To Ostland!

[Astraeos]

I have to drill the barrels of my handguns? I'm going back to my Skaven!

[Astraeos]

Progress report!

19 Swordsmen, 9 Huntsmen, Hildegarde Engel and Brandt, Pyromancer of the Opera are all undercoated! I'll now have to figure out the best way of painting white using Dheneb stone.

4 Plastic Handgunners are put together too with another 5 to go.

I ordered that Hobby Drill today Boreas, so hopefully I'll be able to get Iris to the paint queue soon, and those duellists too! I wanted the Heraldry book too but it was temporarily unavailable, so I ordered some Eschers for my gang!

[Boreas_NL]

Progress report!

19 Swordsmen, 9 Huntsmen, Hildegarde Engel and Brandt, Pyromancer of the Opera are all undercoated! I'll now have to figure out the best way of painting white using Dheneb stone.

4 Plastic Handgunners are put together too with another 5 to go.

I ordered that Hobby Drill today Boreas, so hopefully I'll be able to get Iris to the paint queue soon, and those duellists too! I wanted the Heraldry book too but it was temporarily unavailable, so I ordered some Eschers for my gang!

Good thing you ordered that drill, you'll see that it's a quite usefull piece of equipment. Judging by the list of models it seems you're off to a good start. Looking forward to what you'll do with them.

The Heraldry book is really nice, keep looking!

Oh, and also: we want pictures!

[Astraeos]

Hey again Boreas! I just got an e-mail telling em that the drill (along with two Escher troops blisters) has been sent! Huzzah!

Pictures you say, Old Bean? Why yes, certainly! *strokes moustache and sips brandy*

Proof of Undercoat!-



The first five Handgunners, I'm quite fond of the Standard bearer resting his gun on across the shoulder-



A Chimera! Work in progress though-



And a Dragon too! I got it from the Malekith set and I was going to use it as the mount for a Dreadlord kit bash/conversion, but I kept putting it off. Eventually the Black Dragon boxed set was released so I figured my simple idea wouldn't stand up to that quite nice model, so I put the Dragon together riderless.
A nice model and very nostalgic (I love the early to mid nineties monster models) but it showed it's age while I was putting it together, there are quite a few gaps. I'll use it as either a Young Dragon or a Dragon in SoM.



More to come so hold onto your brandy glasses!

[Astraeos]

And more! This is the WIP painting of my first Swordsman! It's just my initial foray into painting them and mainly to figure out how I would paint it all.
The amount of stuff hanging off the soldiers did bother me for a while, but Calthan Brown solves everything! A quick highlight of a lighter brown (suggestions? Snakebite Leather perhaps) and some Devlan Mud wash should do the trick. Bones and parchment will get some Bleached bone and a skull white highlight.

For the white, I might highlight (or drybrush over) the Dheneb Stone with skull white and finish with some Devlan Mud or Badab Black. Or the wash first followed by a careful highlight.
What do you lot think? I'm not much of a painter really, I get far too carried away with putting together models!

But let's see those WIP shots!









Your thoughts? Remember it's a WIP, not the final piece! I'm open to tips, advice and suggestions.

[Astraeos]

One more post! Yeah I'm triple posting but this is my log!

Here're some River Trolls I bought for the hell of it! However I got a bit enthusiastic in putting them together and realised afterwards that nothing could stand in front of them, nor could they be in the rear ranks! Whoops!



And my Escher gang! I know I said I'd be working on these due to a Necromunda Campaign in November, but to be honest this Empire lot is still holding onto my attention!
Most of these only got cleaned and glued to their bases. Oh, and my Bonnie Annerson conversion/kit bash is amongst them next to a piece of Eldar Harlequin.
There's a thread about that model somewhere in Warseer's Necromunda section if anyone wants a closer look at Miss Annerson.
Also the warhound is hanging out with them. I found rules for adding dogs to gangs on Yakromunda, and being a daft dog lover I immediately thought "Ooh!" The dogs just a maybe, I might just put it into a Free Company when I get round to that (after a much later date, see the undercoated stuff up there?)



