[WIP] Need lots of help for painting of an Empire army!

[Sigmork]

Hi all,

I know this is my first post so I realize that none of you know me but I have been browsing the forums for a while, so have a feel of whats going on here and who\'s who (not mentioning names lol ).

The main point of this topic is asking for help to paint a 750pt empire force for a doubles tournament coming up soon. Basically the list is:

Heroes


Captain of the Empire riding a Pegasus wearing full plate armor and a shield, wielding a lance
[114pts]

Core


10 handgunners led by a marksman with a hochland long rifle
[105pts]

10 handgunners led by a marksman with a hochland long rifle
[105pts]

20 swordsmen with full command
[145pts]
{Detachment} 10 Free company
[50pts]

Special

5 pistoliers led by a musician and an outrider wielding a repeater pistol
[114pts]

Rare

Helstorm rocket Battery
[115pts]


I know not all of you play warhammer so wont help me with the list. Thats not what I\'m after. The thing is, to put it plainly I cant paint. At all :no: Here is one of my models. It was painted as good as I could get it for a painting competition and it is awful:

It scored a measly 5.2 on this site. Just shows how rubbish my best work is.

Anyway, back to the army. I am aiming for every single soldier in the army to get at least 5 on its own, the pistoliers 6, the helstorm 6-7 and the captain 7. I know this seems very impossible, but as Moist von Lipvig once said Why promise to achieve the achievable or something like that.

The whole reason for this is not to try to win the best army, but to have other painters look at my army admiringly instead of the other way round (And to prove that some of the kids that play warhammer aren\'t just whining powergamers).

I will go through the army itself first:


Livery (paint scheme)

I am unsure what paint scheme to use for my army, my main Empire force is a typical Talabhiem red and white paint scheme. I have thought of using different colors, as a splinter force of my larger army. I have had a few ideas they are:

A cameo army: This would really stand out, as fantasy armies are never cameo, and could be a guarding force for the new experimental weapon, the Helstorm rocket Battery.

Green flames on black background:

(Sorry for the fact that its a car bonnet, I couldn\'t find any good pictures)

The army would look really cool, the green flames coming from the legs of the soldiers embroidered onto the cloth of their uniforms, and maybe the captain actually alight with real (sculpted) magical flames.


These are the main two ideas, and I cant really think of any more, what do you think?


The models themselves

Here I will explain about the models themselves.

First off the Empire captain on Pegasus: I have got a bretonnian Pegasus knight and remains of an Empire knight. I am probably ( when i can use green stuff) going to convert it so the Pegasus is swooping down from the sky about to kill something. (Unsure of what yet)

The 20 Handgunners with 2 marksmen: These will be straight out of the box handgunners from the 6th Ed. Starter set. They will be repainted, and I will convert 2 to carry Hochland long rifles, using tubes to extend the barrels, add scopes and create gun mounts.

20 Swordsmen: These I have already converted from the starter box spearmen ( I brought 2 6th Ed. Starter boxes) into swordsmen, but will need repainting. The standard bearer i will free hand the standard to make him stand out.

10 Free companies: These have not been painted so can just be painted straight away

5 Pistoliers: I haven\'t actuallly made these, or brought them! But I will probably do some conversions to make them stand out, and add more character to them.

The Helstorm: This I have started to scratchbuild (with a few gw parts) Here are some pics:

(The whole model minus the loading mechanism, hardly anything glued)

(barrels and loading)

(ammo(will be cut a put poking out the barrels))

(some extra bit that will probably be used in the conversion)

I know its not to good but I will add some detail soon, I have mixed feelings about painting this.


Thats about it for now, sorry about the long post, I hope you will have some tips, suggestions, critisisms, advice, general stuff to say etc. for me. The work will probably be slow as I am busy and have a full timetable but am hoping to get this done by June/July time.


Thanks,
Sigmork

 

[Highbulp Billy]

Hi Sigmork, welcome to CMON. As you\'ve probably guessed, your initial post is a bit long and may prove off-putting for people to read through and respond to, especially as the size of the pictures mean that the page width doesn\'t fit on the screen. However, I\'ll do my best to get the ball rolling...

Firstly, good work with the dwarf - 5.2 is a very respectable first score here especially for a mini which isn\'t a good sculpt to work with. (My attempt at painting that has been relegated to the bin lol)

As you\'re probably aware, the latest White Dwarf has a lot of ideas and examples for Empire uniforms and this link may be of use too.

I advise picking one element of your army and starting a WiP thread on that with photo\'s of the minis and people can guide you as we see what you\'re doing. You\'ve obviously got quite a few ideas of your own (and quite ambitious ones at that) so it would be good to see them develop.

 

[OrkyDave]

thats pretty good advice, do a rank and file unit, then treat yourself to a character or something special, then move onto another rank and file etc.

People round here are helpful, and as Highbulp Billy said, break it down into smaller segments in the wip thread and you will be suprised at the advice and response given.

As far as your painting goes, the dwarf doesn\'t look all that bad, the face is good and your brush control seems neat enough (although certain areas could use a tidy up).
You could improve the piece by including more depth/ definition by shading and highlighting more, amd also some blacklining or shadow to help differentiate where different parts of the model meet.

When you get your colours sorted, and first unit started stick them on the wip and we\'ll see what we can do to help mate.

 

[krom1415]

sounds like a great idea, but dont over stretch yourself with the flames idea. Talabhiem are a great looking army and if done in a tidy fashion look very respectable, one tip over the red colour try magenta ink, it really richens the look
I\'m keen on trying Averland colour scheme on mine. Good luck

 

[Sigmork]

Thanks all, I was kind of put down by the fact that everyone says how quick responses were here but it took 5 days for me to get one. I will probably start a wip on the Helstorm, as it is the main model I\'m doing now, and probably the most unusual.

My only main problem with painting that I find is time, I don\'t have much of it in between school, homework, hockey, shooting etc. I end up with around 10 hours a week if that.

Thanks for your help guys,
Sigmork

 

[Highbulp Billy]

You\'ll find that quality painting time can become even harder to find later on. What with work, homestuff, wife and child I average about 2 hours a week at most

Good choice to go with the Helstrom project WiP as it looks like it could be an interesting piece (especially as GW aren\'t releasing their new model till later).

Remember to try and trim your pics a bit before posting them in the forum and you should get planety of good advice

 

[GriffinPainting]

My advice to you as a complete beginner would be to avoid the fancy flame effect and just concentrate on a simple but nicely contrasting scheme, painted neatly. Check out the GW website for some good tips, including the black gobbo too. And there are plenty of ideas in the Empire book to look at. Choose a colour scheme, get the colours from the GW website, and paint them on neatly as possible.

Don\'t be too discouraged by the scores on here, they are very tough to please, especially when you are painting regiments. Remember, you are painting the army for you, not for anybody else.

If you want, I can give you links to other sites where painting armies is the main consideration, rather then individual models. Send me a pm.

 

[rosac]

5.2 isn\'t bad.mine only get 4.6:redface: