Empire Warrior Priests

It’s been a while since I updated the old blog, but I did recently complete this trio of Empire warrior priests. They were released around 2007 I think and I bought two of them, for some reason I never completed the set. They were painted purely for painting sake, I wasn’t gaming at the time and have never played Empire, even though their background is potentially the best part of the Old World. Certainly, I have always considered warrior priests to be a central part to the Empire lore. And if you consider the Empire to be central to the whole Warhammer universe, then this trio have to be at the very epicentre. 

I think I painted the two hammer priest as part of a Warhammer forum Glass Cabinet challenge (remember those, the good old days). Then the preacher with book, as I liked the model and I had vague ideas to make a small force from Ostland, which got as far as this one figure and no further! The final figure, with the great hammer, was a gift. I mentioned online somewhere that I had never bought the third of the trio and I had given up trying to find it online as prices were so expensive. Up popped a fairy godfather (aka Andrew Rae of Statuesque Miniatures), he just gave it me and I promised to paint it. It took me a couple of years to get to it, but finally the trio is complete.

Empire Warrior Priests

I have just finished painting a unit of flagellants on commission (picture below), and it reminded me of these two Empire warrior priests from my collection. I did have all three at one time, but the third has gone missing (probably sold to another collector). I think I originally bought them to auction on ebay, but then liked them so much that I ended up keeping them for myself, even though I had no real ambition to collect an Empire force.

I don't really paint in this style any more, back in the day I followed the basecoat, shade, layer, layer, layer technique. The results are nice enough, but they take a long time to achieve good results and it's very easy to mess up the layers. These days I paint more like a watercolour, glazing thin washes over a thin base coat. It gives a more organic look that I like. The red tunic on the second priest is particularly smooth looking, which looks really false in my eye. I left it as the original colour, though I did repaint the very orange flesh tones to my modern preference, and changed the base edge too.

Empire handgunners

Over the past couple of weeks I have been tinkering with a unit of Empire handgunners. They are made from a mix of current and previous edition plastics, with a few head swaps and a little converting here and there.

The colour scheme is from the province of Ostermark, which is purple and white or yellow. I went for more of a burgundy shade with an off-white contrast, not being a massive fan of purple or yellow. Most of the painting is purely a base coat and a wash, though some areas got extra shading and/or highlighting. The idea was to get them completed quickly, Empire armies can be big on numbers so a quick and effective technique is paramount.

The bases are 2mm mdf, 60mm x 40mm in dimension. In warhammer terms, the two bases pushed together (as above) is a 6x2 unit. In reality there are 10 figures in total, this little saving will cut down on time taken to complete regiments. Now, you might be saying that I have no flexibility here, since I cannot reform or use a different formation. This is partly true, though the figures are currently fixed on by a paper clip glued into the foot and poked into the mdf, which is enough to hold them securely at the present time. Future wear and tear and general gaming may change this and necessitate the use of a dab of superglue, but in theory I could remove them from these mdf bases and use single plastic bases too, if I really wanted to. These days, such tactical considerations I tend to waive in favour of gaming convenience.

In other gaming systems, I have several options. Hail Caesar is element based and the dimensions of bases is left to the players to decide. I have decided on 60mm width for small units and 120mm for medium units,so these would be pushed together as one medium-sized unit, or separate as two small units. Other gaming systems that I am looking into have similar recommended base sizes, but again the gamer is free to decide for themselves. I am increasingly drawn to such freedoms and will hopefully get to use them in this way at some time.

Having put this unit together as a tester for a possible Empire type force, I am unsure of the future. I like the colour scheme and the models are nice enough. I have more gunners I could paint, enough for another two units of this size. There's about 20 militia I painted a few years ago that I could rebase in this way, trebling the number of painted troops at a stroke. I also have some unpainted Perry plastics I could employ as halberdiers. Only time will tell if they can draw me away from my other projects.

The Empire Strikes Back?

