Artillery Train of Nuln in WD (and a list)

Image from the GW website, used without permission.

Well, I was quite delighted to find my Artillery Train of Nuln army (from last year's Armies On Parade) made it into the "6th Edition Release" issue of White Dwarf. After 103 pages of non-stop 40K action, my humble army gets to be the Warhammer speed bump. I was also amused when a friend pointed out that it was the only Warhammer content in the issue. So, rush out and grab yourself a copy ; )

While at War Games Con over the weekend (which was very good, by the way), I managed to start and finish off Leitpold the Black. I even got him entered in the painting comp, but I'm not sure how he did as I had to leave crazy early on Sunday morning. If anyone knows, feel free to drop the info into a comment below.

So that leaves just a few pieces to go. Here they are in the order I expect I'll try to get them done:

• Finish painting the Skullvane Manse
• Finish off the board by adding Silfor tufts, flocking, and some Secret Weapon Miniatures leaves 
• Paint the Morr Altar
• Paint the Doomsayer for the Morr Altar
• Paint the Amethyst wizard for the top of the Skullvane Manse
• Assemble and paint five "plague doctor" types to help push the Morr Altar
• Finish assembly of the Morr Altar (with chain provided by Dragon Forge Design).

If I have anytime after that it'll be all about adding grave diggers and so on to fill out the scene.

Cheers
Dave

The Artillery Train of Nuln (Part 7)

I've finally grabbed a chance to post up some more of my Artillery Train of Nuln. With just under two weeks until the Armies on Parade heat in local GW stores. I'll be heading up to GW White Marsh, not quite the closest store to me, but the one I've spent most time at since the Battle Bunker in Glen Burnie closed.

Anyway, there's still a LOT of work to do in 13 days. Wish me luck.

Here's my second unit of handgunners, the Marksman is armed with a repeater handgun, effectively giving the unit 12 shots a turn.

Here are the first ten Ironsides, the resin handgunner bodies from Warhammer Forge. Lovely detail and very characterful, if a little "samey".

And here are the second unit of ten Ironsides. I enjoyed painting stripy pants on a few of them, just to break things up.

Here are a few shots of my Helstorm Rocket Battery. I'm thinking I should do some freehand work on the back of the cloak of the merchant and I'm open for suggestions. Leave your ideas in the comments ; )

I think I've mentioned before, but I'm keen on creating a story for each of my artillery bases. On the Helstorm base above, a prominent Nuln merchant has purchased this experimental weapon and is keen to find out how it might perform in the upcoming defense of the city. Bothering the Engineer whilst he is getting the machine ready for battle is obviously the best course of action.

The story here is much simpler, the crew are readying the cannon for another shot. Once the crewman at the business end has finished packing in the powder charge, the cannonball can be dropped in and the engine returned to its firing position. The crew have also been allocated a guard "for their safety". I must admit though, I've never seen cannon crew win a round of combat against anyone.

Two more artillery bases to go (another cannon and a Helblaster), plus two Engineers, a Battle Standard Bearer, and a Captain. If the replacement parts for my Marienburg-class Landship arrive on Monday, I should be able to get that done too. Plus finishing off the display board.

Busy, busy, busy!

Cheers

Dave

The Artillery Train of Nuln (Part 6)

Before I jump into this post about my ongoing Artillery Train project, I want to share with you a revelation that I had last night while watching a classic sci-fi movie, Dune. The David Lynch movie of 1983 was one of the first I was able to see on the big screen, and a lot of it has stuck with me over the years. Seeing it again last night was very cool, and one line in particular struck a chard with me (in regards to my blogging). Now, to paraphrase Gurney Haleck poorly, "Not in the mood? Mood? Mood is a thing for cattle and blogging"

What do I mean by this? Well last week I was pretty psyched to get a few blog posts up, show you folks what I'd been working on, and so forth. There was a post on Monday, another on Tuesday, and a third on Wednesday. I was about to bang out another post for Thursday when I noticed my Wednesday post had disappeared, along with a few comments. WTF? As many of you know, Blogger had some kind of issue last week that could only be solved by pulling 30 hours worth of posts and comments. I'm not sure what that issue was, or even if I'd understand it if I was told. All I know is that it took the wind out of my sails, left me "not in the mood". So you've had to wait until now to see what I've been up to.

