Warhammer Fantasy Revisited

In a rare moment of realisation recently I worked out that I have three painting speeds, and that I need a project in each category so that I can switch between as the mood takes me. With this in mind, and inspired by playing Warhammer Total war, i decided to go looking through my old boxes of minis and put together some alternative armies for Warhammer Fantasy from the ‘spare’ models I had accumulated over the years.

Idea is these will just be quick fun projects done to tabletop standard or as far as the mood takes me at the time.

First up, The Empire…

A quick search (Ok, a long and involved search…) of many boxes yielded an assortment of sprues, blisters and bits, plus some assembled models in various states of disrepair.

Sorting that mess out it became obvious I had in my travels procured quite a few Cult of Ulric character models. Given I also had a large number of cavalry it seemed logical to do this force up as an Army of Middenheim as I could incorporate the Cult of Ulric int the force seamlessly. Plus it would make a nice counterpoint to the Talabecland theme of my main Empire army. A day clipping, cleaning and assembling and I had the following:

A little more progress on the Middenheim front. Added more greenstuff to the miscellaneous cavalry to hide either Sigmar iconography, missing left arms or the back of the horse where the plastic moulding over the rump was shattered on both sides, respectively.

Finally, busy agonizing over what to do about huntsmen (apparently I’m easily bewildered and confused by first world problems 😛  ). I have a box of the old Empire Militia still in the shrinkwrap but I just can’t bring myself to open it. I think because it is the same sprues that were used to make Mordheim warbands and I just can’t let the magic go… I have some Shieldmaiden plastics form Shieldwolf minis KS a couple of years back which would be perfect, bt the poses are so dynamic that they require a 25mm base rather than 20mm, so they will go back to being either chaos marauders or a standalone ‘army of the north’ if I can pick up some more vikings at some stage. So my best bet might end up being one of those Frostgrave warband sets and kitbashing. I’ve been keen to pick up a box to have a look at so this would give me a nice excuse.

A friend of mine who I play against/with has a Bretonnia army which we have both been slowly adding to for a few years now. It’s been an on-going project rather than something new but I figured I’d drop here anyway as it’s one of my current projects I’m cycling through. the next unit on my ‘to do’ list is another block of Knights of the Realm. Will be doing these in the same scheme to give the unit a uniform look – purple and white with an accent colour of perhaps orange or yellow.

The GW models I’ll give to my friend once the project is finished to combine with his force. The Perry foot knights at the centre rear and the Fireforge foot sergeants (centre left rear and centre right rear) I had intended to keep for use in historical forces and swap out for extra support infantry when he was over and we needed more numbers on the tabletop but seeing everything ranked up today made me realise that the Perry’s are too small in scale to incorporate into the Bret army so I’ll find another heavy foot proxy to drop in instead. This also means that the Warlord Landsknechts with Zweihanders that I was hoping to use as proxy Empire Greatswords are going to be a no-go as well. So on a positive note, more historicals 🙂 I’ll have another look at the scale on the Fireforge minis before I make a final call on what to do with those guys.

His army has another 4 or 5 blocks of cavalry plus a tonne of foot and archers (his army can feel a bit Agincourt-y to face, especially if I’m playing squishy elves…) plus trebuchets and flying cavalry, so we pretty much have the main options covered and can go to stupidly large games. Of course as the old saying goes, no WHFB army is ever finished – they just get bigger…

Have gone back to look through a lot of the old WHFB rulebooks, supplements and expansions. Only really scratching the surface to be honest. Plenty of fun ideas for themed armies. And I still haven’t started on the Warhammer fantasy roleplay supplement books, which have a tonne of info on locales etc… If anybody is still messing about with Warhammer Fantasy and hasn’t ever read the General’s Compendium then I would highly recommend tracking a copy down. The build guides for the boats and terrain look a bit dated now but the rest of the optional rules and the campaign system are well worth checking out. Seriously, rules for naval warfare and sacking towns? Awesome 🙂 So now I need ships. See, dangerous tomes… Just like that and the book steals more of your sanity spare time. And going back to the 5th ed rules I even found some nice optional rules for veteran/heroic units, so thinking about how to incorporate something similar there.

Plus there is also the Warhammer Armies Project website – Problem with this one is now I want to use historical minis to do up a force for Estallia, my miscellaneous pirrate minis for a Pirates of Sartosa force and use my Shieldmaidens as the core of a Norse army. Plus maybe another Sigmar themed Empire force for good measure. Or maybe go 30k and do up some armies for the time of the founding of the Empire? Sigh, too many project ideas, not enough spare hands to hold the brushes…

http://warhammerarmiesproject.blogspot.com/

The site really is worth checking out though. Highly professional, and some sensible and thematic rules for each army.

