Empire in Flames

 Well it has felt like it the last couple of days...

One of my favourite things is batch painting the same uniform over and over again.... um, no. I am a skirmish/single figure painting man so why on earth do I always challenge myself to big armies? No more I tell you... well, after the Night Goblins anyway. As well as doing my Chaos bits over the last couple of months I have been adding to my Empire Army. 160 figures in 60 days isn't bad going, especially as my actual time available for painting has been severely limited. 

The new additions are 20 spearmen, 25 crossbows, 20 halberdiers, 22 longbowmen, 22 swordsmen, 21 longswords, 20 hand cannon and 6 banner bearers with attached colour parties. The army is unique among my armies in that over three-quarters of the miniatures in it are my own sculpts. I started Oakbound with the original intention of sculpting alternatives to figures I couldn't afford or find and casting them up to create armies. What actually happened was I sculpted and cast them but then sold them to buy the original figures I wanted... not a bad business model but I did want to realise an army with the original plan.

30 heavily armoured Halberdiers (Fae Martial figures from Oakbound, now available in bulk packs if you're interested...)

30 Heroquest men at arms and a Microarts Nobby Nobbs. 

30 Lunn Spearmen and 15 Lunn Swordsmen made up of leftover leaders from spearman sets.

15 Advanced Heroquest Henchmen and some Perry sculpts. These crossbowmen are original Citadel ones with slotta tabs, at BOYL last weekend I picked up a pack of 7 more of the Foundry release to make the unit up to 10 so still need to get those painted now the weather has cooled off a bit.

Colour parties (command squads from the Lunn Spearmen), ECW leaders on unicorns (because why not?) and a YeAlchemist war altar. All the heraldry is taken from family names connected with mine and places I have lived. The ECW models scattered throughout this army also have some significance as 'pro-painted' collectables I bought from various ECW re-enactments and museums I visited as a kid now stripped and getting more attention than they ever did.

Some requisite Empire firepower, another ECW set I 'rescued' from being display pieces. I purchased two more cannon from Foundry that will be added to the battery once painted up.

And on to most of the recent additions. These are all units made up of four body sculpts with 7 interchangeable weapons in the manner of the plug-in HQ plastics and their Citadel counterparts. If you'd like some they are going to be available from Friday through the Myrcipean Mercenaries Kickstarter. The aim is to create figures that can very easily supply the large units needed by an Empire force without the hefty price tag of vintage GW models or resorting to non-plumed historical alternatives. First up, 20 Hand Cannon.

20 Great Swords.

20 Crossbows.

20 Halberds.

20 Bows.

20 Swordsmen.

20 Spearmen. The plan is to give me decent choice of every type of weapon available to Empire footsoldiers in 4th edition, even if there are some types that are significantly less 'effective'. After all effectiveness has never really been behind my choice of troops and isn't the Oldhammer way. :D

Swordsmen showing off their fancy shields.

So just a final reminder that if you'd like to build your own mighty Empire force on the cheap you can! All metal and traditionally sculpted of course.

MYRICPEAN MERCENARIES

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Bases and banners

 I did manage to get to the end of the challenge before the end of July, honest, just... but I have been ill with Covid over the last week and so haven't been able to photograph and post. Previously I had imagined that if I got Covid I would just have a nice clear 10 days to do a bit of painting, sculpting and some blog posts... but no, that's really not how it panned out. Trust me, this is not a thing you want to have. Be safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask. Still not quite back to normal but well enough to take photos and post them so here goes...

Several years ago I painted a bunch of civilians for a big sandbox game. I left of all the basing thinking I would do that quickly at the end... big mistake! It's time consuming and booooooring doing so many bases all at once. With this challenge I got the groundwork on the bases done as I went, just leaving the applying of greenery until the end. Also a mistake! Hours and hours of dabbing foam and static grass... thank goodness for YouTube.

I also left the banners until the very end. When I was a kid I would leave shields and banners and usually not get to them. I didn't want that to be the case here so dedicated some time to getting the banners (only three after all) painted with their variations on renaissance Italian, Spanish and Papal heraldry. I must confess there is one piece not done- the banner top for the main army banner. I had planned for this to be a big bull's head, but I don't have one to hand and didn't feel up to sculpting one so it has remained unfinished. I do have a spare cross from the top of a Warmachine model I'm not using so may swap that in instead.

I needed something relatively quick but interesting to break up the monotony of the bases so knocked out a couple of extras to join the force. A dark elf courtly lady to round out the unit to 10 and a chariot I sculpted based on an unpublished Tony Ackland drawing. Mr Paul Douglas painted another as a gift to the great man himself which he handed over at BOYL. I think Tony was pleased with how it came out.

So that's it. Army done. Right, what's next...