Hope this is enough pics for you Boreas!

[Lord Dan]

Wow, I've missed a lot in my absence. First of all let me say the doorhandle in the shot with the rivertrolls is awesome. I can't even tell how it works. You brits have all the fun...

That aside there's far too much non-Ostland stuff creeping into this log... for instance I hope we'll find in subsequent posts that those trolls are, in fact, in a desperate fight for their lives against the unstoppable soldiers of Ostland!

I'm glad to see painting has commenced. WIP shot is looking good, and I agree that Calthan brown did seem to do the trick there. I don't use the color so I'm not familiar with a good highlight progression but it looks like vomit brown or bronzed flesh would be in the same color range. Either way just slap it with devlan mud and everything should blend together nicely.

[Astraeos]

LOL doorhandle! It's just the thing that keeps the door to my cupboard/wardrobe closed and has been there most of my life. I've never really thought anything of it so it's both surprising and amusing that it can impress others!

I did get a bit snap happy with my camera that day. I was going to photograph the undercoated batch and thought "no need to take this stuff tot he bathroom to photograph, I'll just do it here" and next thing you know I started photographing anything that caught my view!
The Trolls will probably be used in Storm of Magic along with the Dragon and Chimera. I also have a couple of Chaos Spawn and the original white metal Dark Emissary!

The swordsman above is tidied up a bit but not quite finished. I've also started batch painting Dheneb stone on other Swordsmen.

[Astraeos]

Project report and minor update coming up people!

First up, a while ago my hobby drill arrived and I've finished assembling the Handgunners.
I've been drilling the gun barrels out as practice for when I try again to pin Iris' hand on, but as you can see below, my aim isn't exactly straight!



I've also been looking around on eBay and found this to add to the Ostland Zoo-



It came assembled, pinned and undercoated, for 20 pounds! Unfortunately the body split in two while being delivered but the feet and wings are firmly stuck on. I hope that won't be too troublesome to glue together.
There's no plans to plop a rider on top as I bought it with the intent on using for Storm of Magic games. Eventually I want a Griffon rider, but I'll be using Stormwing for that.

I also found someone else on eBay-



Valmir von Raukov himself! Now it's officially an Ostland army! I hope there will be rules for him in the next Empire book along with Marius Leitdorf, Graf Boris Todbringer and Al from Hochland.
In the meantime I guess he'll be a General with Runefang, full plate, bow and barded warhorse.

And while packing up I decided to try something daft-



Ha ha ha ha! He looks a bit big for that poor Griffon! I never thought this specimen really looked capable of carrying someone hence why I want to use Stormwing, but the model's nice and it'll be great for SoM.

I'm also drawing an Empire related picture that I'll show off when it's done and the Swordsmen are being batch painted. But I'm also doing this alongside my Escher gang so it's a bumpy road at the moment, and I'm a terrible procrastinator! Maybe they need a log?

'Til next time dudes and dudettes (any of them here?),

Later!

[Valaraukar]

Hmm may be a bit late given you've bought the drill now but for a less labour intensive / risky solution to Iris' hand although not as secure long term try putting a tiny blob of greenstuff on the end of the piece to be glued in addition to the super glue then push into place and hold for a short time and prop up if possible. Shapes itself to the gap giving a perfect surface for the superglue to bond and then dries solid. Not as secure if you drop the model but if it's a small part and so not bearing too much weight works very well and is easy peasy.

[Gargobot]

I hope there will be rules for him in the next Empire book along with Marius Leitdorf, Graf Boris Todbringer and Al from Hochland.

Amen to that!

In the meantime I guess he'll be a General with Runefang, full plate, bow and barded warhorse.

You could also get creative yourself or search for his old rules and sorta update them, if your gaming buddies don't mind that is.

Nice to see some progress here. I've actually thought about getting that griffon too, but now I guess I'll wait and see if there's a new one when that fabled Empire release rolls around.

