The Warlock

The Warlock resides on the main Talisman board. Sometimes you just stumble upon one of the eponymous talismans you need to win the game, but often one is acquired by taking up a quest from the Warlock. When the Timescape board is in play, the alternate reward for completing a Warlock's quest is to be sent to the Timescape, where you can collect all sorts of powerful items, without them being constantly nicked by other players.

The wonderful metallic representation is from Reaper by Bobby Jackson. He will also double as a wizard for my Warhammer army.

Horse and Cart

From the Adventure expansion, the mightiest object in the game, the Horse and Cart! This item allows you carry an unlimited number of objects, meaning you can stack bonuses and be prepared for any number of circumstances, not having to discard objects which are less likely to become useful. The Horse and Cart is very sought after and often stolen by other players.

Despite having done years of miniature painting (almost 10 years, counting the teenage years), this was the first horse I've ever painted! 

Combining this noble animal with these guys here, I've got myself a baggage train for my Warhammer army.

Rounding up the army

Back to my WHFB 3rd ed Empire army project. I started with 471 points which isn't a nice number at all. Adding 1 halberdier and 2 crossbowmen brings the army total to nice, round 500 points.

Also, the halberdiers led by hertig Gustav now have a nice, even 4x3 formation.

My army list so far is:

• hertig Gustav Älgsson af Nödhammare
• level 25 hero, double handed weapon, hand weapon, heavy armour
• 135 points
• 11 hallebärdjär (halberdiers)
• halberd, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 117 points
• 10 hallebärdjär (halberdiers)
• halberd, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 108 points
• 12 armborstskytter (crossbowmen)
• crossbow, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 140 points
• 500 points in total

Some more pics of the troops, first the crossbowmen from Perry Miniatures:

Some older sculpts from Wargames Foundry, also by the Perrys:

Halberdiers (billmen) and a musician from Perry Miniatures:

Plastic War of the Roses billmen from Perry Miniatures. Between the helmet-headed trumpet player and the guy on the far right, the rest have metallic Swiss mercenary heads from the same company:

The standard bearer of hertig Gustav's own halberdiers, from Perry Miniatures Agincourt command unit:

The standard bearer for the crossbowmen, a plastic pikeman from Perry Minis (I quite like how the jumping elk turned out, even if the pose on one side of the flag is nothing like the other):

The standard bearer for the other unit of halberdiers, sent to aid hertig Gustav by greve Holger af Gåskarlborg (count Holger of Gander-Castle), a Wargames Foundry medieval swiss by Dave Andrews:

The rest of the commanders, from Wargames Foundry medieval swiss, except for the pointy guy on the right, who is from their late medieval men-at-arms range:

My Empire Army, The Making Of

Once I fell off the wagon and decided to start a whole army again, I started wondering how it would be possible to complete anything, given that my painting time is limited.


I thought that instead of using my basic routine of base colour - wash - highlight, I'd cut out one stage and just go with dark base - highlight.


For shading the base colour dark, I tried using an ink, which actually worked pretty well, giving the mix a nice flow and resulting in some rudimentary shading even with the first layer of paint. The only problem was, that because the mix isn't as opaque, addional care was needed to cover up any mistakes made with earlier colours.


This fellow, lost in contemplation, holding the helmet of his fallen comrade (Yorick?) shall demonstrate the work stages. A characterful sculpt from Wargames Foundry by the Perrys.


First a primer of light grey, in this case, Citadel Celestra Grey

The base is then given a healthy dose of Vallejo Sepia ink.

Then drybrushed with a mix of Vallejo Goblin Green and Moon Yellow.

Then the rocks picked out with a mix of V. Cold Grey and white.

To make painting easier, I try to paint "inside out," so here I started with skin because the face is deeper than the helmet or the collar. This way any mistakes are easy paint over at the same time as doing the helmet, for example. A 1:1:1 mix of Vallejo Pale Yellow, Bloody Red and Sepia Ink for the base, and Vallejo Bloody Red, Pale Yellow and White for the highlight.

Then the armour and metal bits, a 1:1 mix of Citadel Runefang Steel and Vallejo Black Ink drybrushed over with Citadel Runefang Steel.

..and so on. I seem to have either mislaid the pics from this point on, or forgotten to take them altogether. But anyway the process is repeated with respective colors, green, white, grey, brownish cloth, leather. The final bit with wood I did the other way around with just base colour, then ink as shown in the final photos.

Relatively quickly I had troops I'm not too ashamed of to put on the gaming table.

It's Oldhammertime!

Well, I'm not going Oldhammer in the sense that I'd start hunting for original 80's sculpts or anything. But I found the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd ed. rules and did what I thought I'd steer well clear of, started painting a new army.


My inspiration here was this fellow, I liked him so much, I wanted him to have an army to command. First I thought of using the Brettonia list, but they have a rule that all characters have to be mounted. My opinion is that army lists are more like suggestions, but still, I work better within some sort of limitations. So, because my general is on foot, a WHFB 3rd ed. Empire army it is.

I started with the absolute minimum of models needed with the army list, 20 halberdiers, 10 crossbowmen and the general.


I split the 20 halberdiers into 2 units of 10 and gave them musicians and standards, because I want every unit to have them, it looks fancy.


The army list allows for 3 independent characters, 1 level 25 and 2 level 20 heroes. The rest have to be assigned as champions to units. So thought the army would eventually compose of troops of the general (a duke) and the troops of 2 counts in the duke's service.


That way I could use 3 slightly different colour schemes. I went with green-white, green-red and green-black. They would all have the green, so the whole army would still tie together visually.


Also, the language of the Empire has traditionally been German, but my Swedish is better and I think it sounds funnier, so these guys are from the northern provinces, propably bordering with the Norse, with Swedish names.


So, my army list so far is:

• hertig Gustav Älgsson af Nödhammare
• level 25 hero, double handed weapon, hand weapon, heavy armour
• 135 points
• 10 hallebärdjär (halberdiers)
• halberd, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 108 points
• 10 hallebärdjär (halberdiers)
• halberd, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 108 points
• 10 armborstskytter (crossbowmen)
• crossbow, hand weapon, light armour
• standard and musician
• 120 points
• 471 points in total

The Swordsman

The Swordsman player character from the Dungeon.

Another Foundry mini, from their medieval Swiss range by Dave Andrews.

The Patrol

An event from the expansion set, the Patrol. 

I seem to be going for units again, there is a definitive risk of this expanding into an army. These guys are from Perry miniatures, except for the leader with a sword is from Wargames Foundry.