The interweb ate my first update, so here’s the restated abridged version:

1. More progress on the Grand Master of the White Wolf. A little more greenstuffing to go and will then call him done and undercoat the knights.
2. Been 3d printing torsos to combine with bitzbox spares for ‘rank filler’ minis to pad out the spearmen unit. They look bad but will get me above the magic 40 models for the unit.
3. Found more handgunners and parts to kitbash a static mortar emplacement. army is getting shootier than initially intended but thats OK.
4. Considering whether to kitbash or buy proxy Teutogens. Problem for later.
5. Need to find a few proxy hunting dogs/warhounds. I see another search through boxes in my near future…
6. Still need huntsmen – might press gang some of the new handgunners into a more rustic form of service?

A bit more progress today – final greenstuff down on the Grand Master – just need to give it a final rework once it has cured a little more, and put a cloak on my scratchbuilt Teutogen guard test mini (may be press ganged into service in one of the infantry blocks or as Wolf-kin. Also put together a group of 10 huntsmen to accompany Markus Wulfhart as dedicated monster-hunters (although I’m not sure how practical standard bows would prove to be against high toughness monsters, but still, it fits the narrative…).

Army as it presently, or more correctly once I assemble everything, will stand:

• Grand Master Rein Volkhard 165 points
• Markus Wulfhart 140 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, mounted, heavy armour 84 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, mounted, heavy armour 84 points
• 50 Spearmen with shields and full command 330 points
• 10 Handgunners, marksman with long rifle 120 points
• 10 Handgunners, marksman with long rifle 120 points
• 25 Swordsmen with command 205 points
• 25 Halberdiers with command 180 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, command 237 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, command 237 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, Inner circle, command 264 points
• 10 Huntsmen, tracker (Upgraded to Wulfhart’s Hunters) 90 points
• Great cannon 120 points
• Mortar 100 points

So with upgrades sitting somewhere in the 2,800-3,000 point mark.  Thinking I might use some of the Warrior Priest models as Seneschals of the White Wolf (approximate equivalent of a Captain) for a bit of variety. From here, maybe a small unit or 2 of hunting hounds (found some appropriate blister packs in the Frostgrave range) and then maybe the Teutogen guard. I can rope in generic archers and militia from other armies or games systems if I need more archers, huntsmen or some free company detachments for the infantry units (which I probably actually do…). Not sold on the need for a battle wizard (maybe a low level one?) but do think I should add a captain on foot somewhere to represent the overall commander of the Middenheim component of the force.

I started sorting out my High Elves, then got frightened and confused – not looking forward to sorting out the mess that is my chaos themed pile of shame… I’m not really too sure what to do with regard to the High Elves – they are the army that I always wanted to play and I have been working on my force since 5th edition (and before anyone asks, no of course I haven’t finished yet 😛 ). I was taken with the idea of doing a separate themed force for the Everqueen, but I might be better just pushing on with getting everything else painted in the main forces scheme rather than doing different paint schemes for each of the smaller provinces. I guess with the Everqueen I could just go with a different scheme and explain it as her personal retinue when I fielded. Anyhow, getting off topic… In the Storm of Chaos book there was a list for a High elf Sea Patrol list. I originally thought it was a bit dull but the idea is growing on me. So given the chance to do a few naval vessels as well, and maybe later incorporate a deepkin caster model, I figured I’d give it a go. Happy for a different paint scheme here as they would be a different military branch form the standard elf army. So will be using my shadow warrior minis, any remaining sea guard I can get my hands on, and kitbashing some elven marines. Progress so far (Ok, just assembly…)

The merwyrm proxy is a reaper Bones dragon – don’t remember which one off the top of my head. Kind of wish i’d picked up the Dagon mini now as that would have been perfect for this project 🙂

So from here I’ll need a Sea Lord to lead, a Mistweaver, possibly an accompanying regular mage, bolt throwers, and a second unit of Seaguard and/or some kitbashed marines. Might proxy up a Sea Helm and re-jig the Storm of Chaos list (which was a 6th edition supplement if I recall…) to include provisions for a Sea Helm. I’ll need to update the lit to 8th ed regardless so shouldn’t be too much of an imposition.

Also got the first basecoat/primer down on my Middenheim knights before it got too hot. have primed in AP Plate mail – plan is to shade with red inks to get a nice metallic red plate armour and then paint around that.

