My Own Personal Empire Hero!

 This latest post is something rather special. While I was compiling my Borders Princes army a few months ago and studying the 4th edition Warhammer Empire army book, I was reminded how good the John Blanche illustrations were, my particular favourite being one of an Empire hero. I thought how great it would be to create a conversion based on the drawing. Quite a tall order I thought, as he was pretty unique and couldn't find a figure that resembled him that closely.
 Then I thought how about commissioning somebody to create one for me! Another tall order really, I thought.
 Then after being pointed in the right direction, I got my wish. And here it is.

 Sculpted by the immensely talented Alessio Cisbani of Wolfbane Art, this has come out as true to the original drawing as you could possibly get. Additional credit to Chris Nichols for the excellent job of casting him.

The original green

And the original artwork

 For obvious reasons it's been sculpted for personal use and not for commercial purposes.

 I must say I'm more than delighted with the result and it's exceeded my expectations. The detail on this figure is gorgeous, particularly the intricate lion carvings on the sword. If you are looking at going down the commissioned work route, I thoroughly recommend Alessio.

 Obviously this particular paint job is a display piece only but having cast a number of copies I'll be definitely using others for warbands and in time having one in the army.

Tzeentch Warband Completed - Two years late!

 Some of you may remember a couple of years back I embarked on a collaboration with Rochie Rochfort, each painting a chaos warband. Rochie opted for the path of Nurgle and for me it was Tzeentch.
 We both gave it a good going but never quite finished them off and put it on hold to pursue other projects.
 So this last week or so I've made the effort to draw a line under it. I still had a pair of minotaurs and a chaos goblin to sort out to get it done.

The warband of Dieter Heldengast

Heldengast himself! 

 The minotaurs are Bob Naismith sculpts from the Citadel C25 range. Clubhorn Runemaster on the left and Slaggut Offaltongue on the right.

 The goblin was a fun miniature to paint from the Citadel C27 Chaos Goblin Mutant range.

Then we've got the old guard; the Bob Olley beastmen, one riding the Cold One I rolled from the 'Other Table'.

 It's always nice to wrap a half finished project that's been left in limbo. Next up (probably) is another chaos warband. I'm aiming to complete Khorne, Slaanesh and Nurgle ones over the coming months. Hopefully there won't be another two years before they're finished.

Citadel Realm of Chaos Knight - a break from Empire

 Giving myself a well deserved short break from the Old World Army Challenge, I had a rummage around in the chaos box and got the urge to convert and paint one of the classic realm of chaos knights.

 I'd been recently revisiting Nico's incredible blog and in particular his chaos knights so there was plenty to inspire me. 

 Now for some reason I've always found the classic realm of chaos steeds a bit of a bogey figure. I've attempted to paint a few over the years and all but once they've ended up abandoned and either pushed to the back of the desk or tossed back into the chaos box. Despite this, I decided that I'd convert this one as well as the rider. This is the outcome.

 The rider himself is not one of the original mounted knights (his legs are of course); I decided to use the top half of one of the chaos charioteers - I luckily have a spare of this guy. It was a very simple conversion as he was sculpted around the same time as the knights so he's perfectly suited. 

 The steed itself has a few alterations. I added the sword from the khorne juggernaut plus the scorpion tail from the classic citadel manticore and a spike to the horse's head. The severed head is a mould press from one of the trophies sported by the hobgoblin character Gyokurinti the strangler. There was also the addition of a length of chain.

 The knight himself was fun to paint but as per usual I did struggle with the steed and it was only in the latter stages that it began to come together. I think the plan will be to have him front a Khorne warband, one of which I rolled up the other week but there'll be more to come on that in the coming weeks . Meanwhile it's back to the army challenge! 

 

Border Princes Update - February

 After sitting out January I've got back into the swing of things with February's Old World Army Challenge.

 The latest addition to my Borders Princes force are a 15 man halberdier unit which includes a champion, standard bearer and drummer.

 I wanted to achieve a real varied look to my unit by using as many different looking troops as possible; men who have hailed from across the Old World seeking fortune and a better life.

 • 15 Halberdiers including champion, standard bearer and drummer from the principality of Myrmidens - 208 points.

The story so far - bit of a crap pic but it'll do

 It's not the most detailed banner ever made but that's about the limit of my freehand. On the plus side I've always wanted to paint a halberdier unit so that's another thing to draw a line under and I'll probably expand it at some later date.

Border Princes Army Update - December

 Well I thought December's installment of the Old World Army Challenge would be fairly straight forward what with having a bit of spare time over the Christmas period but I only just managed to finish on new year's eve.

