So after a fourteen month hiatus I am making a triumphant
return to the blogosphere. A lot has happened with my hobby since August 2014
and I will aim to update you as I showcase some of the painting I’ve done since
then.
I have sold off both the Orcs and Tau figures I discussed in
my previous post in order to cut back on the amount of stuff to paint and make
things more manageable in my head. Instead I focused on painting an empire army
over the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015. This was helped significantly by me
moving in with a gentleman named Byron, a good friend, an exceptional painter,
and the co-owner of Element Games.
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| Byron on the left in front of his store. |
We are living in central Manchester and its been a real pleasure so far. Byron is an endless
font of brilliant painting tips and has helped me constantly improve and
challenge myself when it comes to my technique. This empire force represents the initial
months of me berating him with endless questions. I encourage everyone to check
out his excellent blog in the sidebar or by clicking here.
My initial job was this unit of mounted knights. It was my
first time painting cavalry and was a rather tedious process, one I wouldn’t
care to repeat again. However Byron was kind enough to give me access to his
airbrush which helped me put down the
basecoats and washes for the metal/horseflesh extremely effectively.
I then treated myself to a Warpriest model produced by
Avatars of War. It was a great figure and I’m really pleased with how it turned
out. Up until this point this was by far my best highlighting yet, although it
was only the result of me layering a lot with no proper blending anywhere.
A cannon came next, I love these little leaves produced by
Secret Weapon found here.
A superb way to add some real character to a base!
At this point I started working through twenty state
troopers in batches of five. Midway through I took a break to paint this
wizard. He’s a little sloppily done as I was still not doing proper blends at
this point, but he’s sufficient for the tabletop and I was pleased with the
illuminated manuscript on his spellbook!
And here is the finished unit of state troopers with the two
heroes in there as well. Apologies I don’t have individual pictures but I’ll
put some up soon. Suffice to say these guys are much better painted than the
initial tester models I showed over a year ago.
Finally here is the army as a whole! Unfortunately I reached
this stage at the end of June 2015, just as Age of Sigmar came into existence
and rendered 8th edition kaput. I’m hardly bitter about it, as the
fantasy system was showing its age, but I was disappointed that the Old World
fluff disappeared and since I’m not currently interested in Age of Sigmar this
will remain a display army for now. Aside from the cannon crew I have lots of
great little painting projects to add to it when I feel like it:
- Carriage with a nobleman (unit filler for the state troops)
- Luminark of Hysh
- Plastic Empire Captain
But for now I was sick of purple and yellow and wanted to
move on. Part two to follow!
-Tom
-Tom
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