The army of Spires; assembly time

[Prince of Spires]

Like so many people here I've decided to share some pictures of my HE army (and a few other bits and blobs like scenery). Appart from sharing with people who might enjoy the photo's I'm also hoping to improve my painting, so comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Anyway, on the the army. I don't realy have an army list in my head. I buy and paint what I like the look of. Slowly I'm also getting a few games in and this makes me alter a few things here and there and buy other units that I feel fit in the army. The paint scheme I'm going for is red and white. Other aspects get to vary between units.

On to my first unit. These are my first ever painted miniatures (so be gentle ). I went for spears as they are only core units and thus it matters slightly less if they don't look as good as the rest. If I were to repaint them (I'm not going to, I'll just get more...), I would probably add some whashes to increase the shading and give a bit more depth to the individual models





Unit number 2 are more core troops: archers. These are already a bit better. I'm especially pleased with the musician. The banner still needs work, but currently I'm still thinking of ideas. Before anyone mentions, I know you don't need FC on archers, but it looks good and 16 or 13 are a funny number anyway. So i figured I might as well build them, even though they'll never get used.





Lastly a few small pieces of terrain. Just for fun and a bit of variation.
First up, a small weapons rack kinda thingy:





And a small wall / fence:


Hope you enjoyed them. More photo's will follow soon, once I've uploaded them.

Rod

edit: updated the photo links

[Bolt Thrower]

I'm a fan of red and white myself! Our archers must have the same tailor

I would definitely look into getting a couple washes. I use badab black on all my silver armour, blues, grays and such. And then devlan mud on all the golds, reds and flesh. They are so easy to use and are a great way to add a little depth.

[Aderyn]

washes improve the "look" of the mini significly. =) It was an eye-opener when i used it for the first time =)

[Iceman]

I'd also highly recommend using washes, generally i go or a bedab black all over after the basecoat and it adds a depth that would require soooo much more time if using only layers.

[Prince of Spires]

Changed the subject as there already existed a tread with a similar subject

Thanks for all the comments. I agree that washes will help improve the depth in the painting. I got myself the whole citadel wash set (it was on sale for dirt cheap in my local games shop), so for now I'm set.

I'm a fan of red and white myself! Our archers must have the same tailor

Very likely. It's that nice little shop by the waterfront in Lothern, right . I like the colors as well (obviously). I think it's a nice change from the standard red and white, but it still looks dignified etc.

On to more pictures. After getting the core units sorted out, it's time for some special choices. Before anyone ask; no I didn't paint these all today. They were already done, I was just too lazy to put up the pictures earlier.

First up Swordmasters. I like their fluff and think the models look great. The painting is improving I think. I'm getting an idea with how different techniques work and what their effect is. As with the core units, I haven't finished the banner yet. Still working out what do do with it. I'll think of something.





Next, a Lion Chariot. I love this model. It looks great. The idea behind it might be slightly odd (who trains lions to pull a chariot), but never mind that. I tried to go for a slightly natural, yellowy look instead of going more white. And the manes of the lions are slightly red to match the color scheme of the rest of the army.





On to characters. First character to be painted is a mage. I like magic (one of the reasons to go for HE), so this was an obvious choice for a character. It's a nice model. I put quite a lot of time into it, but I'm well pleased with the result. Again tried a few new things on it to see how they worked.

front:


back:


I also have another terrain piece. This is my first big terrain piece and it was quite educational. It was originally supposed to be a farmhouse, but some miscalculations and wrong measurement made me run out of building materials. So I changed to a ruin, which also works, but requires less cardboard. The little yard in front is big enough to easily fit a 2x5 unit (it needs to be useable in games), maybe even 2x6. Even though it isn't what I originally had in mind, I am happy with the result. It has character and looks great.

front:


back:


top view:


Finaly, a group shot of all of them together. I always like seeing them in other blogs, so I figured I'd share one as well. It took me quite some time to get to this point, but it is shaping up to be a nice army I think.



I hope you enjoyed it so far. Comments are always welcome. Next up are some white lions, a RBT, a tree (which will end up as a forest, once I get round to it) and a hill. So lots more to see (once I get round to taking the photographs)

Rod

[Bolt Thrower]

Looking great! I really like the work on the mage's cape. And the ruined farmhouse is really cool. I love good terrain pieces like that. We typically just use plastic cups for buildings!

[ekalb]

I like the gold/copper armour and I love the ruined building! Is it scratch built? I do a lot of terrain building as I find it super rewarding and a bit cheaper than buying more army men!

