The Artillery Train of Nuln (Part 5)

So, I finally got the chance this evening to set up my lights again (after almost a month without them) and take a few shots of my progress on my "Armies On Parade" army, my Artillery Train of Nuln. We last left off with the shot above, only ten more to go.

After picking up some "rubber steel" sheets from our Gale Force 9 stand at Cold Wars and a pack of magnets from the Warstore, I magnetized all of the bases in my Greatsword and Spearmen units. It has made transporting them to my irregular games of Warhammer much easier.

Anyway, here is the finished Greatswords unit, the Red Bears of Mecklenburg. Lots of shiny steel armor and zwei-handers.

The bear on the banner was based on the icon above, the insignia of the II Polish Corps' 22nd Artillery Supply Company. This unit served in the Italian Peninsula campaign during WW2 and their unit mascot was Wojtek, a beer-swilling, cigarette-smoking, ammo-carrying bear.*

The flashing wall of steel also looks pretty good in a column too.

And here are the first handgunners for the army, well under way. There are two units of Nuln Ironsides models that are "on deck" next. I also am now the proud owner of a Marienburg class Land Ship. Looking at the pieces and the scale of the task ahead, I think I'll take July off to finish it for Games Day : )

Cheers

Dave

* For more information on Wojtek, check out the upcoming FOW book Cassino, or WI284.

The Artillery Train of Nuln (Part 4)

Grundel's Defenders - Silver Demon in Baltimore 2010

So, after finishing up 36 soldiers from the 3rd Foot Guards (stationed in Spain during Old Boney's little bruhaha) last month - pictures to follow on the weekend - I decided December would have to be a solid month of painting my Empire army. With so many horde units in my list, I knew I had to get at least one of them finished by the end of the year.

I decided to take the easy route, if you think that having a 15-model head start on a 40-strong unit of spearmen is easy (which I do). Well, thanks to some late nights for me and long naps for my daughter, I managed to finish the rest of the unit in record time (not quite, but it feels good to be back on track) and although they're not the same quality as the original base of guys I'm happy with the result. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Here are a few pics of some of the extra spearmen on multiple bases.

And of course, no unit from Nuln is complete without a powder monkey : )

Finally, here's a shot of the army as it stands now. Not too far advanced from the last shot, but it's getting there slowly.

For more information and pictures of my army, click on the 8th Edition Challenge button in the right hand column of this blog.

Cheers

Dave

Not what it looks like...

Although it might seem that I've been slacking a bit in the last few weeks, that's not quite the case. I've been doing quite a bit of painting, but haven't had much of a chance to take photos. I've also been putting together things for other blogs.

When I made my "Hobby Cornucopia" post back in October I listed a bunch of things that I'd be working on for this blog. The only one that I hadn't posted as of last Wednesday was the collaborative post with Ron from From The Warp. I put together a quick tutorial on how I would paint my Dark Eldar, if I were going to do such a thing (which I'm not). You can see this tutorial over at From The Warp, here.

I've also just finished off a quick post over on our 8th Edition Challenge blog. Check it out here.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to paint up some more Empire soldiers over the weekend, and take some more photos, for more substantial blog posts next week.

In the meantime, check out the posts mentioned above, and send in your entries for the Steel Legion Army List Competition.

Cheers

Dave

More Artillery Train goodness!

Before I get into the meat of this post, I just need to say thank you to Nicolai from Denmark who bought the Space Hulk boxed set, and Jim Bailey from Grindhouse Games for buying up my Incursion set of models. It is very exciting to deal with people who are not only incredibly passionate about what they do, but are willing to put their money where their mouth is. Jim, and his brother John, are just those guys. The way they approach everything exudes quality. Thanks guys!

And on to the post. I'll say up front that there are more pictures over on our 8th Edition Challenge blog, as well as a bunch more explanation. It's getting late, so this one will be a little light on text. For more depth, head on over and check out the new blog, there's even a post from Jim Bailey about the Wood Elf army he's building!

Here are two of the wizards I painted up this week. Only five more wizards to go ; )

Ultimately inspired by the Grundel's Defenders artwork by Dave Gallagher, this army will include quite a few diorama-style bases. Here's one for my Greatswords unit, The Red Bears of Mecklenburg.

The artillery bases are nice and big (100x100mm) so that I can make them all little dioramas. In this one, a member of the court of Nuln is taking an interest in the latest acquisition, a Helstorm Rocket Battery.

And finally, here's something I'll be photographing as I make progress on this army. It is a board containing all the Dragon Forge Temple bases I'm using for this army, all laid out just waiting for the models to populate them. It should be interesting to see the army grow.

Cheers

Dave

The 8th Edition Challenge

So, of course I'll start with the last thing first. Earlier this month my friend Jeff challenged me, and a group of mutual friends, to a Warhammer Army Building Challenge. The details of the Challenge can be found on Jeff's blog here.

The summary, however, is we basically commit to painting a new(ish) Warhammer army for 8th Edition over the next eight months or so, then gather from across the country for a round-robin tournament. The idea is to give us all something concrete to aim for, and something to discuss with each other online (as we're all spread across the country now).

Anyway, I'm going to build an Empire army (no real surprise there), and it looks like I'll be adding another 200 or so models to my collection of Empire models that already exceeds 1000.

What can I say? I love the idea of the stoic human fighting desperately to survive in the brutal and chaotic Old World. This time around it'll be a Marienburger army, taking a bit of a mercenary feel and mixing it with some opulence (from the coffers of a wealthy Merchant Prince). I also hope this means I can mix in some of the fun stuff that has already been revealed for Warhammer Forge (particularly that Land Ship).

So, what am I pledging to build? The current list looks something like this:

Troops

• 40 Spearmen w/command

• 40 Spearmen w/command

• 30 Flagellants w/command (I'll have a Warrior Priest in the list)

• 30 Free Company w/command

• 10 Handgunners

• 10 Handgunners

• 10 Crossbowmen

• 10 Crossbowmen

Specials

• 30 Greatswords w/command

• 5 Outriders w/Champion

• 5 Outriders w/Champion

• Great Cannon

• Great Cannon

Rares

• Helstorm Rocket Battery

• Helstorm Rocket Battery

• Helblaster Volley Gun

Should be a lot of fun (and a lot of work).

To represent the Merchant Prince, I've decided to use the model of Marius Leitdorf. This figure is suitably foppish, but I'll have to come up with a more appropriate name for him.

I'm thinking of a Turquoise, Black, and Gold scheme, with the occasional splash of Red and Bone included. The bases will be as seen above, the Temple series from Dragon Forge Design, painted as the cobbled streets of Marienburg.

Wish me luck, I think I'll need it.

Cheers

Dave