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Monday 15 August 2022

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.


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12 comments:

  1. Oh my............. and there was me showing off my "large" Empire Army and you had this waiting in the wings.

    That's it - I defo need to finish off more Empire Infantry!

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    1. Empire civil war? Thing is, these guys would still get smashed. Foot mooks get raked off the table in bucketloads from my experience! I need to finish my two other cannon and get a Trish Carden Griffin to go with them!

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  2. These are magnificent!!! O_o
    Really hard to choose which unit I like the most! Stunning collection!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! For me it's definitely the Lunn spearmen, but stripes on 30 of those was enough, I couldn't bring myself to do that on the other infantry blocks!

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  3. Looking at the advert for your Mercendaries, i thought "Mm.. I haven't painted up my 'Dark Guard' ( Original Hero Quest Advanced release of what became the Men-at-arms) but these looks like nice metal versions".. Still thinking that, Got some interest ^_^ and nice work on these.

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    1. Those Dark Company/Man At Arms plastics are lovely, but they have got stupid expensive (same as everything Heroquest I guess) so decided doing my own was cheaper! :D

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    2. Ah yes, Dark Company.. damn.. thought something wasn't quite right with Guard.. It's a bit stupid how prices have gone up.. Sure, I'll pay more for somethings cause of how rare or unique they are, but there are limits.. i mean, sure some have been damaged and lost over the years, but the amount of Hero Quest sets made? Millions! some of the figures aren't very rare yet... the prices.. bad.. I've been wanting the two USA only sets for years but were not only hard to find, but pricey when found.. A while back i decided (and later read some older posts by you) that all i really needed (apart from the little US to UK convertion job) was the book and proxy figures.. looking through the manual.. not really too hard.. though i'm not sure how much interest i've really got right now.. got a fair bit on the table and don't have a large amount of people to play with, though in a few years, maybe a friend of mines kids would be old enough.... though i was looking at the Hero Quest box the other day and.. "ages 10 to adult".. no way I was 10 when i started playing.. By 10 I was well into miniature gaming, playing Warhammer and starting to play 40K.. checking dates.. yep.. I was clearly buying my own 40K figures in 1994 so I was under 10 and had been playing HeroQuest for some time by then.. I used to have a problem with a goblin that had to have his sword re-glued all the time because of the amount of time I stabbed myself with it and it broke off.. ah, happy days ^_^ Battle Masters came out in 1992 and I was new when I was playing that.. so.. mm.. oh .. about 5-6 years old when I started playing for sure.. a fine age for that.

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    3. Nah, I was 7 when I got Heroquest, definitely not 15 when I started collecting lead miniatures either but they have to cover themselves legally.

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  4. All in 60 days !! Great job.

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    Replies
    1. Yup, and I never want to paint red and yellow quartered ever again...

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  5. Truly a wonderful and massive army, built in record time! You have all our admiration!
    For now we are not aiming at regiments but to collect individual miniatures different from each other: do you think that after the kickstarter there will be the possibility to buy single footsoldiers through Oakbound webshop? Those handgunners look great!

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    Replies
    1. Actually although we normally release stuff to the shop after Kickstarter in this case we won't be. Mostly because they don't fit with the ranges Oakbound produces
      They'll be available in a set of 4 with the HQ men at arms choice of weapons (a halberd, sword and shield, Zweihander and crossbow) as part of the Kickstarter.

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