Happy new year All! Wishing everyone all the best for 2019.

Progress since last update:

Bretonnia – have started work on the base colours for the horses barding for the unit of 12 Knights of the Realm. Not much to show here yet.

Middenheim – Coated all all the cavalry with an airbrushed thinned down red ink over the Platemail basecoat. Also assembled another 8 proxy spearmen to bring the unit up to a sizeable 50. Finally, converted a Middenheim leader (Possibly Captain?) on foot.

High Elves – Converted a block of 10 Elven Marines. converted a Commander for the force and primed all the infantry in AP Plate Mail. Primed the Bones dragon (I’m just going to call it a Sea Dragon rather than a Merwyrm – Corsairs get Sea Dragon cloaks so makes sense to me…) in gloss black then airbrushed with fancy colour shift paint from green Stuff World – The ‘Psychotic Illusions’ from their metal colour Shift Box Set #1. Metallic green with a red shift offset which the camera fails to capture… Going to paint on details with a brush then do a few ink washes, then considering an AP varnish coat follows by a gloss varnish spray. Then plenty of water effects on the base. No idea how this will all impact on the colour shift paint but I’m keen to find out and don’t really mind if I mess it up 🙂

More miscellaneous progress here and these since my last update. Firstly, have managed to get a solid start on the base colours for the Brett cavalry unit I’m currently working on. My friend wanted the whole unit in purple and white so that’s what I’ve gone with. Trying to keep it to a fairly limited number of colours for the sake of expediency – plus they will be getting hit with AP varnish so I’m rusting that to do most of the hard work for me…

Over a white AP primer used the following colours (all Vallejo unless otherwise stated) – Base Violet, first highlight a 50/50 mix of Violet and Violet Blue, second highlight Violet Blue, then followed by an AP Purple Ink wash (if doing this again I would have just airbrushed in one shade of purple and left the vanish to do the rest… Best laid plans and all that…). Horses were neutral grey ase with a sparing Light Grey highlight with the beginnings of a few coats of Ivory on the white areas. All leather was hit with Leather Brown. Will still need to touch up where I have overstepped and hit the metal parts with silver before dipping. Knights will be hit with the same colours as their mounts with the addition of some gold for sword hilts etc and Cavalry Brown as an accent here and there and to tie in the red decals a little for when I get there.

Also unpacked and sorted what Dark Elves I had on hand. good news was a lot of metal minis. bad news is that most were missing parts. Just small things like wings, weapons or mounts mind you… Also have generic ‘drow’ or dark elf minis from other product lines which could be incorporated into the force without too much fuss. However I think this is going to get rolled into a Cult of Slaanesh army so the small model count presented should be OK, because everything goes better with daemons…

For the High Elf force I’ve printed and put together a couple of boats to ferry them around. Printed some bolt throwers to go with but can’t quite arrange four of them to a vessel so think it will have to be two apiece and the crew can just shift them from one side to the other as required. Printed models with wooden dowelling attached, then a basecoat of AP Desert Yellow before the rattlecan ran out, then a brushdown with AP Strong Tone Dip. Also appearing in the photo are some siege equipment I was painting up at the same time, because one day I WILL get to play a siege game 🙂

On the Middenheim front I primed the 50 spearmen, 10 huntsmen and a few of the characters before my white rattle can too gave out. Today I managed to assemble two command groups and do another pass through my bits boxes. Think I will be able to scrounge together enough components to have a block of 25 halberdiers and 25 swordsmen to form part of the Middenheim army – which is good as I feel Empire armies should have large blocks of core infantry. Just wouldn’t be proper otherwise…

It’s been way too hot to get any meaningful hobby progress done. (As in the paint is drying out on a wet palette kind of heat). Locally the weather has been hitting the 35-40 degree mark for most of the month hence my lack of progress/updates.

Have been doing some tinkering here and there – a little more work on the Dragon for the High elf Sea Patrol and have started putting the base colours on a couple of the Middenheim unis, but primarily it’s just been assembly and priming.

Middenheim/Cult of Ulric army as it presently stands:

50 spearmen assembled and primed.

25 swordsmen assembled and primed

25 Halberdiers assembled, primed and base colours commenced

10 Crossbowmen assembled, primed and base colours commenced

10 Handgunners assembled and primed

10 Handgunners assembled and primed

10 Huntsmen assembled and primed

2×3 man artillery crews assembled and primed

Cannon assembled, yet to be primed

Mortar have most of the parts, need to kitbash a frame and assemble

9 Knights of the White Wolf assembled and primed, red armour done

9 Knights of the White Wolf assembled and primed, red armour done

9 Knights of the White Wolf assembled and primed, red armour done

Grandmaster of the White Wolf assembled and converted, primed, halfway through base colours.