[Astraeos]

Hmm may be a bit late given you've bought the drill now but for a less labour intensive / risky solution to Iris' hand although not as secure long term try putting a tiny blob of greenstuff on the end of the piece to be glued in addition to the super glue then push into place and hold for a short time and prop up if possible. Shapes itself to the gap giving a perfect surface for the superglue to bond and then dries solid. Not as secure if you drop the model but if it's a small part and so not bearing too much weight works very well and is easy peasy.

I haven't pinned her hand yet. Thanks for the tip though it may be a good alternative solution. The sword hand itself is very light, barely weighing anything.

You could also get creative yourself or search for his old rules and sorta update them, if your gaming buddies don't mind that is.

Nice to see some progress here. I've actually thought about getting that griffon too, but now I guess I'll wait and see if there's a new one when that fabled Empire release rolls around.

Somewhere I got a download of rules from another Warseer member, who wrote rules for the four Elector Counts who got models and even for the patriarchs (and one matriarch) of the Colleges of Magic! They're a bit out there as they were written for use with Storm of Magic though so I don't know how balanced they'd be.
I have thought about tracking down the previous Empire army books for use as further research, reference and maybe even inspiration. There's only two of those books right?

Addendum- I found rules for him that look okay, what do you guys think? http://www.axesofaix.de/Voelker/Impe...rvonRaukow.pdf

Griffon-wise, earlier on today I saw a quote by Hastings mentioning a plastic hero on Griffon kit! I hope the Griffon itself was sculpted by Trish Carden as I love the monsters she's done.

[Gargobot]

Those rules are a little weird. Why does he have S5? He auto-wounds and ignores armor saves, so the only time he'd need S5 is to protect against Dwellers or the sixth Goblin lore spell. So I'd play him with S4. I'm not the über fluff lore master but I don't remember anything about him being exceptionally strong.

And the whole Dragonbow + 3 shots rule, with BS6 sounds a little BS to me.
The bow fires with S6, this way he could take down a chariot in a single round of shooting.
I guess shooting twice with BS5 would be strong enough, especially since you don't suffer the -1 for multiple shots.

The points cost seems pretty appropriate though. Paying a little extra for a magical item combo you wouldn't normally be allowed to take and the second shot, should be worth it.

Not to derail the thread further I sent you a PM.

[Astraeos]

Thanks for the feedback Gargobot, and I got your PM too. Thanks again dude.

Three lucky shots with that bow and he could wipe out a war machine's crew, I bet Dwarf players would hate to face him! He could probably snipe a lone character too.

I don't plan to run Valmir von Raukov in every game I play as I like to create and use my own characters. I kinda bought him on principle, this being an Ostland army and all!

Recently I've kit bashed a battle standard bearer and a militia sergeant so I'll probably get these two up by Tuesday.
I've also been accumulating boxes again, so far I have some Outriders, Free Company, a Helblaster Volley Gun and the General kit waiting assembly! Keeping up with painting has never been my strong point, but I'm great at collecting!

[The Yak]

Hey Good to see your plog progressing well Astraeos!

Drilling barrels is an pain in the Helborg! If it helps I use a long pin to find the centre of the barrel making a slight mark when I find it then after checking it from 360d I make a deeper point to mark the dead centre then slowly drill with the pin vice. It still goes awry every now and again but hey come on, there not Dwarf made handguns now are they.

Good to see old Valmir about again. You have to feel for the old sod since they killed his son off but hey come on it could be worse they could have KILLED HIM OFF like they did with our Marius. Games designers who the hell do they think they are? Watch out for this new army book they will be picking off all the old legends Val, Al and Bozza, all of them left, right and centre, Will most likely replace them with Jeff and Jane Helborg the righteous little bastards of that flaming muppet....

Sorry little carried away there. Anyway good stuff hope to see more stuff soon,

PS: I like your unit champions, cool

[Astraeos]

Heh, Games Designers! Hope we get someone cool like Phil Kelly or Jeremy Vetcock writing our next one (I've met them both last Games Day, they're both awesome people). They won't kill off the Elector's!