 Opting for both artillery pieces, I've gone for uniform colours that are quite diverse from the Empire provinces; particularly the black and apple green of the great cannon crew.

• Great Cannon with 3 crewmen from the principality of Styrtia - 100 points

• Helblaster Volley Gun with 3 crewmen from the principality of Munzig - 100 points

 I kept both war engines quite plain as both sets of crew are busy enough with colour. If I'm honest I found this month's challenge a strain at times, in particular the volley gun crew. The guy with the barrel is a pretty rough sculpt in places, especially the face. I'm not used to painting to deadlines and some of it felt a little rushed.

 Anyway, this month I'm focusing on cavalry and I'm going down a non Citadel route. Hopefully it won't be too much of a rushed struggle this time!

2017 Review Time!

 Well, season's greetings and all that; here we are again, another year drawing to a close so it's time for the annual review.

 It's been another fairly progressive year, a little down on last year perhaps but I've managed to cross off one or two long term goals.
 The year began with more additions to the ever growing chaos army (which incidentally started 20 years ago this month). I finally got round to repainting my foot and mounted Chaos Knights from the Citadel C33 Mounted Adventurers range.

 I also managed to get a couple more beastmen finished to get the unit I'd started at the end of 2016 up to 10.

 Then there was also an appearance from Jaek and Helwud foot and mounted before I called a halt on Chaos army proceedings for now.

The army currently as it stands

 I managed to make a start on a Frostgrave warband, getting 4 of the 8 finished.

 The same went for my Mordheim Possessed warband with half of it done.

 Another long term project was achieved - the iconic toad dragon complete with chaos warrior rider.

 I've plans for a Marienburg warband but only got as far as the mercenary captain. I still need to finalise which figures are going to be used here.

 Earlier in the year I'd made a start on a heavily converted rogue trader but he spent several months half built until I made the effort to finish him off and paint him plus the additional members of his party.

Then, with this being my personal highlight of the year I decided to put an old idea into production, a diorama featuring a Balrog slain by demons of law.

 Quite tricky and testing at times, it took about a month to complete. There are more details here.

 The pace dropped off a little towards the end of the year as I planned what should come next. Then I decided to get involved in The Old World Army Challenge that had been set up on Facebook (painting an army over the space of 6 months blah blah blah) so October was spent planning for that with me deciding on a Border Princes Army.

 November's installment was managed just but I'm currently up against it with December's!

 So what for 2018? Well, getting through army challenge done firstly which will end in April. Then, who knows? Usually this time of year I have a rough plan for what's to come but the future is uncertain at present!

 There is murmurings of possibly another diorama; bigger than anything I've produced before but this is only a collection of ideas at present.
 So at that point, I wish you all a happy new year and look forward to seeing more fantastic work from the community in 2018!

My Contribution to the Army Painting Challenge - Border Princes

 Well it's been a while since my last post; 2 months in fact. The time has been well spent mind, preparing for something I had not been expecting to get involved in - The Old World Army Challenge.

 To save me waffling on about the rules, and probably getting it wrong, here are the details as follows:

The superb Army Challenge logo as designed by the talented Clarence Harrison

 Now this isn't the sort of thing I'd normally take on, the idea of painting an army in an allocated time fills me with dread but seeing as all other projects  (or most of them anyway) have been finished off, I decided to give it a go.

 I opted for a Border Princes Army or The Northen Borders Confederacy. This will give me the opportunity to paint an Empire force but it gives me the freedom to incorporate several different coloured uniforms into the army from each principality - plus adding some dwarfs into the mix.
 I intend to use a mixture of 4th Empire figures plus a number of the Marauder Empire and dwarf range. I may even go for some non Citadel figures as well.

 •THE ARMY LIST

1 Mounted Border Prince
1 Mounted Hero
5 Border Heavy Cavalry
5 Princes Bodyguard (on foot)
15 Halberdiers including champion
10 Handgunners including champion
8 Dwarf Spearmen
1 Great Cannon
1 Helblaster Volley Gun

Total Points 1007

 So the first instalment is done. Only a mere 4 figures this month but it does include the army commander and hero.

• Lord Durant, Principality of Akendorf     Army commander
Heavy armour, barded warhorse
110 points

•Duke Beaucamp, Principality of Brovska
Empire Hero
Heavy armour, barded warhorse
75 points

•Dwarfs*(2 from an 8 man unit)
Sword and pistol, sword  (standard not included in points)

*making up points to roughly total 200 for the month.

 It's been an impressive start to proceedings from the challengers and December should prove equally prosperous. Myself, I'm not sure what's in next month's installment yet. Need to decide quickly though and get cracking.
 Incidentally, my blog page has just turned 4 years old. Time has certainly flown.