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I changed the banner up top to help motivate myself to get my Empire army done. I will post up some pics of the completed spearmen soon. Currently, I am working on some handgunners and the HB/Rocket Battery crew. They are almost basecoated and should be done by the end of the week. 8th Ed should not affect this army, in fact I am sort of building it around the rumors that are going around. I will just need to rethink my detachments and add some mortars.

I was hoping to have this army finished before next weekend's Hard "Core" Tournament, but just have to bring out the Chaos Warriors instead. I thought about using Ogres instead, but I tweeked the Chaos list, again, and need to try it out. With the baby due at the end of July, this might be the last tournament I play in for quite some time. Here is an old pic of some warriors.

Ahoy mateys!

I finished up the free company detachments last week. I am going to run them 3x3 which should allow 6 attacks to a 5 ranked deep unit. One of these 9 man Free Companies is going to be attached to the Swordsmen I have done already.
I still have to finish the movement tray for this detachment.
Here are a couple of closeups of two of my FCers. Front and rear shots. One detachment has all double handed weapons with two doggies and the other has the regular AHWs. I tried to make the FCs look like Navy marine reservists. Constripted in times of was, but basically retired after their servitude with the Emperor's Fleet.
I just started a new job so hopefully I can keep on schedule and get the 25 man Spearman unit finished this week. Enjoy!

Adventures in magnetizing bases

I finally bit the bullet and decided to magnetize some of my armies. The main reason is pure laziness. I hate removing and putting back my models into a figure case. When I travel I just like to place the army in the back of my SUV and be done with it.


I read a bunch of different techniques on how to do this. Some suggested using metal trays cut from metal roof flashing to having a machine shop cut the required pieces. I opted to try something else, magnetic paint! This took me awhile to find at Lowes because it was in a box. Who sells paint in a box when everything else around it are in cans? This can cost about $22 for a quart. I opted for the paint as I already have movement trays for every one of my armies and that way I should just need to put a few layers of this stuff on and be done with it.



Each coat takes about 30 minutes to dry, and even after 5 coats it barely held a plastic model on. Any shaking at all and the models would fall off. Metal figs just fell right off. The magnets I use are 1/4"x1/16" which I got 500 for $25 off ebay.



So I went and tried something else. I bought 3/16" washers which are about an 1" in diameter (same as a 25mm base). The only problem is that I never liked the gaps. So I used some normal household filler in all the gaps and just primed over it, painted, and flocked.



Now they hold even metal figs nice and secure. Even shaking won't knock these suckers off.

The troops are coming together.

In the last two weeks I have finished a unit of 25 swordsmen, my Empire general, a couple of cannons, and a few other models. Everything below was "dipped" using Army Painter strong tone, and was brushed on. I really like the "dip method" and the more I use it the more I like the way a model comes out. It just blends things in really well, and hides small blemishes. The great thing about AP is that afterwards you can always go back and paint on an additional highlight if you like. I still need to go back an do eyeballs for the front ranks and certain key figures.

The general is made from a Brettonian Pegasus with the head switched with that of the armored Empire horse head from the Empire General box. I tried to keep the yellow and blue theme going, and scraped off all the heretical Brettonian heraldry. The cloak didn't come out as well as I would have liked, but I went back and highlighted it as I felt it looked too "dirty" after the dip. The freehand vines were done with a green sharpie.

I envision my general being a significant noble of the region, hence the pegasus. I think I will name him Lord Neilson.

Warrior Priest - I kept his right eye pupil white as if an old scar blinded him many years earlier. I like the rugged look of the warrior priest sculpts, and may have to pick up the other models for them.
This here is Lucy, painted after my real life dog. She will be used in one of the Free Company detachments.

Swordsmen - Banner was freehand, which is not my strong suit. I made these uniforms into halves. Yellow on the left and blue on the right with blue shields. If I do another unit I will change it up. Every model also has a bit of red somewhere on it, either as a ribbon or something small.

Here is one of the swordsmen bravely leaving his unit to show what my standard RnF troop looks like. As you can see I don't bother with his eyes.

Cannons - Each crew has its own uniform. Very slight differences, but it will also help me decide which crew are teamed up.

I am not sure if my next large block of troops will be swordsmen or spearmen. I am waiting to hear some solid rumors on 8th edition before I commit. Until then I will be working on the detachments which right now will be Free Company and maybe another handgunenr unit. Once I have all the infantry done, I will start on the cavalry, hellblaster, and rocket battery.

I am waiting on some rare earth magnets to arrive by mail, and my next post will be magnetizing the army. I will also be using magnetized paint on the movement trays so stay tuned.