[Prince of Spires]

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, the terrain is scratch built. I find it great to make terrain. It gives me the opportunity to add in some nice details that gives the scenery a lot more character. And it is way cheaper than buying your terrain from a company. If I had to guess I'd estimate this piece cost me about €2,- Basically for paint, a bit of modeling clay and flock. The rest is free. Recycled cardboard, wooden base, a few wooden rods and pieces of sprue etc.

And yes, it manages to keep me occupied for some time.

Rod

[Prince of Spires]

Time for an update. I should do this more often, but stuff always seems to get in the way...

The next unit are some White Lions. Their paint scheme was picked to match the White Lions in the WLC.


And from the back:


And one from the command group:


Next up a RBT. Any self-respecting HE army needs at least one (even if their not that good in 8th)


And finally, a Tiranoc Chariot. Again, probably not the most competative of choices, however I like the model and owning as many diffent HE models as possible (I'm more of a painter anyway)



I hope you guys like it. Crits and comments are always welcome.

Rod

[Prince of Spires]

I've also finnished another terrain piece. A normal 1 tiered hill, with some extra landscaping added into it. The top of the hill fits a 15 man strong unit in 3X5 and a RBT. This gives it some tactical flexibility I feel.
The model inside the cave / mine on the side is some DE figure a friend gave me to convert. Gives it a nice extra touch to it.



And one with units to show the size


Again, let me know what you think. I hope you like it.

Next up some shadow warriors. They're almost finnished...

Rod

[Bolt Thrower]

Love seeing the updates! The lion musician has some nice "fading" effects on that horn. Really cool. That hill is impressive too. The cave/mine is a nice touch as long as the dwarves stay out of it

Looking forward to the shadow warriors.

[Griffon Prince]

OMG...They look almost EXACTLY like my own beloved army that I recently parted with...(single, dramatic tear).
Wonderful work and the terrain is pretty neat, too.

[Prince of Spires]

Love seeing the updates! The lion musician has some nice "fading" effects on that horn. Really cool. That hill is impressive too. The cave/mine is a nice touch as long as the dwarves stay out of it

Looking forward to the shadow warriors.

Thanks for the comments. I'm still experimenting a lot with different painting methods etc to see what works and what doesn't. The good thing is of course that if it doesn't work you can always paint over it.

The Shadow warriors are almost done. Just basing left to do.

So far, I haven't had any trouble with dwarves yet. But I'll keep an eye out for them

OMG...They look almost EXACTLY like my own beloved army that I recently parted with...(single, dramatic tear).
Wonderful work and the terrain is pretty neat, too.

Red and White does seem to be a popular color scheme these days. I prefer it above the standard blue and white GW uses. Why did you part with them?

Rod

[SpellArcher]

Good stuff!

Nice flags...

[Griffon Prince]

Red and White does seem to be a popular color scheme these days. I prefer it above the standard blue and white GW uses. Why did you part with them?

Yeah, I didn't want to duplicate what GW did despite the fact that I love Ice/Enchanted Blue.
Some things happened in my life that required the selling of my army. I'm slowly rebuilding it though, it will be awhile but I'll get there in a year or so. I'm going for an orange color scheme as I don't think I could do Blood Red and White again after painting 5k points of elves with those colors, lol.

[Prince of Spires]

Orange sounds pretty cool and original as a paint scheme. Be sure to post some pics when you're done

Time for an update. As promissed, a unit of Shadow Warriors. I actually realy enjoyed painting these. I like the models (unlike many people here, I know) and found I could do a lot with them. I also feel that they realy show improvement compared to the first few models I painted.

Unlike all the other models, they have been undercoated black (instead of the normal white) as they are darker figures. I found that it matters very little in the end. Maybe you guys can see the difference

front:


back:


Enjoy the photo's. As always, critique, comments and tips are very welcome.

Rod

[Dragon.Prince63]

Thats a good colour sceme. I think you need to do a bit of shading on the red parts though, especially the swordmasters. Also, you might want to go back and fix up some of the eyes because they pupils look way too big. Other than that thats quite good

[~Milliardo~]

I like your terrain, the weapons rack in particular. I've been planning on making a training field for my board, and a few weapon racks would go a long way.