Plus other characters assembled and primed: Markus Wulfhart, 4 priests of Ulric on foot, 2 mounted Priests of Ulric, and a Middenheim Captain or Lord on foot.

Yet to buy/convert/procure – A couple of units of Hunting Hounds, a block of Teutogen Guard (maybe 2?…) and probably a wizard for the Middenheim half of the army – Frostgrave have some nice metal character wizards who look rough and ready (and beardly) enough to fit the bill. Also found an old empire engineer who I am considering adding – the model looks like a good fit but the army is getting a bit ‘shooty’ as it is…

So if I am only looking at the ‘in hand’ stuff I have 152 infantry, 30 cavalry and 2 warmachines to paint. Well at least that should keep me out of trouble for a bit 🙂

In actual hobby progress, I did get that unit of Bretonnian Knights finished off. A couple of progress shots follow

Will have to confess I wasn’t sold on the colour scheme when my friend told me what he wanted but now with them all ranked up I have to admit that they have grown on me – pretty sure he made the right call. Recipe follows (as I’ll probably add a Paladin to lead the unit and a foot retinue in the same colours/heraldry somewhere down the line…).

(All paints Vallejo Model Colour range unless otherwise stated).

Knights were primed in AP Plate Mail, Mounts in AP Matt White.

Purple was a violet base colour, next highlight was a 50/50 mix of violet and Violet Blue, fial highlight was Violet Blue (could afford not to be too subtle with the gradient as the AP ink at the end tones down the colour shift).

Leather was Leather Brown

Red was Cavalry Brown, re-highlighted after dip

Gold was AP Bright Gold

Flesh was Basic Skintone (multiple coats of same)

Hair was Light Brown (multiple coats of same)

White was multiple coats of Ivory, followed by a thin coat of AP matt White, retouched after dip.

The Dip was AP Strong Tone Varnish thinned down slightly with mineral turpentine and brushed on. Brushed excess off areas with decals to try and avoid pooling around edge of decals.

Base was Olive Green (2 coats). Flock was a blend of Woodland Scenics Earth Blend Blended turf and  Woodland Scenics Yellow grass Fine Turf. Flowers and grass tufts were a mix of of manufacturers (AP, Gamers Grass and Leadbear IIRC).

Then 2 coats of AP Matt Varnish.

Today’s update is brought to you by the colour Prussian Blue…

So, if the stars and fates align and Great Cthulhu does not rise from the depths I might get a few days off work next week. Planning on setting some time aside and doing a bit of a paint-a-thon. (As opposed to a pint-a-thon which is what I first typed… While a paint-a-thon does also result in blurred vision it usually doesn’t end with lamb kebabs and no taxi fare home…).

So planning on speedpainting some Chaos Mortal reinforcements for my existing armies, just to bulk them out a bit and get them big enough to field on the tabletop. Will be doing to ‘tabletop’ standard only, which in my world is block colours, an army painter dip, retouch, quick base and matt varnish. Consider these ‘A’ priorities for the project:

First up, half a dozen Tzeentch knights and a couple of characters:

Next up, a Nurgle force. A unit of 6 knights, plus one extra to add to an existing unit of 5, 5 warriors to add to an existing unit of 10, a chariot and a block of 14 warriors with a character to go with.

And for Khorne, 2 blocks of 5 (extra-spiky) knights, 4 marauders to bulk an existing unit up to 20 strong, 14 warriors and 2 characters, plus one lone knight to push an existing unit up from 5 to 6 knights.

If I get that lot knocked over I’ll push on with my High Elf Sea Patrol force as a ‘B’ priority – 2 blocks of 15 Seaguard, 2 blocks of 6 Shadow warriors, a unit of 10 marines, a captain and a mage.

Doubt I’ll make it through that but if I do would be good to get a start made on putting the base colours down on these 29 Knights of the White Wolf.

Even aiming to get to just ‘tabletop’ quality I’m not sure how far I’ll get but I’m keen to find out. I’ll post updates regularly to track progress and keep myself honest. Will kick off Saturday morning local time and see how far I get by next weekend. Wish me luck 🙂

Had a pretty chilled day today with a friend over to work on some hobby stuff. I got stuck into my chaos side of the project while he worked on some stuff he wanted to progress. Aside from a break for BBQ lunch most of the day was just chatting , painting and listening to music.

