Reiksguard Unit Complete!!

 For my January submission to the Call of the Crown painting challenge I have produced a unit of 15 Reiksguard knights to act as the elite heavily armored warriors of Salzburg. 

This unit consists of all metal Reiksguard models from the 1991 release with the Armored Halberd hero added as the leader of the unit because I think he fits stylistically. The "original" hero of this unit has been demoted to unit Champion and he sports the golden armor to recognize his considerable skill.

Here is the complete unit...

...and here is a look at the individual ranks...

Front Rank

Second Rank

Third Rank

For shields I chose to use one from the old Marauder Fighter shield sprue...which has also supplied shields for my Bretonian halberdmen (the stag shield), and there are still plenty more options that I'll employ where needed in this army.  For example I'll probably use a different one from this sprue for my spear unit.

For the unit banner I have combined the two common elements of the other Salzburg Regimental banners.  The human units tend to incorporate the "Imperial eagle" motif, and the dwarf units tend to display the "Mountain and sunburst" emblems.  As this unit will represent the Warrior elite of Salzburg it incorporates both elements into one banner.  In hindsight I should have put the white eagle on a red background instead of blue...as it would contrast with the other half of the flag better...but oh well.

I do have the figures to increase this unit to 20 troops...but they would be non-traditional Reiksguard figures from the Marauder fighters range, and one classic Citadel foot knight...what do you all think about incorporating these guys into these classic models? I can't stand the idea of inserting any more copies of the existing figures...so these would bring a certain amount of "diversity" to the ranks.

Next up I'll be moving onto another unit of halberds and some missile support for these infantry units.

Cheers,

Blue

Armored Halberdmen

 I've recently transitioned to working on my puff and slash Empire army.  These units will join my puff and slash dwarf army to represent the Human Corps from the City/state of Salzburg. I'm Participating in the Call of the Crown 2 painting challenge as motivation to get a good amount of these figures painted in the next few months.  

First off the desk are the Armored Halberdmen (Human Linebreakers in Oathmark). This unit is composed of all metal miniatures dating from the early 1990's released during the slow transition from 3rd edition WFB to 4th edition.  While I really appreciate the older more ragamuffin nature of the earlier Empire range (and will be using them for militia units in the future) its these figures that I fell in love with when they were released that I think of when discussing empire troops.  Its taken me quite a awhile and considerable amount of coin to collect the figures for this project but its long term goal that is fun to check off. 

From the excellent Empire range of Halberdmen released at the time I have chosen to form this unit from only those models that are wearing heavier armor...all the others will be part of another lightly armored unit. this has meant the use of several duplicate models...so I've attempted to add as much diversity to this unit as possible by modifying a few of the figures and incorporating "non-traditional" troopers like the bloke with the hook halberd from the War Wagon model.  I've also chosen to use one of the fantastic Marauder Reiksguard figures as this units leader because he is outfitted with a Halberd and doesn't really fit with my other Reiksguard figures.

Here is the completed 20-man strong unit Photographed in front of the wonderful backdrop from Trish! 😍

and here are some pics of the back ranks.

...and here is a separate shot of the Command section and two troopers which constituted my December submission for the painting challenge.

Lots of really amazing sculpts in this range and they were a lot of fun to paint.

Next up I'll be working on a Reiksguard infantry unit.

Cheers,

Blue

A New Mounted Wizard Joins the Grande Armee

 Though my painting mojo abandoned me for a couple of months this spring, I'm kickstarting things by tackling a project that has been lingering on my desk for at least a year now...A mounted wizard for my Bretonnian army.  I've been messing around with the odd assortment of bits....a wizard figure from the late 1980's and a much more recent (c1998) Vampire Counts mount.  I've been second guessing myself on how these things would work together...but one evening last week I decided to just take the plunge and dive into it and see how things turned out.

I'm Glad I did! ...and am quite pleased with the results

The wizard figure is from the late 80's Empire Knights release...this image from an 1989 Advert (thanks Stuff of Legends!)

 

The mount for such a dashing figure needed to be equally flashy and also fit in with the other 5th edition Bret mounts that the rest of the Grande Armee are mounted on....so I settled on this interesting sculpt from the late 90's Vampire Counts release...which has a very ornate metal head but uses the same cloth barded warhorse that came with all the 5th edition Knight releases.  this image from the 2000 catalog

 

After watching my wife use a tooth brush to create a paint spatter starfield on one of her water color paintings I decided that it might be a cool technique for creating a suitably mystical cloak for the mage and cloth caparison for his mount.

 Below are some WiP photos of the process.

 

 

I think the star field worked out very well and was, honestly, quite easy and saved me from over thinking how to make the large amounts of cloth on this figure work to my advantage.

Now that I'm back at the painting desk more often I hope to have some of the first foot knights to share with you soon as well.

Cheers!

Blue

The Knights Errant join the Armee of the Marquis

 Hi all,

Work has continued apace on the new unit of Knights Errant that I'm looking to add to my Bretonnian army for use in both Oldhammer games as well as Oathmark. 

These guys were a lot of fun to paint and also quite a challenge.  There is a LOT of fabric to shade properly on the horses themselves, and the sculpting on the faces of some of the troopers is a little soft and proved difficult for me to complete to my satisfaction.  In reality the sculpts are probably fine but I'm long out of practice on painting the fairly gracial faces of humans in comparison to the exaggerated features found on goblin, orc and dwarf figures.

