Sessioni's Middenheim (spearmen, second batch ready, Cannon ready)

[Sessioni]

Welcome to my new plog!

So some of you know I've been working on vampires quite a lot, but it can be quite exhausting to paint something similar for years. I had an Empire army back in the 6th edition, and I still got the models which I will bring back on the battlefield. I have learned a lot from you guys, and from my own mistakes. I am going to try and finish one project at a time, no duplicates. My painting skills have also become better, again, thanks to you guys.

I will make this plog more organized and easier to follow.

Right now I'm working on a unit of 30 spearmen. It took a while to wash the old paints off, cutting the models from their bases (as you can see, for now on, I finish the bases separately) and repairing them. Now they are ready for painting. I will paint 9 spearmen, then a command group model no.1, 9 spearmen CG no.2 etc. So my army's theme is Middenheim, blue and white.

Here we go!

 

[Farmer7574]

@Sessioni Nice setup you've got there, way cleaner than the thing I call a painting desk

Empire is cool, I've never painted any of them (at least not living), but I can see the appeal. They have some really cool minis, and a few nice potential candidates for converting to undead!

Are you planning on a big army or just a small force to add a bit of variety to your hobby time?

 

[Sessioni]

@Farmer7574 I bought the painting station from Polish site Hobbyzone Some great stuff they have!
I think I will go for a big army, but one step at a time, time will tell

 

[Leithel]

Very cool @Sessioni and I know what you mean, I lose momentum every now and then for one army and come back to it all fresh shortly after. You can't get much different to undead than empire after all right?

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel Yes well I guess I could've started painting my bretonnians, I have LOADS of them waiting for me, mostly 5th edition (remember when I asked about those halberdiers, well I have 19 of those, I'd love to have some more) But I think I prefer empire, so brets will have to wait. In three months there is a LAN event in my town, and there is also a miniatures involved, they asked our local miniature club to promote miniature gaming + we'll get a couple gaming tables there. So this gives me some boost to complete (at least) 1000 points of Empire for the event.

 

[Sessioni]

First 10 ready. You can see the models are in pretty bad shape, especially the guy in the front. These are my first models ever (6th edition starter box). Painting them nicely is quite challenging. Still, I think they look good. A question for you guys, what do you think which one looks better, with or without Nuln Oil. The two fellas next to unit champion are painted with nuln oil, it sure gives some depth to clothing. I kinda like both versions.

And what about shields, I would give them the round lion shields, but I managed to find only 17 of those, and 27 is what I need. How would bretonnia men-at-arms tower shields tickle your fancy?

 

[Leithel]

Hey @Sessioni Great to see some old school empire hitting the PLOGs. I definitely like the Nuln oil for the reasons you mentioned, it adds depth to the models. They are most often going to be viewed as a unit and the depth is important to make the details pop. For the leaders of anyone who might be viewed individually it might be worth toning it down a little though.

For shields, I'd recommend relatively small shields, nothing too cumbersome as they are holding large spears also. The Men at Arms sheilds might be a bit hard to sell as being held without a free hand.

 

[Farmer7574]

@Sessioni Nice work on these empire guys mate. I'm with Leithel, the big shields wouldn't look right on these guys. Small shields would be the way to go.

As for the Nuln Oil wash; I'm a fan of it. I'm not a big fan of pure white minis anyway but the wash has definitely helped define them.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Sessioni]

@Leithel @Farmer7574 Thanks for the advice, I washed the rest with nuln oil and they look much better. I am not afraid to execute advice from two among the best painters from this site
Shields are kinda problematic for me, I have skaven and skeleton warrior (the round ones) shields a lot, but I don't know if they fit. Maybe I leave them without shields, but first I paint them all.

Today I ordered from Black Tree Design (50% off till midnight) some Halberdiers. I love the men at arms halberdiers, and decided I will use them in my Empire army. I have 19 of original bretonnia halberdiers, but what I need is 40, BTD offers some great alternatives, they look almost the same as 5th ed. bret m@a.

Thanks for the comments guys, I have kept up good pace on painting, and I hope to finish the unit soon.

 

[Sessioni]

Finished the second batch of spearmen, including Standard bearer (without the banner, still figuring out how I will execute it). Also the Cannon is now finished, actually I started it before the spearmen.

Only 9 men left!

edit. For the record, I am not comfortable of swapping the heads of the classic minis, but I do understand it would look much better if there would be more variety.

 

[Borgnine]

Cool army you have there going In my opinion the blue color is a little too vibrant, but it's still a very good color scheme! And as I said before, the cannon is awesome - also, well done fire on the crewman

 

[Sessioni]

@Borgnine Well I can agree with you about blue being too vibrant, but I can live with that I used wool and super glue to make the fire, worked great!

I made the banner today, not painted yet, I think I'll settle there, what do you think? I removed the smaller part of the original banner to make it look more.. disciplined if that makes any sense o.o
Also I've been working a lot with green stuff recently. I have learned a few tricks and techniques and I love using it. The main thing I learned is that it takes a lot of time, you can't just sculpt a model in one sitting. Here's a warrior priest conversion I've been working on every now and then while paint/glue dries and to keep my sanity from painting WHITE (which I pretty much hate ). Also, spearmen are soon to be finished. I want to ask your opinion about the next project; A unit of 5 pistoliers or a unit of 10 crossbowmen?

 

[Jean]

Hope its not too late, but I would go on with pistoliers, because they are cool unit. I also have Empire army so I know what its like to paint them.

 

[der vued]

The trick on painting white is to start with grey.

 

[Borgnine]

Banner looks cool and it seems you are getting along well with greenstuff Yes, it takes a lot of time, but while one thing dries, you can prepare another one or sculpt something else - it all takes some planning In the worst case, you have some free time One month later, it's probably pointless to vote for an unit Either of them would be cool to show up here