[Prince of Spires]

Thats a good colour sceme. I think you need to do a bit of shading on the red parts though, especially the swordmasters. Also, you might want to go back and fix up some of the eyes because they pupils look way too big. Other than that thats quite good

Thanks for the comment. I agree that I probably should do a bit more shading on the red parts (and other parts). I'm a bit on the lazy side with finnished miniatures though. Currently I'm more of the idea that the next unit will be better. Perhaps when I have a big enough force finnished I'll go back and redo / improve the old models. But currently I'm still learning too much about painting I think.

I like your terrain, the weapons rack in particular. I've been planning on making a training field for my board, and a few weapon racks would go a long way.

Thanks. I enjoyed making the terrain pieces. At the moment the terrain making is on a bit of a back burner as I'm busy buying a house and don't have a lot of time. But I have some interesting ideas floating around for future projects.

I got the idea for the weapon rack from a friend who has been playing for a lot longer then me. He commented that it's a fairly easy and quick terrain piece while it easily fits into your force. Turns out he was right I like your idea for a training field. It would make an interesting and unique piece I think. And it offers a lot of posibilities for a themed board. Be sure to post some pics when you get around to making it

Rod

[Prince of Spires]

Time to resurect this tread. I've been busy buying and renovating my house the past few months, but that is slowly comming to an end. So I have some spare time to spend on Warhammer again.

I haven't painted anything new (as all my painting stuff is in a box somewhere), but I do have something I want to share. I found these archers for dirt cheap on ebay, and I absolutely love the models. They are much better than the current ones and amongst my favorite models so far.





These last few need to have the paint stipped off. I'm still thinking about how to go about that. I've read that Simple Green works wonders, but I'm not sure where to get it in the Netherlands. As for brake fluid, I'm not sure I want to go that chemical.

Anyone know of other possibilities?

Rod

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

You terrain looks great, that little cave is a nice touch. I like how you reversed the colours of the shields for the command group in the Spear Elves, it just adds that extra bit.

[Prince of Spires]

Thank you. I like making terrain myself. I feel it realy add a personal touch to your battlefield.

As for the spearmen, they were the first miniatures I ever painted. The reversed shields were a spur of the moment kind of idea. It worked out pretty nice. I do like that it makes the command stand out a bit and I might try something similar on future models. Of course, because I've only shown finished models, all my less then perfect idea's have been painted over and can't be seen anymore

Rod

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

My Silver Helms are getting the same kind of thing but with their horses, the champion is riding a black, the musician and standard are riding dark greys, and the rest are on lighter greys, my Prince will be on a white horse, I think it'll look cool.

[korhian the 28th]

Hee! a Dutch gamer(i am 2)

Great shadow warriors
and gave/hill terrian is amazing!

[Prince of Spires]

Hee! a Dutch gamer(i am 2)

Great shadow warriors
and gave/hill terrian is amazing!

There is a few of us around here... Where are you from? I currently live in Den Haag.

Thank you for the compliments. I realy enjoyed building/painting them.

Rod

[Flame of the Asuryan]

Lol, loads of dutchies .
Should make a Troll-topic and only post messages in dutch there .

Rd, can you please answer that private message please? I want to kick your red and white elves into oblivion! (though they look good ;P)

[SpellArcher]

Really like the basing.

There's something solidly earthy about it.

[korhian the 28th]

Lol, loads of dutchies .
Should make a Troll-topic and only post messages in dutch there .

why not? xD

[Prince of Spires]

Lol, loads of dutchies .
Should make a Troll-topic and only post messages in dutch there .

why not? xD

That seems to be what you are doing to my lovely paint blog

Feel free to keep spamming here. It's good to be reminded every now and again that I need to continue painting.

Really like the basing.

There's something solidly earthy about it.

Thank you. I find it's very "neutral", making it suited for lots of different environments.

It is also the materials I had available to me when I started basing, so that's what I stuck with

Rd, can you please answer that private message please? I want to kick your red and white elves into oblivion! (though they look good ;P)

Just replied. Looking forward to have my elves blasted into oblivion. As long as they look good doing it, it's fine by me. And who knows, they might even put up a good fight

Rod

[Prince of Spires]

I could use some help on picking the color of the horses for my DPs. I have a unit of 10 of the old metal DPs assembled (the 7th ed ones), and I'm not sure what colour to paint the horses in. The barding on the horses is going to be dark red/black with a golden edge. The riders will probably end up quite dark as well, with lots of reds and gold.

So what colour to give to the horses? I want them all to have the same colour. My main ideas are either white or grey, to ofset the rather "busy" paint scheme of the riders. But which one? And should it be a warm white/grey or a cold one (working either from brown/red or grey)?

Other options are very welcome as well.

Rod