For Myrmidia, Averland and the Blazing Suns!

It's been a while since we've seen any of my own work (rather than commissions) so galloping over the hills come my latest addition to my Empire army, the Blazing Sun Knights.

The Blazing Suns are a knightly order of the Empire in the service of Myrmidia, goddess of strategy and war. She's very much a southern Empire/Tilean goddess, in the north much of her role is taken by Ulric. Given that Averland is very much in the south of the Empire, having a contingent of them seemed like a winner. Plus, Charlie also has a unit of Blazing Suns in his army and I wanted the political problem of brother knights on both sides of a civil war!

The models are a bit different to the regular run-of-the-mill Empire knights, they've had the heads replaced with Outrider heads - a significant improvement on the original - and I wanted Tilean-esque shields for another point of visual difference with the usual Empire "heater" shield shape. These were ancient Greek shields nicked off've one of Warlord Games Grecian sprues.

The shields are the most obvious parts of the models so we'll take a look at them first. Grecian shields being big flat areas, they rather cry out for some freehand work on them. The symbol of the Blazing Suns is, well, the blazing sun... but we've also used the Grecian style helm seen on depictions of Myrmidia as a symbol for the order. I mixed the two symbols about evenly through the unit and I think it added a nice touch of variety to the otherwise very uniform unit.

The symbols also repeat on That Banner. Let me say this: This banner can do one. It really can. It's a complete git to paint and I'm glad I've only got the one in the army. I added some of the Empire not-quite-Maltese crosses to the end of the pennant to finish off the design.

Other than the shields, painting wise, these models are fairly straightforward. Brass armour for that Blazing Sun bling, black and brass horse armour to prevent them being one giant gold-ish blob and the usual Averland colours on the cloth to indicate the allegiance of their chapter.

These have been a slow unit to complete, I think I started them about six months ago and every now and again I'd do a few layers and then put them aside again. However, for all the dear-gods-why of some of the freehand pain, I love this unit. They've got a lot of character and whilst clearly still being Empire knights they stand apart from the usual unit look. I like 'em!

More shinies soon,

TTFN

The Very Model of a Modern Empire Captain

Greetings one and all, in the fairly lengthy drying times for the Eisenkern commission I am working on I was able to knock out a quick captain for my Averlanders. Frankly it is time you were introduced:

This is the amazing, and slightly over formal, Captain Harald von Agbeiten of the glorious Averland Northern Relief Forces (read, invading force trying to take over the almost knackered Ostland). The model originally was the commander of the first iteration of the Empire Steam Tank. I long ago sold the teeny tiny tank but kept the incredible commander figure... for years. Well, he's been painted now!

With painting Averlanders being a nicely formulaic process regardless of rank - seriously, I just go a little neater on the highlighting for the characters - he was bashed out good and fast. I did change up the colour on the sash a little, making it a more saturated, higher contrast fabric trying to be more silk-ish. Haven't quite got the effect but it does look more yellowey than the military ochre on the clothing.

Harald is armed with a repeater pistol, the model was originally an engineer don't forget, which technically can't be used by a captain. There were a couple of ways around this, one, I could just ignore the rules. Done it before, will 100% do it again I am sure. But not this time, this time I decided to make him an idiot who had bought a multi-barrelled pistol masquerading as a repeater pistol but in fact just letting off all four small calibre bullets in one volley. Achieving the same effect that a single pistol would achieve but at four times the cost. Like I say, idiot. With a veneer of snob.

Other than his name, I haven't got Harald's backstory nailed down (it'll be on the Beard Bunker anyway). He will certainly be an old fashioned soldier out of retirement with a keeping up with the Jones' attitude and a stuffy manner leading to him bringing a damn box into battle from which to deliver inspirational speeches to the men. It's what they like after all.

That's all for today, some Eisenkern troops later in the week (more of these lads), until then

TTFN

Aren't you a little short for a Huntsman?

Greetings one and all, in a sharp left turn from all the aeroplane themed posts of late; I thought I would go for very, very footslogging fantasy dudes. Short ones to be precise:

These are a selection of Halflings from various eras of Citadel variants. They are masquerading as Huntsmen for my Averland army. With The Moot being practically in Averland it helps the theme of the army to use these instead of the human archers.

Given that most of them are... kinda gormless looking, I figure them for being the easily led and persuaded sorts that might join a northbound expedition. They're also dim enough to not notice that they've mostly been given cast off children's dress-up uniforms, hence the ill-fitting garb. Irritatingly the close ups really don't look all that great, largely because these fellas are only 20mm tall. Suffice to say, they look more convincing in the flesh!

Painting wise, they are mostly the PVP Codified Averlander Scheme with occasional splashes of green to bust up the uniformity and linen shirts on any that have them. Deck Tan is the best colour I've found for this.

