The Old Black and Yellow

[The Yak]

OK after being inspired by some truly great project logs on here, I have decided it's time for me to muster the grand old army of Averland. I am setting this army between 2502 (Start of karl Franz's reign) and 2517. The reason being that I believe Marius Leitdorf (or Our Mazza to his mates) to be one of the most interesting character's ever created. Also for those of you have read the books: sword of justice and sword of vengence will know the current plight of Averland is.... well I wont ruin the books for you if you have not read them.... so i will just say 'in a mess'.

Now like many of you guys I love modeling and making armies but in the past I have made so many points worth of models, that it has been so demotivating when looking at what you have to paint. So I intend to model and paint this army in solid 500 point blocks. If you see me going off on a whim please feel free to reign me back in again with vile insults and severe threats.

One more thing I would like to explain before setting off is that I am currently doing a degree at university, working full time and have a six year old son so I see this as a long term project and updates may slow down everynow and again. The main reasons I am doing this log is because I have seen some great logs on here and have seen how everyone helps to motivate each other, support one another and offer advice. Oh and one last thing I seriously need tips on taking photo's so all will be welcome, what I have taken so far really does not show the shading or highlights but enough ramble from me lets get this wagon on the path!

If your still reading and have not died of boredom here is a few shots of my first few swordsmen 'The Grenzstadt Lions'. Originally I was going to go with a Wissenland theme but I hate painting white fabric but the shields got left on these guys. The models will form the back ranks and are made from various bits of older plastics so nothing fancy in the modelling department for now.











However my second unit are the Bergsjaeger which I am going to use as outriders and I think these are a little more interesting, Ive gone for a dark grey and black theme with just the small icons on the horses flank to tie them in with the rest of the army, I intend to do a unit of swords men in the same muted colours with yellow and black checked shields, as well as a detachment of handgunners using the cloaks off the outriders sprue in my first batch of 500 points. With Averland being so brightly uniformed I intend to alternate bright and dark units to give the force some depth.



ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH I HATE COMPUTERS AND BLOODY CAMERAS!!!!!!

Ok first bit of advice needed, how do you upload pictures hahaha this is really going well! I have tried as attachments, the files are on my computer but it keeps reseting the internet access, something to do with a firewall (what ever one of those is sounds like something Isiah Kailshar the army's mage might conjure up) I see most of you guys have pictures in the text rather than pictures at the end can anyone tell me how they do that. Us old timers aint to good with all this stuff the engineers keep bringing out.

Hahaha great start to the plog dont you think! Need I mention Its the first time I have ever done one of these!

Any help would be greatly (needed) Appreciated.

[Goat of Yuggoth]

Two ways I find useful when upping pics:

1: Create a Photobucket account (or Imageshack or whatever), then on the pic there's an IMG code. Copy that and paste it onto your comment here, and voilá!

2: Use the attachment ability below your comment writing thingie here. Just browse the pic from your drive and it tranfers it as a little thumbnail at the end of your post.

Hope that this helps,
Youngbeard Nerdee Goat

Edit: And of course you need to upload the pics from your drive to that image sharing website before you can copypaste the IMG.

[The Yak]

Thanks Very much to the Goat machine there I owe you one!

Now here is another couple of shots of the painted bergsjaeger, still not the greatest photos but at least I can get them on now!





Here is a few that I intend to paint soon, Ive decided to batch paint 5 infantry then a cavalry man to break it up a bit. The next few Bergsjaeger in all their blury pre greenstuff glory!









need to adjust the wire length of the arm on the repeater crossbow guy and the sergeant needs some adjustment with his arm but you get the idea.

Again sorry the pics aint up to much but I intend to learn as I progress.

[Indreth]

Nice. I really like the theme of the army, keep them coming!
The Grenzstadt Lions are really cool, I hope to see more of them soon.
Cheers

[tezza21]

OO i love the outriders how did u do the metal amour and secondly do u go to gw liverpool as i have never seen anyone with empire minis on the painting table lol but they look sound mate

[Nuada]

A very good start to a promising project. I like how you've already got some background and a timeline for your army. Hope to see more soon

[The Yak]

@Indreth. Thanks Im going to name all my regiments like to give them some character, and I will get the next 5 done soon.