...either way...they are done now and its time to move on.

Here is the whole unit and below are individual shots of the unit members.

 

Unit Building: Foot Knights for the Armee of the Marquis

 Hello all!

I had a substantial break in my painting flow with the advent of the holidays this year...which involved me traveling back to the midwest for a week without painting supplies!

Our return to Vermont has coincided with some of the coldest days of the year so far and therefore I have the wood stove burning and the ceiling fans on...this leads to very poor painting conditions due to the dry air from the wood heat and breeze from the fans I can hardly keep my wet palette living up to its name for long! 

So...long story short...I'm still plugging away on the unit of Knights Errant.  I think they are looking very good and I'm get close to done. But I've been using these very dry days to focus on my getting my next units of figures ready for the painting desk once the knights trot off into the distance seeking adventure.

I've decided to add some more infantry to the Armee with the addition of two units of Foot Knights.  One unit with heavy armor, and shields, armed with hand weapons.  And one unit in heavy Armor, armed with great weapons.  I've been collecting the Foot Knights that Citadel released in the short lived 3rd edition Bretonnian release for a number of years and have acquired quite a few.  I've decided to add to this and fill out the units with some of the excellent Claymore Castings figures.  These modern castings fit very well with the 3rd edition Perry Bros. sculpted foot knights and add a bit of "movement" to the unit as some of them are dynamically posed in comparison to Citadel knights.

Here are the Great Weapon Knights, I will use them as Linebreakers in Oathmark and as Foot Knights in Oldhammer Games.

I Turn My Attention Back to the Army of the Marquis

  Hi all!

All those months of painting goblins and orcs....wolves and boar ...has compelled me to work on something completely different for awhile. And to work on something with a completely different color palate.

And so, I find myself returning to the Armee of the Maquis d'Saud-or...the small bretonnian army that I painted up 5-6 years ago.  This army is composed entirely of 5th edition Bretonnian figures sculpted by the Perry twins in the mid-1990's.  While these are decidedly "Middlehammer" figures you cannot deny that they are superb sculpts and paint up a treat.  Currently the army is infantry heavy with a unit of halberdmen, a unit of spearmen, two archer units (one of which can be used as scouts...the squires w/bows) a small unit of 7 mounted squires, and a unit of 10 knights. 

 

This small force has been seeing a lot of action in my recent Oathmark games and I really enjoy the way they look on the table...

 

So I've decided to add some to the force by painting another unit of shock cavalry...and for this I will stick to the 5thed figures and add a unit of 10 Knights Errant to the Marquis' forces.

 

I always loved the simpler paint jobs that were given to these figures by the studio painters and I've had these figures in my collection for a number of years now ...so, I am happy to finally have the motivation needed to get them on the table!  

Here's a early WiP pic of the knights as I was starting to figure out color schemes and block in the first colors and flesh tones. 

As you can see I will be mounting them on the cloth barded horses that are typical of 5th edition...at first I wasn't hugely fond of this sculpt, but it has grown on me....particularly with the variation that can be achieved when you employ some of the many optional metal horse heads that were included in this range. You will see that I used several of these head variant in my existing knight unit...but as the Knights Errant are meant to represent less experienced unit of knights I have opted to use the basic plastic heads for all the horses except for that of the hero which will have the metal head variant befitting his rank. 

 As with the first unit of knights I've opted for basic Heraldry with quartered surcoats for the knights and caparisons for the horses.  While somewhat basic on an individual basis I think this makes for a very striking unit on the table that doesn't appear as "cluttered" as some knightly units can that have a ton of complicated heraldry.

For colors I've returned to the same palette as the previous knights and selected the more muted tones again.  I'm really fond of all these colors and feel that they are a nice change from the pure primary colors traditionally associated with heraldry. Here they are a little further along in the process

In the foggy recesses of my mind I'm slowly coalescing my thoughts around these color schemes....basically each color being representative of particular noble family in the Lands of the Marquis.  When these families intermingle through marriage some interesting color combinations are created for their sons to wear in combat.  For example...you may notice that the leader of my first Knight unit has quartered salmon/grey livery (and portcullis Shield).

 

...while the leader of the Errants unit will have salmon/white livery (it looks orange now but will highlight up to that salmon color.)

 

...the presence of salmon on both leaders surcoats suggests that they are brothers, or at least closely related.  I will further reinforce this connection by also giving the Errants hero a shield with the Portcullis on it.  The rest of the unit will have plain shields.

Anyway...as I said its something I'm still pondering on.

Highlights have been progressing on the Caparisons and surcoats....here is the current state of the project.  Most colors have been highlighted...just the hardest one left to do...the White Livery....I see a hundred layers in my future!

 I hope to be back with some updated paintjobs on these guys as the years comes to a close.

Cheers,

Blue

A First for me...Some Fimir!!

 Hi all,

Back with a quick post to share with you some classic Fimir that I recently painted as part of a small commission that I've been working on.

These are the first Fimir that I have had the pleasure of painting and I have to say that they are just excellent sculpts...the "alien" anatomy of them is completely believable.  I used a slightly modified version of my Goblin skin paint recipe to achieve their pale green skin.

Here is the unit of four...and below are individual shots of each member.  The client will be taking care of the bases...hence their unfinished nature.

Individuals...

Cheers for now!!

Blue