Empire Inventory

I had a bunch of time on my hand during the pandemic so I went through and did an inventory of all my empire stuff, so this is my electronic copy for easy access.

5 Pistoliers

2 crossbowmen

1 Captain (hero model)

3 handgunners

2 champions (or heroes)

1 engineer (more of a 6th edition model)

1 Reiksguard foot knight

1 loose Ice Queen (no horse)

1 new in blister Ice Queen

8 halfling archers

1 hafling hot pot

3 knights of the white wolf

1 mortar with crew

2 empire great cannon with crew

4 kislev winged lancers

2 kislev horse archers

2 outriders

1 mounted amber wizard new in blister

1 mounted grey wizard new in blister

1 mounted celestial wizard new in blister

1 mounted amethyst wizard new in blister

4 light magic acolytes

1 mounted elector count of Hochland new in blister

1 knight of blazing sun

2 Grand Master of Knights Panther (no horse)

1 Ludwig von Schwarzhelm

1 mounted hero / captain of Reiksguard

1 loose Karl Franz

1 mounted knight panther

2 plastic knights (6th ed style, modern ones)

1 blister of modern halberdier commands (for the company of honour)

2 loose standard/musician for greatsword regiment

1 swordsman

1 new in box steam tank

2 new in box Karl Franz with Deathclaw (original box and newer packaging)

1 new empire mounted general (I might sell this thing)

2 Reaper Wizards

12 flagellants

Bunch of loose archers

Lots of Foundry halberdiers

Collection of old Citadel sculpts for a free company militia

1 musician

24 New in box modern empire plastic knights (3 boxes of 8)

5 new modern empire plastic knights (already prepped and based, just never primed them)

 

I think that’s it.

Lord Edmund The Absent

My Empire army has been sorely lacking in a basic mounted general.  The background of my army has the main general, Lord Edmund, normally riding a Pegasus.  But there are times I'd like to field him on a regular horse.
So, I managed to pick up an old Warhammer Fantasy Mercenary general.  I never really liked the way the model was usually painted (jet black hair, black mustache).  So, I tried something different.

Not my best work, but I'm just happy to have the model completed.

Chaos Knights

These models were some of the first models I ever purchased.  Chaos was the initial army I was going to build for Warhammer Fantasy but I got frustrated with no real army book.  Eventually the 4th Ed Dwarf book came out and I played Dwarfs almost exclusively after that.

These chaos knights have languished in the unpainted (in fact, unopened blisters) pile for a long time but I finally decided to tackle them. The metal sculpted horses are some of the best horses that Citadel produced.

Right now I only have 3, but thanks to a Buy It Sell It group on Facebook I was able to secure two more, which I'll use to round out this unit to 5.

A Winner!

Well...somehow...I won the Paint Hammer March Painting Challenge.

I entered the classic Orc Shaman on War Wyvern from Games Workshop Citadel Miniatures, circa 1991, described here in this post.

I have no idea how I won.  Pretty awesome.

Orc Shaman on Wyvern

This is a project I've wanted to tackle for decades but I never had the guts to
a) assemble this large metal model
or
b) attempt to paint such an iconic figure.

I found it at a flea market a few years ago (specifically, Wally's Basement at Fall-In historical wargaming convention in Lancaster PA) for $20; somehow less than the original 1992 list price!

Over this past christmas I finally decided to give it a shot.  Three months later I finally finished it.  I wanted to paint it as close to the original box as possible. Even though that early 90s Orc and Goblins style was very red and cartoony, it's what's stuck in my memory and always what I envisioned for this figure.
The only major change I made was to simplify the color palette: I opted for a plain, brown fur hide for the saddle instead of the zebra pattern. I always thought the zebra pattern looked too busy and you lost sight of the actual rider.

I first saw this box over 25 years ago...

First set of test scales...

I was probably about 75% done at this point

The finished product

Raaargh!

taking center stage in the greenskin horde...

Old School Goblins

I've been slowly collecting old, out of print (oop) goblin figures from the mid 80s/early 90s. Mostly Citadel and Marauder, with a few Iron Claws thrown in there.  I've also found some really nice Reaper, Grenadier and Heartbreaker goblins, too. I'm going to paint them all up and combine them into one giant unit of "common" goblins with a variety of weapons, whatever they have (axes, swords clubs, bows, who cares).

Here's the first 4 that I've completed. Great sculpts, easy to paint because each one has nice character to it.  The spearmen still needs a shield; I'll get to that later.