Now that my Vampire Counts army is starting to shape up, I would like to paint up an opposing army. I know, I am a glutton for punishment, it's not like I don't have other projects on the go, but I tend to go where the muse directs and she's currently heading for Ostermark. I did make a very faltering attempt at an Empire force some time ago (here and here). I also tentatively decided on Ostermark as a theme. But that idea soon withered away, overshadowed by other things. But now I am keen to start it again.

Ostermark lies in the east of the Empire, with the old province of Sylvania on the border. Ostensibly this has been annexed by the Empire, but of course in reality it is still in the grip of the vampire counts. I don't normally bother with narrative background when I am collecting armies, I tend to go with aesthetics. But for some reason I have started to develop a little back story, complete with characters and small scenarios. I guess it's the Oldhammer effect! I do also want to grow the army by playing out skirmish games to determine how the army progresses, that kind of thing, so a more story-driven approach for me this time around.

Of course, I will also be trying to pick up troops as cheaply as possible, through ebay and maybe a forum or two. My first successful foray resulted in 30 handgunners for £7.50, or 25p per figure. These are a mix of the old and the new, which I have chopped up a bit for variety. This photo shows them ready for base coats, they were bought pre-primed but of course the previous owner had not removed all the mould lines. I had to scrape them off and then patch up with paint-on primer, but it should all be fine when the paint goes on proper. They are glued to paper clips as I will be basing them in elements. I have Hail Caesar in mind, so most of the army will be multi-based, but also useable in the odd game of Fantasy Battle. There's a long road ahead, but I look forward to the journey.

ForgeWorld New Warhammer Book?

So there I was, browsing the Bugman's Brewery to catch up on dwarfish gossip, when I stumbled across a most interesting little titbit. It seems that the next Warhammer source book from the Warhammer Forge will be The Battle of Black Fire Pass. A few details came out from the recent Forgeworld open day and have been posted up on Warseer. The book will be similar to the Tamurkhan offering and will feature the Empire, Dwarfs and Orcs and Goblins. I downloaded the image posted on the forum and tidied/enhanced it a little, though it's pretty blurry. Head on over to Warseer to get the full details, such as they are.

10 reasons why I might start an Ostermark army.

When I started this blog one of the main purposes was to log my progress on my armies and painting projects. Most of my posts do just that.

Another reason for the blog was to jot down any thoughts I was having at the time. Often these thoughts will be fairly random and short-lived, but occasionally they will develop into something a bit more substantial and with the potential of actually developing into something concrete (or should that be plastic). This post is one of these, a series of ideas and musing that has developed in my head over the past few days and now I just can't seem to get rid of it. If I write it all down, I may be able to forget if for a while and come back to it later. So here are 10 reasons why I might start an Ostermark army.

1. Ostermark is a rural region in the north of the Empire, bordered to the north by Kislev. It is often subject to raids by chaos marauders and the like. Meanwhile, in the real world, I live in Cumbria, a rural county in the north of England, bordered to the north by Scotland. The lands around the border were contested by the Scots and Cumbrians for centuries (the region was known as "the Debatable Lands"), and raids by reivers were common.

2. The largest city in Cumbria is Carlisle, the Border City. It contains a fine castle and remains of a stout town wall. The wall gates were originally guarded by two huge bastions known as the Citadel. The coat of arms for the city (shown above) contains a red wyvern, which matches the red beast shown as the symbol of Ostermark (there's a picture of this in the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book).

3. The colours of the state troops in Ostermark are purple/burgundy and yellow/white. This would make a striking army different to the usual red/blue garbed soldiers.

4. One famous regiment to originate in Ostermark are the Deaths Heads, masked warriors bearing halberds and wearing red and black uniforms rather then the typical purple and white. These would make an interesting modelling and painting project and add some real character to the army.

5. Life is tough in Ostermark and the locals are hardy folk, though not particularly well equipped. This suggests to me a preponderance of spearmen, archers, crossbows and hunters, rather than blackpowder armed troops. However, garrisons at the border would be well equipped, so the army would not be just a bunch of peasants and farmers! Not only would this make for a characterful army, but it just happens to match most of the figures in my current collection.

