THE HOST OF MIDDENHEIM

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THE HOST OF MIDDENHEIM

The following is a log - a "blog" even - of the painting of a 2000 point Warhammer Fantasy Battles Empire army.  The army needs to be done by January 27, 2006.  That day there will be a Rogue Trader Tournament at Sanctuary Games and Books in Jacksonville, FL.  The army is assembled and mostly primed.  The trick now is to get it painted in time.  An army of Empire soldiers in less than a month?  Well, we got Orcs and Goblins done in a month and a half, why not challenge ourselves further?

The beginning phases

1-2-07, 11:04pm
Well, we found out with the Savage Horde that sometimes things creep up and your army list changes.  It's even harder in this case because there is no Empire army book until the end of this week.  For that reason, a general mix of troops was assembled for painting.


The army in all its glory!


On the left... A unit of 25 Halberdiers, a Great Cannon, Mortar, Engineer.


And in front of them... A unit of 25 Spearmen, Warrior Priest.


In the middle we have... General, Battle Standard Bearer, Mounted Wizard, 16 Handgunners.


And on the right... A Mortar, Helblaster Volley Gun, Mounted Wizard, and two units of 10 Archers.
 
Alright, That's It... I'm Going to Bed

1-3-07, 3:38am
Okay, been at it for a whole day's worth of painting, with way too many interruptions in the process.  However, good progress was made!


The Spearmen were the first unit to be worked on.  They're a brilliant unit, an obvious choice for inclusion in the army.  As you can see, I've got their uniforms, skin, spear tips, spear shafts, and feathers painted.  On the basic foot troops the techniques are being kept simple, with a bit more attention paid to the command figures.  A simple paint scheme can be quite effective, as proved by the Skaven and Orc armies, both of which have gotten Best Painted and Best Army at various tournaments (the Skaven were a favorite at Games Day Atlanta).  The trick is to use techniques that are quick and produce good looking results.  Usually these include such easy techniques as drybrushing and inking.


The Archers got a good healthy dose of Blue Ink while the Spearmen were being done (as did the Handgunners, but I forgot to get a picture of them).  You can afford to be a bit messy at times, but don't go overboard.  It takes time to fix mistakes.

 
End of Day 2, and We Have Spearmen!

1-4-07,  2:06am
Another fruitful night of painting under the harsh glare of my lamp, and I bring you completed Spearmen!  Okay, you'll notice the bases and shields need done.  This is another trick to building an army fast, and having it look good.  Leave the shields until last, they're relatively simply and can be done quickly.  Bases should be done all at the same time.  You don't want to do one half of the army with one shade of green and style of flock, and the other half with another shade/style.


The Handgunners also got a bit more work.  Some metal on their rifles, and their caps painted.  After I took the photo I removed the guns from the non-pointing models.  This will make it easier to paint them.  I'm thinking these will be the next unit in line.

 
A Day of Slow Progress...

1-5-07,  12:13am
...but progress nonetheless.  I was able to get a little more work done on the Handgunners, and assembled 31 Swordsmen, which are going to be primed in the afternoon.

 
Handgunners are GO!

1-6-07,  2:02am
I got the Swordsmen primed so work can begin on them, and the Handgunners are now finished.  It took quite a bit of work to get them right, and a lot of paints and various touch ups.  But the end result looks good.  Again, the bases will be done later with the rest of the army.

 
A Well Deserved Break

1-7-07,  12:39am
Being Saturday, it was time for some games down at the local game shop.  It was a fun day of gaming and a reminder of the need to get the army finished ASAP, so it can jump onto the Warhammer Fantasy Battles challenge board.  No painting, unfortunately, but it was, as it says in the header, a well deserved rest.

 
Swordsmen Are Brilliant Soldiers

1-8-07,  2:33am
The Swordsmen got started on tonight.  I carefully did the blue on each soldier in order to keep their socks and lower sleeves (on the models that have them) white.  Some blue managed to get in the white areas on a few figures, which will be touched up later.  But touch ups are usually best done after an entire step is done, or further steps that might cause the area in question to have more need for touch ups.  The bottom image used the camera's flash, which I think was a bit overpowering at this range.  You can see the Handgunners lined up in the back.

After getting that done, I also started to paint the skin on the Swordsmen.  You can see them separated into two groups below.  The guys on the right need some touch ups on their blue, and it was best to distinguish them so they could get done properly.

 

 
Swordsmen Skinned and Ready For More

1-9-07,  1:00am
The rest of the skin work was done on the Swordsmen tonight.  It's a lot of work for 30 figures, especially while taking care not to go nuts getting the paint everywhere.  The Swordsmen are likely to be the main infantry unit of the army, so it's worth the extra time to make sure they look nice.

It's nearing the end of the first week, and I feel good on the progress made so far.  A unit of 25 Spearmen is painted, as well as a unit of 16 Handgunners, and a unit of 30 Swordsmen has been assembled and is well on their way to completion.

 
So Much More Done, So Much More To Do

1-13-07,  2:18am
I've been busy with a lot of stuff the last few days, so there hasn't been an update.  Work progressed on the Swordsmen, and now they are complete - of course, sans base and shield!  Mind the Standard Bearer, he's been hitting a little too much of the ale in celebration.  He'll be blu-tacced down to the base when they march off to war.

In a hurry to get future units started, I also did the basecoat on some Pistolier horses, doing the eight horses in four different colors to allow for variety in horses.

At the same time, I also hit up the bases for a cannon and mortar with a Brown Ink wash, which will provide the basis for their wooden look.

The completed force at this point: 25 Spearmen, 16 Handgunners, 30 Swordsmen.  It's coming together... slowly.

 
Sanity Check Failed - Pistoliers and Artillery

1-14-07,  5:31am
I have gone over the deep end.  That's it.  The Empire Pistoliers were fine, albeit a little crazy when I decided to add multiple colors to their saddles to represent individual Engineers that they work under.  The blue and white theme is with them and it's quite evident with blue feathers as well as blue saddles lined with white.

Ah, but here comes the insanity.  I decided to go further tonight - further!  I wanted to get the artillery done if possible.  I did the usual - basecoat, successive coats, drybrushing, overbrushing, inking, Tamiya Smoking.  But then I noticed the details on the artillery.  Well, this army is out to win a Best Army/Painted award, right?  Those have to be done up just right then!  Being a Middenheim force, the shields were done in blue and white.  The KF on the cannon's shield was done in Dwarven Bronze, and the strip under the shield on the Helblaster was done with Bleached Bone with black lines on top to represent writing.

The completed artillery:

Close up of the cannon barrel.  This shows the "soot" effect done to the barrels on each gun to represent the blackening that would occur with repeated firing.

The cannon's shield, blue and white and brass, with the detail around it in silver.

The Helblaster's shield in blue and white, with parchment complete with writing, and silver helmet above it.  The flash is making this one look a bit too bright.

The mortar's detail, picked out in silver:

 
Artillery is GO!

1-15-07,  12:10am
The artillery crew have now been painted to go with their artillery pieces.  I wanted to make them look good enough on their own, so they took some time, especially as each one of them is different.  The blue and white color scheme continued here, the visual theme of the army.

The artillery lined up on small regiment bases:

The mighty cannon:

The Helblaster, complete with old man carrying detailed instruction sheets:

Mortar:

The majority of the paints used in doing the crew:

 
And This, Kids, Is Why You Have An Army List....

1-22-07,  3:06am
Still no army list!  But work has progressed nonetheless in the last week, and heading into the final week.  The Halberdier detachments have been done, and the beauty behind them is that later a mere five models will be enough to make them a fully usable parent unit.  After them, to keep with the Middenheim theme, we dug out some old Knights Panther.  There were four boxes of four each and three extras.  We only used the boxes for now, and added two command sections.  That's a total of 22 Knights.  We're doing ten at a time, and the extras will be done later to allow for a unit of ten and a unit of fifteen - quite a hard-hitting combo!

Also on the block, though no pics as I just sprayed them some more, are newly cleaned up Warrior Priests of Ulric (mounted and on foot), Al-Ulric, new plastic Empire General, and new Engineer on Mechanical Steed.  It's doubtful any of these will see the army because of time getting close.  For now, another Empire General from the 6th edition box is being done up for the army.  Pics on him when I can get them.

Anyway, on to tonight's update...

Halberdiers!  Here's the two detachments side by side:

And a close up of one of the detachments:

The Knights' horses, which will have blue barding, as per the old Knights Panther.  Solid metal barding is boring!

And the Knights themselves.  So far, they've had a basic color, the panther cloaks touched up back to black, their lances blue, and Tamiya Smoke washed over them.

And here's the other unit, waiting for its time (if it comes this week!)

 
We Have Knights!

1-24-07,  2:13am
I would have gotten these pics up earlier today, but frankly I was ready to pass out at five in the morning.  A unit of Knights Panther, ten of them, are now done, sans bases.  I felt they should get the shields now.  If the artillery was the first hint of insanity, this makes it official.  The pelts were done with a mix of Graveyard Earth and Bronzed Flesh (with successive highlights using more Bronzed Flesh), then the spots were painted on with a 10/0 brush.  The studs on the horses' barding are picked out with Chainmail.  The standard was painted to have an image of a panther head with the word "Myrmidia" behind it (that being the name of the goddess they worship).  There's a lot of other detail picked out.  I'm going to go over them again tonight and make sure I got everything.

 
This Army's Got Character(s)

1-25-07,  4:22am
The first characters are done for the army.  We've got a Marksman for the Handgunners, with Hochland Long Rifle.  There's also an Engineer, bearing a - you guessed it - Hochland Long Rifle.  Two is always better than one, and can pick off pesky wizards and such in a single turn.  And then there's a nice mounted Wizard.  This is an older Grey Wizard model, and is painted as such, with the requisite blue for the army!

First off, the wizard:

And now the Engineer:

The Marksman in his unit:

And finally, some tools of the trade.  First is what I've been using as a "painting palette".  It's from a pot pie, I think.  You can still see the mixes for the panther pelts, the grey highlights, some metal highlights, and the wizard's sword.  This is actually the second one I've used.  The first got lost somewhere along the line.

And now we have the trusty paper towel I've been using for so long during this project to wipe off excess paint or clean off a brush after use.  As you can see, it's a little worse for wear, but it still does the job.  I might be switching it out, though!