...ALL ROADS LEAD TO REIKDORF...
It's finally finished. 8 long months of preparation, construction, painting, stress... and it's done.
Now that we've reached the end, I can say it: this army is the first and only army I've ever finished!
Let me explain:
Of course, I've painted armies before, for myself or on commission, but for the first time a project meets my personal standards of completeness.
1- Planning on paper from the start.
Since I had to present the project at the end of December, this was the first time in my modeling life that I analyzed the models in my collection, decided what and how much to buy, and assembled the different units in an organized way before starting. Usually, like many of us, I buy what I like when I feel like it or what I need when I can, but not this time.
2- A playable army.
An important aspect, but equally difficult to achieve: a finished army is a playable army: therefore, with a minimum number of characters, basic regiments, etc., but also with some competitive units and some extras, such as the battle standard bearer and some pieces with an extra punch. I've often painted projects like this, especially on commission, but in my personal collection there are more loose pieces than organized armies. This is one of the few.
3- No backlog.
And here's the real news! Having planned everything in advance, squeezing every model and buying only the bare minimum, I find myself with NO extra unfinished models! Of course, this doesn't mean I don't have a pile of shame. On the contrary, my pile of shame is higher than ever. It just means I have nothing left to paint for this specific army. Not even a single humble warrior... even the leftover bitz are no more than a small handful.
4- The parts make the whole.
I've met some of the previous requirements before in my modeling life, especially when working on commission and painting the entire set, or when preparing an army for a battle, or maybe when you just buy a couple of boxes to start a new faction and finish them in one go... but this is truly the first time I've managed to meet all these requirements at once, and I did it FOR ME! It's an incredible, overwhelming feeling. Like when you finish a good book and you're left with that mixed feeling of satisfaction and emptiness... but you can't wait to read another. And I can't wait to start the next project, another army for the next OWAC!
Now I'll let the images do the talking, but first, one last fundamental consideration:
This project has another great record. It made me want to play again, and it also got my wife and children involved. We planned a table together, created some basic scenery elements, and even played a few introductory games. The family loved them and slowly started painting some miniatures themselves. I never thought this challenge would yield such incredible results. Most of the time, we played by splitting this single army in two, to play smaller battles with the new miniatures, and this forced me to tackle another BSB, and here it is.
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| Tried to match the first One in shapes and colors. |
The base model is Valerie Duval from the old Warzone range, a model I found damaged beyond repair in a batch many years ago.
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| Pic for reference |
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| Catachan arms slighty shaped.. fit and wonderful. |
With a little putty work, I think she's more than fit to carry the army's secondary banner. She's super confident, tough, and fit, like a true Barbarian warrior should be.
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| Fierce and proud! |
I love her, and she's turned out to be one of my favorite pieces. I'm not entirely happy with the freehand on the shield, but I decided to settle for it.
Now onto the beauty shots.
And some more...
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| The Hunt begins... |
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| Chariots racing around the village |
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| Björn and Dragor planning the next raid. |
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| Redmane warband leaving the gates. |
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| Björn's warband protecting the village from and orc raiding party. |
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| The nobles speeding through the fields to join the Battle. |
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| Orcs! The messenger brings word of the incoming invasion. |
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| The outer outpost must be fitted for defense. |
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| "Here you are!" |
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| Queen Griselda, mother of Sigmar, praying to the Gods of Mankind |
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| Sigmar and Ravenna, back to back against the green tide. |
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| Protecting Foamhenge from the ravaging orcs |
Points, let's talk about points:
As I said, I'm not at all familiar with the third edition rules (I'm a 5th edition guy), and I don't think I've fully grasped how to calculate points, especially for characters and the unit command group.
But here it is, as I thought at the end of December. The value is probably much higher than that (with the command groups and hero options), but it would probably also be illegal in the composition of individual units and the hero/core/special/rare ratios.
*) name (count as): equipment. Points
-----------Heroes and command: Total 467--------
1) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): 2 hand weapons, heavy armor. 130pt
2) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): two-handed weapon, heavy armor. 130pt
3) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): hand weapon, shield heavy armor. 129pt
4) barbarian banner bearer (chaos champion): hand weapon, army banner, heavy armor. 178pt
----------------Rank and files: Total 1106-----------------
1) barbarian warband (20 chaos thugs): 2 hand weapons, light armor. 180pt
2) barbarian warband (20 chaos thugs): hand weapon, shield, light armor. 180pt
3) barbarian cavalry (10 mounted chaos thugs): hand weapon, light armor, shield 180pt
4) 2 barbarian chariots (8 marauder horsemen with heavy armour ). 376pt
5) barbarian hunting party (10 chaos thugs): hand weapon, light armor, bow. 100pt
6) barbarian hunting party (10 chaos thugs): hand weapon, light armor, shields, javelines, (throwing axes). 100pt
Total. 1.573
I left out the second BSB, the warrior queen, and the additional plastic models, which weren't planned at the start of the project.
I would have liked to prepare some extras, some surprises, maybe a large monster or an additional unit, in this final month, but I didn't find anything I really liked, so I limited myself to making some new scenery elements. Over the last few months, I've built a more than decent collection, as you can see from the photos. In total, we have:
- a couple of new forest bases
- a village of huts and shacks
- a chief's longhouse
- a modular log fortress with a gate, walls, and towers
- an entire stone circle, more than properly named Foamhenge
- a rocky hill, the first of many
- and above all, a regulation-sized table to host our games in the studio.
That's all, I think. This time too, I got carried away by excessive verbosity. I'll definitely be back next year with a new, incredible project (but I don't know which one yet). In the meantime, keep painting.
Stay true, stay oldschool. 🤘🏼
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| From this... |
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| ...to this! |