Let's kick off by pointing out the very cool model above, part of the new range of models brought to the world by Laurent of Blight Wheel Miniatures. I've mentioned Blight Wheel before. They are the ones who produced the cool vehicles I showed you in this post. Take a look at their site, and make sure you let Laurent know what you think of his range.

And now, on to the Artillery Train of Nuln. Here you can see the first of my new Handgunner units completed. I have another of this style primed and ready for paint. Then it's on to the two units of Nuln Ironsides. The models are very nice, crisp, characterful sculpts, and I'm looking forward to getting some paint on them soon.

Back rank.

Front rank.

Above you can see the progression on my first cannon base. I've been inspired by a number of historical wargaming artillery bases I've seen recently, so I hope to tell a story with the artillery bases for this army. Below you can see the cannon. I've chosen to paint the gun carriage with Tau Sept Ochre, one of the accent colors I'm using in my force. I like the muted tone that almost looks like it could be unpainted wood (with a great yellow tinge to it to offset the dark metal of the fittings).

And here is the first artillery base I started on, the Helstorm Rocket battery. You can see the "story" arrangement here. Not long and I'll have this finished up completely.

In my first few games, the Helstorm did not treat me well. However, on Tuesday night, while fighting against Jake's Skaven, it did manage to take out over half a unit of Plague Monks in the first turn, so it can't be all bad.

Finally, here's a look at the Battle Standard Bearer I've assembled for the army. I know he technically can't have that pistol, but I think it looks good and fits with the blackpowder theme of the army (as does the crazy clockwork cherub).

Cheers

Dave

Armies on Parade, and the Portuguese

Armies on Parade logo from GW website, used without permission.

Last Thursday GW posted details of its Armies On Parade competition to be held at Games Days around the world this year. On some internet forums this announcement was met with jeers of derision and mountains of scorn. "How dare GW run a competition that forces you to paint a new army!?! What a shallow and useless marketing ploy to prop up flagging sales!"

It was all I could manage to read he first dozen or so comments, almost all from "hobbyists" who had not read the entire posting themselves before bringing out the long knives to eviscerate what is actually a simple and wonderful idea. So, turning away from the vitriol, I started to think about what I liked so much about this "new event".

Two years ago, my friend (and former colleague) John Shaffer told me about a simple idea of his to add a new event to Games Day. An event that required few staff, and a little prep work, but would create quite the spectacle. Amusingly dubbed "Armies on Parade", I thought it'd be fun to support John's idea and put one of my own on display at the 2009 show in Baltimore. My Bretonnians hadn't seen the light of day since Adepticon '08 (where they didn't make it onto the table thanks to a debilitating illness that struck at the show) so they were due for a glimpse of the sun, or at least big-ass halogen lights. It was fun to see the two dozen or so armies arrayed and to hear some nice things said about my humble Brets.

At Baltimore Games Day 2010, the Armies on Parade event was made slightly more official. In addition to the public votes, the team from the Studio were also on hand to select their favorite. I decided to take my Blood Pact (they were my latest army after all). Dan Abnett was at the show, and I'm such a fanboy when it comes to Dan, so it made sense. Fortunately, others (including Dan) liked my army and I won the "Best Painted Army" certificate. There were about three other certificates to be won, with all of them appearing to be quite similar.

Alan Merrett was at the show, overseeing the running of the Golden Demon awards, and must have seen the response that John's little idea had. Now, in a sensible move by the "powers that be", are taking the competition global (well, semi-global anyway). A competition that promotes the clever presentation of well-painted (and possibly converted but certainly good looking) armies by a company that makes its money from selling toy soldiers? Sounds like the right thing to do to me.