Managed to get the base shading down on all the armour, and a start on blocking out the first colour, English Uniform on the cloaks on the Tzeentch knights. The original paint schemes were before the projects system on OTT, so I don’t have an accurate record of the colours I had used previously, so am trying to do an eyeball comparison and account for the fact that the currently finished stuff has had an AP strong tone varnish dip which will tint the colours somewhat. I figure as long as it lines up approximately it shouldn’t be too much of an issue though…

A late start to the day due to getting distracted by printing projects, but had picked up a brush by noon.

The Nurgle force got a few colours added to them today, from here need to add the bone, leather and metal colours and I think they are pretty close to the dip stage (will need to have a close look at the comparison model to see if I’ve missed anything of note).

Khorne got another pass of red ink on the characters and spiky knights, left the lone knight and warriors as they are a closer match presently oto existing units. Again, blocked out some more colours here, mainly the cloaks which aren’t visible…

Finally, did the cloaks for Tzeentch and had a targeted retouch on the armour here and there where I had missed bits on the first pass or wanted a bit more depth.

Only minor progress today – could only steal away for a couple of hours due to having to do real life stuff unfortunately. Got a coat of Skeleton Bone on where it needed to go so starting to get to the more ‘value add’ colours that make it appear like progress is happening. Tomorrow s likely to be busy too so not sure how productive I’ll be hobby-wise regrettably… Should still manage to finish the Chaos forces (sans Tzeentch characters who I might leave and try hitting with washes if I feel confident…)

After getting distracted by my newly arrived copy of Warlords of Erehwon  (which I keep having to type backwards to get the spelling right 😛 ) I pushed on and got a bit more done on the Chaos forces. The Nurgle force got gloves and boots filled in with Vallejo Cavalry Brown (I am pretty much addicted to this colour…). From here, just the belts, weapon wraps and gold and steel highlights and they are ready to dip. I’ll fix up any obvious errors after the dipping phase…

Nurgle Cavalry got the same Cavalry Brown and a coat of AP Monster Brown on the horses. I know for experience there isn’t much point in layering highlights prior to an AP dip – the dip tints everything and tends to leave any underlying shading as ‘subtle’ at best. Same treatment on the chariot horses and rider.

Finally, Monster Brown on to the Tzeentch knights. I’m sort of stalling on the Khorne knights, don’t really want to introduce a new colour to the faction but painting the newer sculpts with the same approach as the older ones might not have them presenting as well as they otherwise might. I guess I could go for a light tan on the cloth areas just to break it up a little. Will have to think on it…

Hit all the gold metals today – was the first time I had seen the mins under a proper hobby light. Think I’m going to need to hit a lot of the base colours with a second pass, plenty of gaps in the paint (I find silver is a little difficult to paint over in thin coats) and chipping from handling. going to try and push on tonight and get a bit more done. Should still manage to get this lot to the dip stage by the weekend, all going well. Going to take a bit of a break as I am beginning to overstep frequently…

Pushed on and got the leather brown onto all the Khorne and Tzeentch models. Will do Nurgle tomorrow, but that should just be the belts as they have Cavalry Brown for their  boots and gloves. from thee, it will be a pass over the metals to touch up, a beige contrast colour onto the Khorne knights, Khorne horses in black or dark grey, a general pass through to tidy up some bits quickly then I think we are ready for the AP varnish phase 🙂

Well that was a thing….

Decided I wasn’t happy with where the base colours were at – I know that the AP dip hides a multitude of sins and that I am only aiming for tabletop standard, but I do feel something of a sense of duty to those who sculpted the original minis to try to do a half-decent job. So spent about 12 hours today ( @johnlyons not sure how you manage all that painting day in day out without needing a shoulder reconstruction….) going through each colour in turn and applying a second coat or touching up the gaps as appropriate. Then put down detailed colours everywhere else that hadn’t been done yet. There are still details that I could go back and add to but I think that where they are presently will suffice for a presentable tabletop standard once the dip is on etc.

So gameplan form here will be to brush on AP strong Tone dip tomorrow morning and let that settle until Saturday morning. At which point I can base them all and then hit with a matt varnish. So all going well should be done by Sunday?

Today has pretty much meant there is little to no chance of me making meaningful progress on the Elves or Knights of the White Wolf but I might look to do a little just so that they are moved across to ‘in progress’. Will see how my levels of enthusiasm are tracking tomorrow.