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:

The Merchant

A Player Character from the Talisman Expansion, representing the bourgeoisie.

He is built on Perry Mini's plastic War of the Roses infantry with the head from the cavalry set of the same line. He is my first real attempt at sculpting. Earlier I have used green stuff just for filling gaps and the odd moustache.

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 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.

Year One

It has now been one year since I took up painting again. Looking back, I'm surprised how much I've done.

I usually get about a half hour of painting done every day. Hopping from one project to another I work on 1-20 minis simultaneously which means a lot of half-dones lying around.

With these guys laid out, the funny thing is, I don't know if I've gotten a lot better at painting during this past year but I've definitely gotten a lot faster. And maybe I'm now getting more hits compared to the misses..

Anyway, as a hooray to myself, my top five pieces of the past year IMHO:

This arthropod. I'm happy with getting decent paint job onto the plastic I was having trouble with earlier. And I'm pleased with the way the light source effect turned out. I also think the pose turned out fine; the spider rearing back from the torch, probably thrown by some startled dungeon explorer who has just noticed a spider the size of a cow sneaking up on them.

This pirate. I always wanted to paint a classic pirate, but never got around to it before. Also, he was one of the early ones I did after picking up a brush again after taking a break for a decade. With him I felt like I was really getting my painting groove back on again, painting was starting to feel fast and easy, and I like the result.

These marines. Finishing a full squad was very satisfying. Also, the droids had been taunting me from my "to-paint" pile for almost 20 years. Finally done!

These watchmen. The second time a did a whole unit, and finding inspiration in classic art was surprisingly much fun.

This fellow. The paint job is crap, but he is the mini that broke the decade long hiatus!

The Priest

A player character from the basic game.

This time the mini from Perry Miniatures, sculpted by a Perry, I presume? They now make nice, realistically proportioned historical minis from various time periods. This man of the cloth is from their crusades range.