Thanks for the tip on drilling barrels, I'll have something to refer to next time I add a unit of Handgunners to my army.

There's a new unit champion going to make an appearance soon, but I think I've already said that!

[Astraeos]

I'm double posting! Oh I hope no one finds out I'm breaking the posting guidelines!

Heh, well I'm updating again! Just some kit bashing today, but I love kit bashing! Check out my Space Wolves, all but one model has been kit bashed in some way!

Well we'll begin with the Battle Standard bearer. As I said earlier I bought the General kit to see what I can do with it. Here's my result-


I had a bit of trouble here. I wanted him to have a sword but I wanted to save the one in the kit for a future project. So I took the mace and clipped the end of and clipped the sword from the Wizard kit. But while I was filing the stump left by the mace I ended up ruining it! Annoyed I tried trimming down the double-handed hammer as an alternative but I wasn't happy with how that looked.
After a dig through the bitz box I eventually decided on the arm int he pic above. For the banner I wanted to use the plastic High Elf one from the Prince kit with the detail filed off, but that hangs right in front of the model!
I've ordered a Greatsword banner off eBay to use, but if that doesn't work out I guess I'll have to use the icon from the box set.
I'm not certain on that as I don't really think the image of the God of Death is something that will inspire you to stop fleeing and get back to fighting. To be honest I'd say it would make you want to run faster! Those who run away live to fight another day after all!

Next....


and his bottles-


This guy is the sergeant for my Free Company, he's built from left over bitz from the Archer and Handgunner/Crossbowmen box set with the bottles from the Outrider/Pistoliers box.
I was going to use a head from the Free Company box, but then I thought about using one that won't be repeated in the unit itself. So a quick look at my spare heads and the one above was the clear choice! A real story behind that mug, perfect!
You'll also notice his sidekick, The Booze Monkey! He's made from the powder monkey but with the tip of his larger tail clipped off and filed down to a round end.

This sarge even has some nuggets of backstory! Up for a tale?

Course you are!

The git above enlisted in the army in his youth but found it to his disliking and longed to get out and live life according to his own rules. In one fateful battle, the unit he was with ended up in a hideous struggle with several Chosen of Chaos.
No one would survive against them so the git faked his death and hid under the corpses of his comrades. After the battle he was proclaimed missing presumed dead.
Once the battle was over but before the dead were gathered he snuck off and into the further Empire.
A string of misadventures ensued, with Stirland, Averland, Hochland, Marienburg and Sylvania among others witnessing shameless and dishonest behaviour of the most vulgar kind! At one point he crossed the border and went off to the Southlands! There he came across and adopted the Booze Monkey, a small critter that soon began to share his love for alcohol. The small simian is often seen carrying a keg of ale or bourbon under his arm, refusing to let it go even under the most dire of circumstances!
Eventually word got out of his antics across the Empire to Ostland and bounty hunters were dispatched, rumour has it by Valmir von Raukov himself.
Dragged in chains he was sentenced to fill out the remaining years of his military service in an Ostland Free Company. But like everything else the git has come into contact with, it's only a matter of time before antics unsuitable for young children occur....

And finally something a little different-


She's not one legged, she'll be riding a Griffon! At some point into the far future I hope to create a model based on this drawing, that's what I'm saving the leftover General bitz for!

Hope you all enjoy this small offering!

[unwanted]

Looks good, and you've got the paint-fu to make this into a great feast of lesser beings... er, a majestic army of the Empire, you just need to break out them brushes

[Astraeos]

I have the paint-fu? That Intarnetz talk for I'm good at painting?

I do kinda slack on painting, I get more into modelling and collecting. Guess I have work to be doing.

[unwanted]

Exactly, I thought your swordsman/tester looked pretty damn decent.

And yes, paint-fu as in kung-fu... Teh Intarwebz ruined my vocabulary...