Love the fearless leader, clad in armour and with a chicken leg from the supply halfling (the one eating the supplies, he has more in a bag). It has a cartoonish charm. I'm rather taken with these yokels-playing-at-soldiers:

...Not least because of all the fun wee details hidden around the back of the figures. Pots, pans, tankards marked "mine", the whole nine yards. Bundles of fun. Now, I need to address a quick elephant in the room, you may notice that these fellas are based on square bases and in a custom built skirmish movement tray. None of which fits the "new warhammer" of Age of Sigmar. Well, I'm not moving on from 8th edition. I don't really want to rake over the coals of the many, many problems with AoS. If you are curious you can see my views and those of my gaming group over on the Beard Bunker. Here, I'll just say, if you're into warhammer 8th edition, you will find lots to please you. If it is Age of Sigmar (and why not? Each to their own)? Not so much. Anyway, that's all for today, more Averlanders soon!

TTFN

With Horse and Gun we gallop!

Hi folks, as I've been doing the sort of work on the Thunderbolts that takes all week and looks like nothing at all have changed in the photos, I thought I'd take a couple of hours and finish a project that has been languishing allllmost finished for a while:

Yep, it's been a while (remember this guy?) but the Averlander army is now officially begun! Being Averlanders - famous for horses, think a renaissance German Lincolnshire - I figured an early emphasis on cavalry would be a win to give them their "feel". So I started with these Pistoliers, the Averland Firstborn, first-born sons of noble families risking their massive wealth in dashing combat. Thrill seeking rich kids in other words. For those unfamiliar with the Empire army, these chaps are fast, manoeuvrable cavalry armed with braces of pistols to harry the enemy.

As I have quite literally codified the way I paint the Averlanders, it is going to be largely the case with this army that I talk predominantly about what is different about them or things that I've spotted and liked. I love these models, in fact I've decided that they are going to be the focus of the roleplay elements of the army (like the Dwarf Improbable Mission Force) and will eventually be making dismounted versions of them so that they can approach a target, dismount and creep forward on foot before letting go with a hail of gunfire.

The horses are obviously a major focus of these figures, like a lot of painters I like cavalry and even like painting them but dear god do they take a very, very long time. It's all the tack, I think at least, and for timing I'd give cavalry the sort of time you would give three equivalent infantry models. Despite all that I love painting animals and had fun with the horses. I decided that they would be riding their personal steeds and thus have a variety of breeds in the mix. More "professional" units - like the knightly orders - will have a single breed, most regimental cavalry units over the years have preferred one breed either for performance or a uniformity of appearance. The Royal Scots Greys were even named for their steeds colour. To get the markings and mixtures of patterning of the horses correct - you've seen thousands of horses in your life, even if you don't know it, and will spot if it is "wrong" - research is required. For horses, there is a brilliant site called Equusite that has lots of useful articles and a solid article, the linked one, on the common breeds and their markings. Sadly I painted these a while back and can't remember the mixes. I'll pay more attention next time. Promise.

Something I've found very challenging, read "irritating" was getting the colours of the slashed sleeves nicely painted in. I tried painting the lower colour first but it's a pain getting the upper colour neatly in place without messing up the lower. In the end I realised that the only way to paint the slashes is to paint, shade and highlight the upper colours. Only then do you bother with the slashes. Mix your paint roughly halfway between your normal consistency and a wash and then with a nice thin brush run the paint into the slashes. It'll quite nicely and neatly fill the slashes and prevent frustration.

So there we go, the first stage of the first thousand points. More to come, much, much more, it's an army that I've been meaning to do and picking up here and there for years... until about 5000 points is ready to be painted... Yeah... better get on that then.

In the meantime, more Thunderbolt soon.

TTFN

Quick painting Averland Empire (and Nuln!)

Greetings folks, today, we get a little sneak preview of my next Warhammer project. Something I've been waiting to get started for a while but have been constantly distracted away from, the army of Averland in The Empire.

This venerable metal drummer is my chosen test model for determining the optimum batch painting method before the conveyor belt starts and hundreds of state troops begin marching across my workbench. Partly to document this process and partly to share my findings I thought I'd share the process with you all! After the step by step below (which if you ignore the yellow works for nuln too) I'll share a few thoughts on the choices I made:

Step 1: Over a black undercoat, sequentially drybrush the steel areas. I used three quick layers, AP Gun Metal, Plate Mail Metal and Shining Silver. Basecoat the fabric in Val German Grey.

Step 2: When the first layers have dried, wash the entire figure in a 1:1:1 mix of Black Ink, Lahmian Medium and Water. Creates a decent but not perfect replacement for Badab Black.

[note, if you want to paint Nuln rather than Averland skip forward now to Step 6]

Step 3: Basecoat all the yellow areas with Val Tan Yellow.

Step 4: Two wash steps now, first a Seraphim Sepia shading wash and then a glaze of Casadora Yellow to deepen the yellow tone a little.

Step 5: Edge highlight all the yellow areas with Val Tan Yellow

Step 6: Basecoat all the areas requiring a brown wash, Val Beige Brown with streaks of Val Deck Tan for woodwork, Val Deck Tan for strings and ropes. Rhinox Hide highlighted with Mournfang Brown for the leather. On this one there was also a Val Stone Grey drumskin.