@tezza21. Alright la! The metal is just the old boltgun metal, badass black wash, very thin re-coat of boltgun metal followed by chainmail highlight then just a thin stroke of mithril silver to finish it. Ive only just started this army and its a while off completion so it aint yet graced the tables at games workshop Liverpool but one day hopefully. I noticed your comment on Tiny's Bogenhafen log about Ar-Ulric, just so happens Ive got one lad! I was gonna chop him up too coz im doing a unit of white wolves converted from Teutogen guard (propper white wolves!). Believe it or not I was just going to use him as a normal white wolf so If you need him your welcome to him, I wont charge you the earth for him either unlike some of the mercenaries on E-bay. I know how frustrating it is when you need a model and their charging £40 odd!

[Asp]

very good but get a sharper camera

[The Yak]

@Nuada. Thanks!

@Asp. Im hoping that its me rather than the camera im just getting the hang of the different functions and these shots were in artificial light (and not much of it), Il try a few different settings and daylight shots and see if it improves. The camera is 14 megapixel with a 5x optical zoom is this sufficent or do I need something more powerfull? I need all the tips and advice I can get as photography is not something im used to.

The first 500 points will be a 20 man swordsmen unit with a detachment of 10 handgunners and 12 Bergsjaeger (outriders). Im not to bothered about gaming balance to start with as Im planning a large force. Now fear not the 20 man unit is not going to be common I plan to do three 40 man hordes including greatswords (The Counts Chosen, Halberdiers (The Blackfire Wardens) and Spearmen (Von Kragsburg Guard). Ive got all the models but im not touching them till this first batch is done DISCIPLINE is needed here I think

[Shadow_Steed]

Looking good, will keep an eye on this .

[tezza21]

yeah sound yak i will deffo have him my army atm is just taking off lol a general and a unit of flagellents and a sigmar priest mate will pm when i get some money mate u should pop into the gw for a go on the painting table its loads of fun mate but i really love the way ur doing ur swordsman and outriders there cool mate .

[IGoblinego]

Nice start, looking forward to see more pics

[Golden Lion]

Very good lookin' first miniatures! I too like the first bits of background and unit naming. Very cool conversions on the outriders especially. That Greatsword helm must be THE most popular Empire bit out there, and rightly so. Your painting looks highly detailed, with nice shading and highlighting. I also like how you plan to diversify colour between units, making 'jaegers' a bit darker - sweet! Good plan on the 500pt blocks. With some thought going into planning and as you rightly mention - discipline! - an army project will be better to handle.

Brave to commence with this project seeing as you have plenty of other things to do. But cool! Hope you can continue at a steady pace.

[static grass]

Looking good! The empire state troops almost paint themselves!

[Breazer]

this looks like a very good start sir

[Boreas_NL]

A very nice start. The choice of shields on the Swordsmen is very good, also a good mix of old and new parts.

Nice background for the army choice. You are right, Mazza is one of the better characters in the Empire background. Just last weekend I found the model at the local hobby shop. He'll most likely be put to work as a statue for my Mordheim board/main table...

Anyway, nice start! I'll be back!

[Gargobot]

Yay more Empire! I'm always happy to find a new Empire log, especially if the painting and modeling looks as good as yours.
Well as good as I suppose your painting looks; the photos are, as you mentioned, a bit blurry.

Almost every digital camera has a macro setting these days, this setting is perfect for miniature photography.
Look for this icon on your camera:

That's usually the symbol for the macro setting.

Oh, before I forget: Keep it up.

[Ender Shadowkin]

Looks, good. I like the black and yellow, and great job on the faces!

Here is a tip for taking photos. Put them under a white sheet or paper and shine a couple lamps through the sheet/paper (build a frame or cut out most of a box). This cuts down on the shadows and makes the whole thing brighter.

[Ironmonger]

OO i love the outriders how did u do the metal amour and secondly do u go to gw liverpool as i have never seen anyone with empire minis on the painting table lol but they look sound mate

yeah sound yak i will deffo have him my army atm is just taking off lol a general and a unit of flagellents and a sigmar priest mate will pm when i get some money mate u should pop into the gw for a go on the painting table its loads of fun mate but i really love the way ur doing ur swordsman and outriders there cool mate .

Wh... what? I think you left your "lol" lock on.

The blending on the cloak and horse are VERY well done. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those other minis get the same treatment.

[tezza21]

yeah i tend to over compensate on the lols my bad hehe