Poor lighting, but both pics can be zoomed in for better detail.

Alternative Greatswords

After perusing the Empire Army book for  Warhammer 6th Edition I realized that it might be time to reconsider my opinion of Greatswords. I had always ignored them mainly because I didn't like the figs, in any edition.  Never a fan of the squiggly swords, never liked the poses, etc.

OOP Greatswords

But looking at the rules and their army list entry it seems that they're one of my better infantry choices.

They're 12 points, come with full plate armor (save of 4+), Weapon Skill 4, Stubborn (take break checks on unmodified  Leadership regardless of combat results), and their double handed swords are great weapons so they have +2 strength.   Only real downside is that they take up a Special slot.

With all of this in mind, my new challenge is to find figures that I like enough to field a unit.

I don't like the current GW Greatswords; that squiggle sword just really bothers me. I do, however, like the optional sword that comes on the sprue (non-squiggle).

Yes

No

Artizan Designs has some fantastic two-handed Landsknechts but I'm looking for models that are a little more heavily armored.

Artizan

What I really want are dismounted knights in full suits of armor, no shield, and a hand weapon.  Either like the old edition Reiksguard Knights, or the Men-At-Arms that Foundry has.

Foundry

If the scale matches then I can just swap whatever the weapons they come with for the two handed swords from the GW sprue (if I can find enough of them).  I don't think the Foundry scale will match well enough with the current GW swords. And honestly, I doubt I'll be able to get enough of just the specific swords to make that a feasible option.

Front Rank has two figures that would work, the Italian Armor guys Hand-And-A-Half Sword Raised.

Front Rank

The search will just have to continue.  Maybe the answer is to mix and match and use a few from each manufacturer.

Worst Figure Ever

Let me start with this: I hate this model:

Hate.

It's an old, out-of-production (oop) Citadel Orc Boss, or Warboss, from Games Workshop. I think I got it free during Games Day '95 or something like that. I've always hated it. The sculpt is from back in the early 90s when many GW hero figs were striking that oh-so-classic "hip and hand" pose: some weapon or other in hand over the head, and another in the other hand with elbow pinned to the hip.

Just awful.

The chin is pretty bad too, and it doesn't help that the model is essentially 2D.  Not only that, when I got the fig I had no interest in starting an Orc and Goblin army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. What the heck was I ever gonna do with this thing?

All that changed when I recently decided to start playing WHFB again with 6th edition.  Originally I was trying introduce some new players to the hobby and thought "hey, now's a good time to have a  house army available for new players to use".  Over the years I've collected enough miniatures to field at least 6 "house" armies, in addition to my regular fully painted Dwarf army. So, I started painting up my Orcs and Goblins, and that's when I came across this dreaded figure.

If I was going to actually paint this thing and put on a wargaming table, I wanted to make it somewhat presentable. So, out came the metal clippers and hobby saw. First, I removed the sword from the "hip" hand and found an old plastic shield from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set.  I glued it onto the now-empty hand, and re-modeled leather handle straps with some greenstuff epoxy.

Looking better

After I removed the sword, I clipped off the peak of the helmet and I also clipped off those stupid prongs that were sticking out of his helmet.

Stupid.

(note: all images can be zoomed in by click on the image and "zooming" in your favorite image viewer)

After some dithering back and forth on color schemes, I decided I was just going to use this fig as a basic champion in the unit of plastic orc boyz that came from Skull Pass. Since GW started exploding the size of regular orc boys to be as big as the Black Orcs from back in the day, this guy actually fits pretty well in the unit.  Since the basic colors I'm using on the boyz is dark red, black, and brown leather, that's what I went with for this boss.  Here are two pics after the base colors and first level of highlights/shading.  These two pics also show the lack of prongs on the helmet.

no more prongs

leather cape

As I was finishing the final highlighting I realized I went a little overboard on the green highlight.  It's a little too Striking Scorpion Green (my Oldhammer friends will appreciate that paint name).

neon

That picture was also washed out by the camera flash. I tried sharpening up the contrast but wasn't really successful.
Anyways, I applied a thinned layer of Athonian Camoshade wash to try and tone down that final highlight.

almost done

So, there's the almost-final version. I need to touch up the dead hand that's nailed to the shield (looks pretty sloppy), and obviously I haven't painted the base yet. But this guy is pretty much done. Overall, I'm pleased with how he turned out especially since I hated the original sculpt and never thought I'd ever paint the fig. It's amazing what a few minor "conversions" and a decent paint job can do for a crappy fig.

