Sunday, February 24, 2013

First Half of the order submitted

I had some extra $$ in this weeks pay so I decided to put in the first order,

The Empire Army Boxed set - contains 1 Karl Franz, on Deathclaw; 1 Captain of the Empire with Army Battle Standard (mounted);1 Captain of the Empire (on foot); 1 Celestial Hurricanum; 12 Reiksguard Knights; 20 Swordsmen; 10 Handgunners; 10 Greatswords; 1 Helstorm Rocket Battery; and 1 Master Engineer
2 Boxes of Archers,
The Empire General,
various resin bases, mostly cobblestone bases. I want to do the Cobblestone theme across the army. But after I put in the order I got an email from the supplier saying the Cobblestone bases had been discontinued and transferred to a different company. So if I want to use the bases across the whole army I need to order from the UK. Shouldnt be a problem. Just adds a bit more into the process.

Also once I put in the order I realised that the Empire General is included in the Army boxed set so now I will have 4 generals. lol which isnt really a problem. :) They are pretty cool minis.

When I get the order Ill take some photos of the unboxing.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Why I chose The Empire for 2013

I thought I might put up a bit of a post about my thought processes around my choice of The Empire for the 2013 collection.

When I decided to start the project I sat down and looked at the massive list of available miniatures in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) range. This resulted in a mild depression because I would love to just be able to buy everything, however, as I dont poop $100 bills, that wasnt an option. In the range of WHFB the available armies are:

Orcs and Goblins,
Vampire counts,
Ogre Kingdoms,
Skaven,
The Empire,
High Elves,
Dark Elves,
Wood Elves,
The Empire,
Beastmen,
Bretonnians,
Chaos Daemons,
Dwarfs,
Lizardmen and
Tomb Kings.

I removed the armies that I already had miniatures from as this was a new collection and I didnt want to use stuff that I already had. That took out Orcs and Goblins, Ogre Kingdoms, High Elves, Skaven and Bretonnians. I then took out the armies that I didnt like the look of. That took out Vampire Counts, Dark Elves, Tomb Kings and Chaos Daemons. Then I started to look at minis that I would enjoy painting. After a while, I ended up with The Empire, Beastmen and Wood Elves. The range of Wood Elves available is limited so that ruled them out. The beastmen range is quite varied and would be a lot of fun to work with, however as they mostly resemble cows and other beasts, the range of colours available would be limited.

I ultimately went with The Empire as they are a human race with a high regimental style. Large units of swordsman, archers, halbadiers and other medieval type weaponry with a similar style of uniform. This appealed to me because I could model the units with the same things in mind. Going for a regimental, "If you get out of step ill kill you" style that I enjoyed during my time in the Air Force. The uniformity of it, with slight variations across different units will be the basis of the collection. I am going to have one main contingent being led by Karl Franz on deathclaw, which is one of the best miniatures currently available, in my opinion, he is a general on a large Griffon. As the centrepiece for the army, he is an imposing thing. Then I will have detachments of units under the rule of the captains of the other factions. This will allow me to vary the paint scheme used on each unit to indicate the colours of the respective families.

Im looking forward to getting stuck into it. Should be lots of fun. Im counting down the day till I am putting in the order, 17 days to go. Ill post up next week a list of all the miniatures I plan to buy and what I will be painting them.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Empire Battle Wizards WIP

I started working on the Empire Battle Wizards recently, they are the only miniatures I have so far in the Empire collection. The main order will be submitted on or around the 8th of March.

Here is a couple of shots of the sword for the fire wizard. Im pretty happy with it. Its my first attempt at painting Fire. I will do a bit of Object Source Lighting when I finish the rest of the mini but this is the basic paint scheme.



Ill do a bit more work on them this coming weekend after cricket.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Order planning

Today I am looking at what to order for my Empire collection. Im looking at spending about $1500 on the collection so I have a lot of options.

So far I am looking at the Army Limited Edition boxed set which contains Karl Franz on Deathclaw, a couple of Army captains, a celestial Hurricanum, 12 Reiksguard knights, 20 swordsman, 10 handgunners, 10 greatswords and a rocket battery. which is a good starting point for the collection. Im also going to add 20 Archers, 12 Demigryph Knights, 20 Greatswords, 24 Knightly Order knights, 40 militia, 20 state troopers, 1 steam tank, 2 rocket battery's and 30 handgunners/crossbowmen.

It will be a big collection and will take the better part of the year to paint which is good because its a year long project. There are about 250 peices in the collection so with the larger miniatures aside, I will need to paint a unit of 20 soldiers a month.

There are a large range of named characters in the empire range, mainly captains and lords of the various factions. there may be an addition or six to the above collection but a lot of the named characters are finecast resin which I am trying to avoid buying due to the experiences I have had so far with the poor cast quality and imperfections as well as the price increase over plastic.

Im putting in the first stage of the order this week so when it arrives I will post some pics.