Step 7: Wash all the areas painted in Step 6 with Agrax Earthshade.

Step 8: Skin (my usual Cadian Flesh, Reikland Fleshtone, then highlights of Cadian Flesh to Flayed One Flesh through Kislev Flesh) and details

Done!

One of the reasons that this project has been much delayed was discovering which yellow to use. I was desperate not to have a very bright, modern yellow dye colour. I wanted a natural yellow, something you could achieve with natural yellow dyestuffs like onion skins. I tried dozens of combinations with most being too bright or too earthy or just needing too many layers to achieve the effect. Remember, this isn't character method. This is churn out hundreds method. The Vallejo Tan Yellow was a lovely finish and needing just that colour and the two wash steps makes it properly economical as well. Very happy.

Hope this inspires a few of you, happy painting!

TTFN

Warhammer Painting (FoPVP)

After posting the giant in the previous post I figured it would be only fair to include images of some of the armies that I have plundered banners from for his trousers...

This fellow is a Wissenland Captain painted by Maisey of the House of Beard, note how the red ties around the legs balance the swathe of red from the plume. An excellent use of spot colours, I might have repeated the process by painting the ribbon by the plume grey to pull the colour the other way but it still looks cool!

And from the loincloth (oh, and Maisey's paintbrush) is this horde of Bretonnian billmen, the striking mustard yellow and black works really well in a unit of this size with such prominant shields.

While we are looking at Maisey's Bretonnians, check out this sorceress, the rich blue against the pure white works really nicely with the aubern hair.

Moving around the giant to the - ahem - posterior we find a representation of Jen's Skaven force, Jen describes her army as a "banner delivery system" where the intricate banners distract from the batch painted unit. That having been said this is Jen's batch painting so they are still lovely!

We've seen it before but this banner of Charlie's army finishes the tributes/trophies/trousers. I strongly urge anyone who has regular opponants to include trophies from their armies. It binds the two together thematically and creates more of a story to the battles. Once while I was working at GW Peterborough, Alun (my collegue at the time) and I painted a whole Warmaster undead army in yellow and purple (the colours of our boss's Empire army) just to mess with him. Worth it! Until next time

TTFN

Empire feature (FoPVP)

Greetings all, as I am currently on holiday I thought I would treat you all to another instalment from the files of Friends of Pirate Viking Painting. This time it is the turn of a beautiful Empire army from the talented brush of Charlie Brassley.

Charlie's army is a sort of coalition force of various provinces, these Halbardiers are from Salzenmund and are called the "Chancers" hence the predominance of gambling images on their banner and their champion's shield.

One of the things that characterises Charlies painting is the lovely banners and freehand details that cover his armies. This is largely because Charlie is a "real" artist at the same time as being a figure painter so brings that skill at 2D painting to our 3D world.

The chap above is Salzenmund's Captain Rainer to give a closer look at the colour scheme.

These Greatswords are from the Middenland contingent and have the city of the white wolf emblazened on their banner. The converted Vostroyan standard bearer is the army standard.

Again from Middenland these knights are followers of Myrmidia and bear her image proudly upon their banner. The unit also contains the army general whose handsome visage is shown in the next two images:

Charlie's army includes some wonderful character work, amongst the best of which (in my opinion) are his wizards:

The object source lighting against the dark Arabian skin is just wonderful. Charlie has a whole storyline for this army about crusading in Araby and returning with a few friends like the astronomer shown above. Notice how he kept the staff very muted so as not to draw attention from the central feature.

For a more "home-grown" wizard, this Light magister is another chance to enjoy Charlie's freehand work. I can tell you from experiance that Charlie spends a great deal of time on each of these projects but the effort is clearly worth it.

Finally we have a warrior priest to round out this feature. Note the lovely scroll work and the simple yet effective additional freehand decoration on the shield itself. That is all from this episode of Friends of Pirate Viking Painting. I'm back from holiday on wednesday and normal service will resume. Until then, I leave you with the sunset from the top of the Great Orme in Llandudno.

TTFN

Tewkesbury Empire Inspiration

Heyup folks,

Thought I'd share with you all some photos from a recent day out at Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. For those readers from far flung parts, Tewkesbury was the site of one of the defining battles of the Wars of the Roses (one of Britains many civil wars). Every year 2000 re-enacters come to re-fight and celebrate this historic battle. Watching with glee it struck me that this was perfect inspiration for any Empire (and even some Bretonnian) painters out there. One of the things that has always irked me about painting my own Empire army is that they look to clean and uniform. I could never figure out why until I saw these guys in action. This is what Empire are supposed to look like! I'll have a go sometime post-current commision

Cool eh? Got lots more but there's a limit to how patient I can be with uploads (and yes, the cannon firing one is just because it's cool!)

More minis next post,

TTFN