This was also the first time in years that I painted the eyes and fingernails on a fig. Finally, a big thanks to my cousin who's the Bretonnian player in our campaign: I used his "battle damage" method for adding some chipped paint on the shoulder armor.  He employs it very successfully on his Blood Angels Space Marines. My Orc didn't come out as well as his Marines do, but it's the first time I've used the technique. I think it got the job done.

Anyway, my 1000pt Orc and Goblin army is almost completely painted for the final two battles in our Escalation campaign.

Full Dwarf Inventory

UPDATED: I found four more unopened blisters. 2 dragon slayers, for an unopened total of four; 2 old hammerers, for an unopened total of four; another bolt thrower, for an unopened total of three; and another gyrocopter.

I think this is a full listing of all the dwarf figs that I have.
I would like to re-organize these into units that I can field, then total up the points.
Rough guess... 5000points

Loose Unpainted:
14 "new" Hammerers including musician & standard (1999-ish)
7 "norse" dwarfs
King Kazador of Karak Azul
Burlok Dammison Master Engineer
8 marauder Ironbreakers/Longbeards (not sure which)
2 champions
1 older White Dwarf
7 crossbows (including 1 xbow champ)
3 clansmen (2 plastic)
2 standard bearers
1 musician with horn
3 organ gun crew (for half-painted organ gun)
3 cannon crew (from blue painted cannon)

Unpainted Box/Blisters:
Box of 16 Thunderers/Crossbowmen including command (new plastic version)
Box of 10 metal Iron Breakers (new version)
Organ Gun (new)
3 Bolt Throwers (new)
1 Stone Thrower (old)
Joseph Bugman
Grung Master Runesmith
Skagg the Stealthy (don't even know what character this dude is. Grudge of Drong maybe)
4 old hammerers
8 spearmen
1 new version of White Dwarf
Hero & musician
Slayer Standard bearer and musician
4 Dragon slayers
1 Gyrocopter
All of the plastic dwarfs that came with Battle for Skull Pass:
1 Hero/general
1 Dragon Slayer
6 warriors (6 others are in painted section)
10 Thunderers
8 Miners
1 Cannon

Painted stuff:
2 Cannons
2 organ guns
Half-painted Flame Thrower
Throne of Power
Anvil of Doom
Gyrocopter
6 "norse" dwarfs
9 spearmen
14 plastic clansmen with standard bearer
8 iron breakers
8 hammerers
16 crossbows with champ, standard, musician
14 slayers (2 dragon slayers, 2 giant slayers)
Gotrek
2 standard bearers
1 musician
18 clansmen
9 thunderers with standard and champion
Slayer King Ungrim Ironfist
Oh, and two Swivel Guns.

I feel like I'm missing some, too. (like a boxed set of miners somewhere...)

Empire Inventory

I recently started work on my Empire army, painting up some of the plastic handgunners that came in the 6th edition boxed set (empire and orcs & goblins).   I realized I needed to take inventory on exactly what Empire figs I have, and what I'll need to purchase as I'm planning out the structure of my Empire army.

Here's roughly what I currently have:
Plastic
16 Handgunners
16 Spearmen
1 cannon
1 hero on horse
8 Knights from the new boxed set

Pewter
2 Handgunners
4 Kislev Winged Lancers
5 Pistoliers without horses
3 Knights of the White Wolf bodies, missing legs and horses
1 Grandmaster of the Knights Panther, no horse
1 Emperor Karl Franz, no horse (looks like the one from the griffon, but don't have that either)
1 Ice Queen of Kislev
2 cannons, full crew
1 mortar, full crew
1 Helblaster Volley Gun, full crew
2 infantry standard bearers
1 infantry musician
1 crossbowmen without plastic crossbow
4 infantry hero/champion models
24 archers (i think it's 24)
4 halberdiers

I'm pretty sure I have enough of the old plastic armored horses laying around somewhere to make use of the pistoliers. The White Wolves without legs present a few problems: I need to get legs only (found some on eBay already, hopefully I'll win that auction), and I only have 3 of these guys. Will need to get at least 2 more for a unit.

The Winged Lancers just need horses, and I might need to buy a few more in order to use them without having to take the Ice Queen.

The two pewter hangunners are another problem. Surprisingly, they are the same scale and size as the plastic handgunners, but they don't really fit "lookwise".  So I'll have to pickup a bunch of the same old citadel handgunners to fill out that unit.