My Nordland Doubles Painting Project

[Superdan21]

Haha thanks never thought of the griffon having a moustache, guess really it fits in the the empire :P I'll see if I can get some more pics of my mates ogres, he's painting as he goes with ogres only just being re-released the general background to our army is my army being a crusading/exploration army ran into these ogres in remote northern mountains and hired them to fight along side. I'll get him to send me some more pics tomorrow

[Cragum]

See now i look at that ogre and you mention ice and suddenly my old colour scheme for my ogres would of made much more sense than I had given it. Ah well, im 20 odd painted new scheme models in now so no going back. BTW has your ogre friend got a log?

Love you ummies fella, I have given my army a human colour scheme and i cant believe its taken me this long to realise how fun it is to paint human skin!

[Superdan21]

It's is an awesome idea for ogre skin, he hated the old ogre greyish skin tone so wanted something different and settled on frost, sadly he doesn't have a blog but i speak to him pretty much everyday so i will probably post some of his stuff on my page and i can ask him questions if you need.

I like painting human skin, I've finally got my method down http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316371 is a smallish plog i made for a dwarf slayer tester model, it's not finished but will hopefully update when during the days i get bored with empire. I normally do much more highlighting for my flesh and skin but i thought with so many state troops etc i'd just do a quick highlight .

I like your orc conversions and I've seen your ogres and see what you mean by the blue/grey it's such a nice colour for ogres i think

[Cragum]

I was admiring your dwarf yesterday actually! Very nice piece of work indeed.

My orcs are my babys wouldnt go into a battle without them! They have always managed to the army I come back to, although depending on the new OK book it may be the Ogres that steal the day.

What do you think to my skin tone on my ogres btw?

[Superdan21]

Been a little ill last couple of days so not done a huge amount today, however i have pretty much finished my Greatswords banner



Love to know what people think, now all i have to do is decide whether i want to keep the back ground black and highlight it or do blue to match the army a bit more, what do you think, blue or black?

ps, i've just noticed a couple of places i need to touch up but you get the general idea

[JamieIsOOP]

Wow! nicely done. In terms of colour I'd give it a blue trim, and highlight the black with shadow grey shades to give it a blueish tint. Its great, subbed.

[Harry]

The banner is very nice indeed ... in fact it is spot on.

[The Yak]

That banner is the business! Personnally I wouldn't bother with a trim it looks striking enough as it is, There will be enough blue in the regiment as it is!

Amazing fancy doing a commision Averland Banner? Freehand is something I have not mastered, I know I should practice and I will but to have a banner like that would be just perfect.

Keep up this good work

[Superdan21]

Erm i could do depends what design you're thinking of i take most of mine out the Uniforms and Hereldary of the Empire book depening on the complexity of the design sure wouldn't take me that long to knock something up. That's only the second Freehand i've done actually other one was my ultramarines banner, more i look at the banner i think you're right a trim wouldn't look right, just needs a quick highlight really.

Kind of want to do the banners of my Halberds i think good banners will inspire me to paint more

[The Yak]

Yeah if I were you I would go into business painting all the banners in that book!

I was thinking of the State banner of Averland in that book for my greatswords. Also I am building a unit filler with the old imperial Herald and I was going to give him Leitdorf's personal banner and use him when my greatswords are led by Mazza himself. However I knew I would be able to model and paint it all except for the banners.

Dont worry about it for now as Ive got stacks to get through for this tale of fantasy painters but have a think about it as I would certainly pay to have a cool looking standards like that, they really do add character to each unit.

[Superdan21]

Yeah some absolutely lovely banners in there, i think i may have a bash at converting my knights a bit to see if i can give them better banners, such a great book for inspiration. The averland have some wierd ones, not to keen on the main banner with the Sun and its face, Marius's is awesome though i love that model too one of my favourites, i think me and my friend the one doing the ogres, are looking at making a little commissions website at some point in the near future.

Anyway with regard to progress i am aiming to get at least 10 great swords fully finished tomorrow or at the least the command (including my banner)

[Chicken Pig]

Great work here, I would never attempt a scheme as complex and vibrant as that, but it is so fitting for Empire. As others have said the freehand on the banner is spot on. I look forward to further updates.

[boomboom]

Wow, that banner is just...wow. Great start to your army, keep it up!

[Superdan21]

Thinking of converting some pistoleers/outriders out of some spare empire knights i have not entirely sure


any thoughts? wondering how i could improve it or whether to bother at all anyway please let me know

Also for those that were interested in my doubles partner ogres managed to get him to start a plog for his stuff which can be found here http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317005

[OllieOllieOllie]

Hmmmm don't like the fact that the horses are barded...

[Hochdorf]

Cool banner. I'm doing my PhD on a topic related to the Hanseatic league, and a lot of the official seals of the Hanseatic cities featured cogs. For example, if you scroll down, you can see Lubeck's seal here:

http://www.german-architecture.info/GERMANY/HL/HL.htm

Your banner really captures this spirit I think.

[Superdan21]

Cool banner. I'm doing my PhD on a topic related to the Hanseatic league, and a lot of the official seals of the Hanseatic cities featured cogs...

Your banner really captures this spirit I think.

Thanks a lot, glad everyone likes it so much, I really love the Holy Roman Empire and Germanic feel to the Empire, one of the key reasons i did them, plus some great names, I even decided to call my General on Griffon Duke Gunter Von Richter very apt sounding.

I've also sorted some basic fluff and background for my Nordlanders but i won't bore you all with that at the moment. My progress on painting has slowed down a little a bit been somewhat busy with preparing to go back to uni and start my third year. but i have made a little progress on my Great swords, got my first 2 ranks 100% and the back 3 about 80% done so heres some pics





I did take some close ups but my camera is on the fritz so i'm having to use my phone. anywho with any luck should have the rest of the unit completed in a day or so. Also a question does anyone have a really good method to do like Tundra snow on bases? I'm gonna be starting a dwarf army and I've got a space wolf army to do and i want to do thick snow bases

[ancient god]

Looking good, nice work on the banner!

[FBI]

Great looking army! Neatly painted, and those banners are jawdropping. I`m jealous. Do you have tips on how to make something like that?

[Superdan21]

Looking good, nice work on the banner!

Thank you very much glad you like it

Great looking army! Neatly painted, and those banners are jawdropping. I`m jealous. Do you have tips on how to make something like that?

Thanks, erm yeah i mean my usual technique for banners like that is to copy from a different image. so for example the great swords banner is taken from the Heraldry and Uniforms book, in terms of tips a flatter banner is the best to work on rather than something really wavey. its all about practice though

The basic technique is to start by outlining the colours with a general shape something like iyanden for the yellow eagles, just like you would with painting any model start with a dark colour and work up steadily in stages, obviously a steady hand and a good brush are also very useful :P.

The Nordland one i started with iyanden and did the basic shapes i wanted as you can see on page 1. Then i did a wash with devlin to darken it again, i then used iyanden to do the outline of the feathers on the top making sure to leave a gap between them to show the definition and then gradually high light the edges of the feathers to the yellow want.

Essentially its the same for any shape you want to do, the boat was started with codex then leaving gaps for lines went over with astronomican grey and then white to finalise but yeah just be sure to take your time really is the key one, you'll probably find that the hardest thing to get right is symmetry. With regards to practicing try it on some paper or something first to get the hang of drawing shapes and outlines hope that helps somewhat probably more confusing than helpful lol