From Curt - First Group of 10mm units for The Empire (I of VII) (138 Points)

Hi All!

I've been puttering away at this project since the start of the Challenge, and while it's certainly not 'done', it has progressed to a state where I'm happy to start posting it. So I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. Stuart has been kind enough to allow me to sneak in at the last minute, so my hat's off to him not only for this, but also for his excellent work as our Saturday Minion this Challenge. Thank you again, Stuart - we could not have done this without you.

I've always been a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy's 'Old World'. This goes way, waay back to the 80s with my first introduction to the setting. While the rules themselves could often leave me cold at times (depending on the edition), it was the Old World that I always drew me back. The gritty, ersatz Renaissance aesthetic ticked off so many boxes for me - the heady mixture of plate armour, crazy magic, puff & slash uniforms and early gunpower weapons - it was just so cool.  I won't even start on my opinion on GW's inexplicable decision to blow up their own IP and replace the Old World with The Age of Stinkmar, other than to say it was an atrociously bad one.

Anyway, the Old World is wonderful source of nostalgia for me, and I always enjoy visiting it from time to time, either through role-playing (we had a fun time last year playing the 'Enemy in the Shadows' campaign), the occasional mass figures game (using the excellent 'One-Page Rules'), or just painting scads of 10mm stuff like I'm showing here today.

I really enjoyed Warmaster when it was released, as the figures were so innovative, and the rules brought a breath of fresh air to GW's stable (they are the fountainhead for Warlord's 'Hail Caesar', 'Pike & Shotte' and 'Blackpowder'). My interest was renewed a few years ago when I came across some old unopened blisters in storage. After re-reading the Warmaster rules, I decided to instead follow a different path, using a fantasy variant of  'To the Strongest' as the basis for my reboot. One of the selling features of using TtS are that the rules allow for large single bases for units which I really enjoy as it gives room for mass and creating little vignettes. Over the past two Challenges I've managed decent inroads with my Wood Elf and Tomb King armies, but now I have a new force to add: The Empire!

For me the Empire is the quintessential Warhammer Fantasy army. It has that wonderful mix of traditional units such as knights, halberdiers and spearmen, along with some esoteric oddities such as flagellants, volley guns and steam tanks. It really has something for everyone.

I have a bunch of stuff completed, but I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. 

First up is our General and two units of doughty Halberdiers. 

The casting of the General is quite impressive, astride his faithful Griffon, issuing orders to his troops. 

Nonetheless, the overall model wasn't quite as imposing as either my Tomb King or Wood Elf generals on their dragons, so I printed off and rescaled a ruined tower from Hagglethorn Hollow for him and his mount to perch on. Much better, I think.

Like the General, the Halberdiers are venerable GW metals. With my larger bases, I have the room to place the equivalent of two standard Warmaster units on them. I really like the massed look that this conveys. I also LOVE the heft of these things when compared to resin models. It really appeals to my lizard brain. :)

One of the blisters had been opened and I was short two strips of figures. To make it up I decided to use my terrain cheat and include a small structure to make up for the loss of space on the base. 

Again, I like doing this from time to time as it adds a bit of visual interest and gives players something to grip on to when moving the base around the tabletop.

For points, the two Halberdier units have 132 figures between them for an equal amount of points. For the general, I ask our esteemed Minion Stuart to indulge me by scoring it as a vehicle as it's a fairly large piece, especially with the addition of the ruined tower. If he is amenable with that, this group should give me a total of 138 points. 

I'll have another Empire unit up tomorrow. I hope you stop in for a peek. 

Thanks!

- Curt

Amazing work on this army, Curt. I totally agree on the draw of Warhammer Fantasy, as a setting it was very rich and had so much to offer. The Empire really represent what was great about the aesthetics, with a wide variety of units to choose from. I never found the rules to be to my taste, as I have commented on in my own posts before, but the range of figures was superb. At 10mm the units start to look like regiments of soldiers ready for battle. 

Well done on getting this new project started, hopefully we will see it develop further in posts to come.

From DavidB: Potpourri and Lady Sarah (215 points)

 

Janes Addiction -Mountain Song

My desk this very morning! I have been away from home for a few weeks doing training with Search and Rescue and other Great Lakes first responders. Very fun training even if I was mostly running a TOC, but I did get some opportunities for helicopter rides with partner agencies and Canadians and US Coastguard are always fun men and women to hang out with especially when they are showing off training and their taxpayer funded toys. Being National Guard, missions like these are fun for me as they highlight the 1st Responder mission of the NG. It is a reminder to for the public that men and women in uniform are not just thumping eyeballs and kicking in doors with guns out; we are also there for disasters and emergency providing security and medical services including search and rescue.

But enough waffle of Adrenalin junkie looking for justification of kicking in doors and doing cool guy stuff! :)

These two ladies wrangled the limo from Lady Sarah so I could arrive to the far side of the green zone. Historical Drama.