Some beastly things

I am putting the finishing touches on my first unit of Empire Swordsmen. While they are drying, here are some pics of some of my latest ogres and my Daemon Prince conversion. I painted the female Ogre for my wife who wanted me to paint a model for her.


Ogre Hunter



Daemon Prince - The main body is the Balrog, with various bitz added on. The head is from the OK standard, the armband is made from Ogre and Chaos bitz, the sword is from a 40K Soul Grinder, and the tabard is a Chaos standard

I also found this old stereo cabinet from a Habitat for Humanity store and picked it up for $10. I bought some glass shelves and sealed the back from dust. Works great as a model display cabinet.

A new army takes shape

This week I received a large box full of goodies from my fat Samoan friend in Florida who sent me a large amount of Empire troops. There were roughly 70 State Troops, 10 Handgunners, 2 cannons, and some characters. He hadn't gotten around to painting them so I made him a deal. I will paint them up so that if he ever wants to compete in a tournament up here he just has to hop on a plane, instead of making the 11 hour drive (he won't fly with models).

My force will be from the province of Nordland, so the troops uniforms will be mainly blue and yellow with some red here and there. To test out my uniform scheme I painted up a small detachment of handgunners. The parent unit and 2 detachments will all have the same pattern, with the second parent units and its detachments having a different pattern.

I have also added some photos of 2 wizards I plan on using. The Blue wizard I painted years ago for a Mordheim Norse warband, and now I have to go back and rebase him. The other was used for an Undead Mordheim warband. I think he can be used as either a wizard for the lore of Fire or Heavens.

Enjoy!

Brawler Bash III

Last weekend I attended the Brawler Bash in Raleigh. It is my favorite GT to attend due to the players and army comp rules. It used the WPS comp system which really brought out a variety of armies with Tomb Kings winning best General.

I came in 21 out 38, but mostly due to soft scores. Overall I went 0-5. I showed up with my Daemon Prince list. It is pretty soft, but I wanted to see how I would do.

Game 1: I went against Lance Lagroue, he is very good local player with a lot of nice armies. I started the game with one heck of a turn one when my Hellcannon shot a blast that forced his general to run off the board. This game turned out to a very tactical match up with both of us trying to outmaneuver each other. It came down to a close charge in the rear of my knights followed with being charged in the front that took one of my flanking hammers out of the game. I hate blaming dice and I felt I played the game well, but the dice just were not my friend. A trend that continued all tournament.

Game 2: I played Brian Harper, a Dark Elf player with no magic! That's right, no magic and his Dark Riders were Med Cav so no fast cav. At first I was grinning down deep knowing I had this in the bag. Turn one my HC did well again, off target but that hit a Hydra for 4 wounds. That forced his Hydra in hiding for most of the game. I lost this game due to cockiness. I charged my Daemon Prince into his flank, tried to cast Sword of Rhun but that damn Ring of Hotek caused a miscast. I took out 5 Black Guard and wounded his general, but then the general attacked with the Executioner Axe and made mincemeat of my DP. That 600 pt swing was the game.

Game 3: I play Brad Wieman, a dwarf player from Ft. Bragg. Army consisted of 3 large infantry blocks, 2 bolt throwers, 1 organ gun, 1 unit of handgunners and a gyrocopter. He castled up into a corner, and I positioned to hit his flank as hard as I could with 2 knight units and a DP. I got his one unit to flee but I rolled low so I could catch him. My knights couldn't catch dwarves! Eventually his general came around and after a few rounds of combat he was able to break me. I controlled the other 3 table quarters, but it wasn't enough since all his points were in his infantry.

After day 1, I was 0-3, and picked Lance as my favorite player. It was hard since I had a good time with all 3 of my opponents, but from a warhammer game viewpoint that game 1 was really intense and a lot of fun.

Day 2 Game 4, I played the ringer Ogre army played by Richard (the TO). Again I thought to myself, I have an Ogre army this should be a cakewalk. I was wrong. He trounced me good, and my knights again failed me miserably.

Game 4, I played John Gressock, a Skaven player with large blocks of infantry, a grey seer, but no jezzails or abominations. It was a a nicely balanced list. Their were some classic events happening in this battle. He gets the 13th spell off with IF, and turns my Chosen into a new rat unit. I then miscast the next turn, and he gets to cast that spell again. This time at my Chaos warriors. They too turn into a rat unit. Then my HC blows up. It went so bad for me that my opponent actually stopped casting magic as he had the game won and didn't want to miscast himself.

Both Richard and John were fun players. I picked John as my favorite opponent since we both had a good laugh at my poor dice rolling and general bad luck.

I am off to buy a lottery ticket as no one's bad luck could get this bad.