With activity in our "8th Edition Army Challenge" somewhat stalled by "shiny object syndrome" and other things like real life, I've decided I'm going to enter the 2011 competition with my Artillery Train of Nuln. It is my hope that I can paint up about half a dozen more units to the same quality as Grundel's Defenders (above, winner of a Silver Demon) in time to enter at one of the remaining GW stores in my area. I'm hoping to win at the local level which will give me an automatic entry into Games Day, and the Armies on Parade competition at Games Day 2011 (in Chicago this year). Should I not win at the local level, there's always the "Second Chance" comp at the show, where your army might be good enough on the day to get bumped up to the final competition (or so the rules describe).

So, get ready for more Empire goodness over the coming months. I figure 120 or so models and a wicked display board should get me where I need to be.

And as I said time around, here are a few more of my Napoleonic figures. This time they're Portuguese Caçadores from the 2nd Battalion. The Caçadores (literally "light infantry") were Portuguese troops trained by the British to act as light infantry, which at the time meant they were really the elite. Not only could they perform all the tasks and battlefield roles of the line infantry companies, but they were trained to skirmish, scout, and other tasks that made for formidable units in the war in Spain against the French.

This base has three Caçador riflemen, equipped in much the same way as the troopers of the 60th or 95th British regiments (most notably with Baker rifles).

This base contains six musket-armed Caçadores. Some points to note about these guys:

• They wear the green plumes associated with British light infantry companies.

• They have the red cuffs of the 2nd Battalion.

• I've shaved off they little "6" found on their shako (on the Victrix models) and repainted a "2" for the 2nd Battalion.

WARNING - Shameless Plug Approaching!

If you want to know a bit more about the Portuguese Caçadores, then pick up a copy of Wargames Illustrated #277 and read the cool "Great Warriors" article in there.

Cheers

Dave

As promised...

Well, I finally had the opportunity to photograph all the Napoleonic British I've been painting over the last month. Above is the "group shot" of all that I've painted so far. Almost 250 models, that's a lot of red! Here's a link to the shot of what I had finished by December 16 last year. It'll give you a bit of an idea how much I've painted in the last six weeks or so.

So the army now stands at:

• 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards (Coldstream)

• 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards

• 60th Regiment of Foot (Royal American Rifles)

• 74th Regiment of Foot

• 79th Regiment of Foot (Cameron Highlanders)

• 1st Battalion of King's German Legion

• 2nd Battalion of King's German Legion

• 2nd Battalion of Caçadores (Portuguese light infantry)

• Battery of Royal Artillery

• Battery of Royal Horse Artillery

• Commander and Sub-Commander

Here's the new Battery of Royal Horse Artillery. After finishing work on the "Artillery Through the Ages" issue of Wargames Illustrated (out in late Feb), in which one of the articles covered Napoleonic Horse Artillery, I felt it was only right I get my battery painted up. With much less red and white to paint than the standard foot regiment, these guys painted up wonderfully quickly. I was just putting the finishing touches on the officer (pictured above with drawn sabre on the Howitzer base), and I thought I'd check out a wonderful piece of art from Karl Kopinski.

What you see here is a very small part of a wonderful painting by Mr Kopinski (formerly of GW fame) called No Retreat. He painted this picture as part of a pair for the Waterloo Collection. These paintings are a major part of the fundraising for Project Hougoumont. If you are interested in cool art and preserving history, please check out the links.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Just as I thought I was done, I noticed - tucked away in the background - two gunners with their back to the artist. There was some fairly elaborate brocade (I think, although it might be called lace) work on their uniforms, work that was obviously a bit too elaborate to be sculpted on the 28mm Front Rank figures I was painting.

I just couldn't let it slide, so I free-handed the brocade/lace onto their rather smart jackets, highlighted and left it at that. You can see it above on the backs of a couple of the gun crew, but it does appear on all the figures in the battery (except the officer, who's back is covered by his over jacket).

Next time: More of my recent British paintjobs, plus a look at the expansion of the Armies on Parade competition at Games Days.

Cheers

Dave