A reaper miniature in metal not bones of a US Cavalry trooper. He was in my mountain of neglect for awhile, but is now ready to join the rest of my western figures. Since he was solo, I decided to redden his skin and make him a cavalry scout. A misconception is the fate of the native scouts used by the US Army in the Plains Wars. Apache, Navajo, Pawnee, Cheyenne, and many other tribes provided scouts for the US Army. Some Apache scouts were disarmed and sent to the reservation when Geronimo was finally captured, The neglected bit from that action is the fact that those scouts were also Apaches from Geronimo's tribe and Geronimo was himself once a scout in US Army service. Since background investigations were not very good then, I can easily understand how loyalty was in question for those scouts. Racist? yes...but I can also see how the unilateral decision was made. Now you folk know the other side of that tale. The 9th and 10th soldiers also known as the Buffalo Soldiers were used in the later years of the Plains Wars and also in the Spanish-American War. from Cuba to the Philippines the 10th Cavalry had a section of Apache Scouts. Those scouts continued to serve even after Geronimo's capture and were from a different Apache Tribe.

The Native Scouts were officially disbanded in 1947 with 4-5 Apache Scouts still serving at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. They continued to live in retirement at the fort with their families and served as tour guides. By this time many First Nation had already served in many capacities within American armed forces in various ranks and capacities besides the famous Navajo Code Talkers. Many still served as scouts with combat units, but with white counterparts who were also equally qualified for that mission.

Red skin and black hair, hopefully his saber is the heavier civil war saber and not the cheap plains war metal! ;)

Amazingly, I do paint stuff other than 40k, My group mainly plays 40k, so maybe I can entice them with Silver Bayonet. This is the French faction and one of three I purchased at Adepticon last year. I plan on acquiring more and doing custom minis with Victrix and Perry for more options.

These minis were among the ones I painted at the hotel with a wet pallet and limited colors as I couldn't pack all my miniatures and paint in my duffle.

The "civilians"  of the group.

These are the two miniatures that sold me to this set.

Now I can have my own" Brotherhood of the Wolf"

Warlord Games made Mythic America which while excited for it, My enthusiasm has been diminished by the cost of the miniatures and the quality as they are soft on detail and more like Hollywood did the designs. After I decided to ignore the clumpy, lumpy, detail like hands and the Hollywood take of 1st Nation...I had lots of fun with them.

A Chief guarded by Mohawks, but he is more Cheyenne.( just go with it)

A very animated group of elite Mohawks....cuz they have magnificent mohawks of course!

I used black and red inks for warpaint as it lets the skin tones shine through and I feel it looks more natural. Ash, charcoal, and blood were common for warpaint ingredients especially befor European contact. I stippled red, blue, white, and red on pouches in impressionistic bead work. some of their torques have blue and green for turquoise and other semi precious stones and gold was used for copper accents.

The Seneca provide range fire since Mohawks must not know how that works and are smaller because you need a big mohawk to be elite and big! ;)

They look fine from a distance, but they suffered more from soft spots and sculpt issues

Proportions are all over the place, but then I admit I like the difference in size like real people and the do look very good when bulking out my forces of other First Nation warriors. Not too terrible, but should definitely be better for the price paid. There are big native monsters and spirits in the range but are resin and very expensive. I wouldn't mind getting them, but I fear the sculpts may not be worth the price.

A wizkids owlbear! This is fun as it is the first owlbear I've ever seen in miniature and very cheap too!

I went brown bear with snowy owl, but decided a fantasy critter could have blue for sheer rule of cool.

He will be off to my son's D&D collection, but I think he may be a fun encounter for Silver Bayonet!

A very old samurai from games workshop and the venerable Talisman Game. 

I never did get my own copy of the game, but had lots of fun with it. Now I have an excuse to get a samurai game though!

....and he has a skull too....didn't even notice till I began to paint his helmet!

Now off to Averland of the Old World and some Halberdiers from Blackfire Pass

Two metal minis and three plastic(one a conversion from the empire artillery crew)

The two metal minis will be official Blackfire Pass veterans while the other three will be a fighter group of hopefuls.

Some more fighters with swords and a few pistols

Black and Yellow for Averland, but most are poor so lots of tans and browns till they save up for new duds.

My Averland warband is going to be gun heavy including these two averland gunners.

The designated leader and champion models.

They have been boxed up for such a long time that I can no longer remember the roster build other than blackpowder and halberds.

I do remember that they would also serve as milita to guard my big blocks of pike or missle troops though!

So these all have been bounced around in my rucksack while I was away, They survived rough handling well and were kept safe in a small foam case in traveling with minimal damage except for paint rub on the big purple feathers of the Averland troops which was easily fixed.

1 Apache Scout- 5 points plus 20 for historical drama

8 Napoleonics for 40 points and 1 skull

13 first nation troops - 65 points

1 owlbear- 5 points

1 samurai- 5 points and 1 skull

14 Mordenheim- 70 points and 33 skulls

total in post-1

210 points 

35 skulls

I am also using the Vivandierrie and medicine woman for a future ride in Lady Sarah's limo

Friday Minion: Hi again David, I've missed Minioning your grab-bag of projects and impressive output. Great to hear about your training, and thank you for your service in the NG. And this is an ace collection to start us off this Friday, the Silver Bayonet stuff is fantastic, and nice to see some of the Mythic Americas stuff and read your feedback on the quality. And we have quite a bit of purple featuring again, hurrah! 

My favourite of the lot is that very fierce Owlbear though, what a top model. I'll score that as a 28mm cavalry figure, and add the bonus for your Limo ride now, giving you a total of 215 Points for this post. 

I doubt the Lady Sarah is big on pot pourri, though. 

From MikeW - Various Warhammer Empire Miniatures (260 Points)

Following on from my last post I emptied out my bags of old Warhammer Empire figures on the workbench and was determined to work out how to add these in to my recently expanded Stirland State Army.

Undercoated Empire figures, Eagle-eyed readers will see one of the original figures
I did some 10 years ago being used as a reference!

Many of these figures are from the 'Classic Empire' era, but the rest are '2nd Edition'  Empire figures albeit with many of them missing arms and heads!

I spent some time building a number of new troop types, utilising parts from the spares box to achieve the results I was looking for.

First I'll cover the standard types that came to hand, there are 6 x 'Classic' Spearmen, converted to Halbardiers, as per the bulk of the figures I did in the last post, these all needed to have the halbard heads re-fixed to their poles, or new ones found.

'Classic' Empire troops with Spears replaced by Halbards, Billhooks
and sundry other unpleasant weapons!

Next are 13 x '2nd Edition' Halbardiers, from a Games Workshop boxed set that never got completed, today they are! Nothing special with these little guys, painted in Green and Yellow as per other Stirland Regiments. As previously stated I still prefer the Classic' figures, even though these came in a limited number of poses.

'2nd Edition' Halbardiers, almost straight form the box,
albeit 10-15 years late!

Returning to 'Classic' figures there are 5 x Spearmen straight out the box. You'll have noticed by now, that I do not use the shields on my Empire Figures, no real reason other than I like them better without shields.

'Classic' Empire Spearmen

Now on to the new troop types I have created - first 6 x Pikemen, built from the torso and heads form '2nd Edition' figures but with arms supplied from the recent Warlord Games Landsknecht boxed set. I purchased the Warlord set last year but floundered badly when trying to paint 'real' Landsknecht figures! However I really like the way these figures have turned out...

'2nd Edition' Pikemen, I have loads of pike arms in the spare box now
and no torsos to join them to, I feel an eBay trip coming on!

Next are 8 x Crossbowmen, five of which are built using '2nd Edition' torsos and the other three with torsos from the Warlord Games set - these are a little small and slender compared to their Games Workshop counterparts but not so bad to be a problem, especially if placed in back ranks. To each of these torsos were added crossbow arms from my spares box, these originated from an old Empire Militia boxed set or the '2nd Edition' boxed set.

Crossbowmen - it's pretty easy to spot the Warlord Games figures

There were two random Musketeers - one 'Classic' and one built in a similar manner to the Crossbowmen but using the musketeer arms from the Warlord Games set, on a '2nd Edition' torso.

'Classic' left and '2nd Edition' with Warlord arms right.

Here are 3 x Archers, one a classic figure that was missing a spear, - so bow and arrow hands were added from the Empire Militia box. The other two are in very similar poses both have Empire Militia Bow and Arrow arms - one has a '2nd Edition' torso the other has a Militia torso.

Archers - Militia figure left, '2nd Edition' right and 'Classic' in centre.

Finally on the infantry side are three special figures, all converted from 'Classic' models with missing arms and weapons - an Officer, Drummer and Great Sword.

Converted 'Classic' Spaerman - Officer with Pistol

Converted 'Classic' Musketeer- Drummer

Converted 'Classic' Spearman - Great sword man

The Officer has a pistol hand from the Militia box and a random spare left hand grafted on. The Drummer has a drum and drumstick hands from the Warlord Games set and the detail of the powder charges on the shoulder belt has been cut off, a couple of pouches and a dagger were added. Then the Great Sword has a weapon from the Militia box and another random left hand substituted for the originals - the Great Sword has had the second hand carved away.

Sneaking in at the end are three Empire Mounted Knights, these are all on barded horses and the knights are all in plate armour with a random selection of heads added to the figures. A Yellow and green pennant ties them together as Stirland Knights and one guy carries a Yellow and Green Banner.

Three Stirland Knights

So that's pretty much it on the Stirland front, I have an Army Commander in progress - so hopefully he'll see the light of day as a completed model, now that he's been brought in form the cold, dark garage!

Only danger now is I'll go and buy more figures to make more pikemen....

POINTS
6 x Pikemen @ 5 Points ea = 30 Points
3 x Archers @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points
2 x Musketeers @ 5 Points ea = 10 Points
8 x Crossbows @ 5 Points ea = 40 Points
5 x Spearmen @ 5 Points ea = 25 Points
19 x Halbardiers @ 5 Points ea = 95 Points
3 x Special Figures @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points
3 x Mounted Knights @ 10 Points ea = 30 Points
TOTAL POINTS 30 + 15 +10 + 40 +25 + 95 +15 + 30 = 260 Points



Another good-sized post today - maybe I should be more optimistic about us achieving our target altitude after all. Nice work on these Empire troops Mike!

TamsinP