... specially the sigmar priest and the banner bearer... their eyes...totally awesome!

Thanks ^^

As for a wash on White. I might try mud or black, but it is going to have to be thinned down just to shade, but not colour the white. Will trial and error on some beastmen and see what comes.

Most of my metal work tends to get a thinned and mixed wash of black and blue if it is Silver based metal. For brass/golds they get Sepia/mud and sometime red washes. I think need to just touch over with a wash mix here and there.

There is more to come. Hopefully I can get photos up as I go along.

i need to get a good thinned down washmix too... usually i just go for heavy wash and use them straight from the pot... which i too think is a no go for white...

No that is the complicated bit getting the mix of water/wash right enough to shade but not colour white. Going to be interesting, guess I will trial and error it the next few weeks.


(Gods I need some proper sleep)

lol... sleeping... so many of my friends here log in on the wee hours... that is playing hob with my sleeping schedule too...^^ but what am i about to do? ^^

I just can't sleep at all. Weather and the constant stomping of the upstairs neighbours >.<

Mind I do tend to paint or read. I have worked through a few Steampunk books and Black Library ones ^^ some benefit at least!

hey... steampunk books? which one... the only real one i´ve read was the affirmity bridge by george mann... which was quite good all in all...