6. I often fight against chaos armies, so there is plenty of opportunity to develop a scenario based campaign around these two armies.

7. Because of the proximity of the border with chaos (Kislev) and the Vampire Counts (nearby Sylvania), there is a strong opportunity to include a witch hunter theme in some of the regiments.

8. There is a suggestion is some of the background material that ogres are quite common in Ostermark. I could include ogres as allies or unit fillers.

9. Similarly, there is a suggestion that dwarf slayers often roam into Ostermark from nearby Karak Kadrin, obviously seeking out undead or chaos monsters to slay. One of my other armies is dwarfs, which desperately need some shaven-headed berserk troops.

10. There is a long-term project that could develop, incorporating units from both Ostermark and Ostland, probably my two favourite Empire provinces.

Now that I have that off my chest, perhaps I can get back to real painting instead of head in the clouds dreaming!

Another quickie unit

The second militia detachment I painted in a slightly different way to the first. I started with a black undercoat, then roughly drybrushed dark brown, then a mid brown. This was my basic starting colour, rather than a black undercoat. I then blocked in all the base colours, then washed with devlan mud. I did paint a couple of layers on the book pages on the psuedo banner, but otherwise no embellishments were made. The advantage of starting with the brown drybrushing is a two-fold. It gives a more natural look to the fabrics, but even better it means I can ignore most of the bags, pouches, belts - these are the things I least like to paint.

In time-honoured fashion, the unit's game debut in fully painted form ended in tears, as a beast shaman blasted them from a captured building rooftop, completely obliterating them with a couple of death magic spells. Well, it is dangerous to play with fire.

Out of the blocks

Another army started! But this one is a departure for me, as it will be speed painted, with mass effect on the tabletop more important than the paint work on individual models.

This first detachment is a case in point. It's sprayed black, a base colour applied and then washed with devlan mud. No additional highlighting required.

If I can stick to my plan, I should be able to add a small detachment or a half a unit of state troops every fortnight or so. Of course, I will no doubt break off at times to work on other armies, but if I dedicated all my hobby time to this one army I could have the whole army painted in about a year. That's about four or five times quicker than my other armies.

A change is as good as a rest?

I am officially really bad at choosing armies. And sticking to resolutions. It's just a month since I declared I would be concentrating on chaos and dwarfs as my main fantasy armies, but I have painted just one figure in that time, this rather nice classic Tzeentch sorceror. The colours were loosely based on the picture in the army book, though with more metallic tints rather than pastel colours. In that month I have played four games with the new list and am struggling to find enjoyment doing so, just frustration. I feel that warriors are a must inclusion in the army, yet they are hard to get the best use from, being so slow and easy to avoid. Supporting troops are obviously key to playing the army, the secret of which I have yet to unlock. So rather than continue to bash my head againt the proverbial brick wall, I am going to play a different army for a few weeks.

The army that has been most in my thoughts in the past week is not even one I own. I have a few figures from a previously abandoned project, just about enough to make up a Mordheim warband, not an army. I have always passed them by in favour of more exotica, but I think I might have to finally give into my instincts. So my next project may well be to collect the most average, ordinary army in the game - Empire.

My motley collection of bits is a few militia and some flagellents, which were going to be converted into a Witch Hunter warband. But I have recently come round to the idea of making several small bands of troops, such as a witch hunter band, a band of brigands and cut throats, maybe some trappers/hunters, that kind of thing. Each band could have some kind of unifying theme and make a discrete painting/modelling project, then be used as a detachment or small regiment in a complete army. Over time (a considerable period of time it has to be said), the bands would coalesce into a complete army, possibly with a Sigmarite theme. My opponents often plays beasts and chaos, ocassionally vampire counts, which also fits the theme. The more I mull it over, the more it makes sense.