Empire-What do you think

[Ethereal]

here is my incomplete empire army (Incomplete as in i dont have all the models)i dont think theyre that well painted. Give me your honest opinion, i promise not to be offended. Also, excuse my crappy photography.

Swordsmen, i painted half of these in one night

A perspective shot of my mortar.

My cannon, i used lots of snow on top, as if it has been standing for a while. And yes, i realize that firing it would melt the snow but it looks good.

[Ethereal]

My spearmen. I wish i had more of these guys but its just too expensive to buy detatchment and build a unit from that.

My master engineer. I love this guy cause he took down a wood elf noble all by himself. luckiest shots ever.

My nights. ive been meaning to repaint but i havent gotten around to it, cause im prepping for skull pass.


My only converted models, i wanted to do something to set them apart from the cannon, so a little bit of repositioning on the lighter and a change of instrument for the loader did the job

[Ethereal]

more of the cannon, this shot shows the snow a little better.

I also have mages, a warrior priest and some free company but i couldnt get a decent shot of them. At the moment its hovering around 1400 points. Im not going to build it up for i while cause i get skull pass next week, and after that im very tempted to start that chaos mortals army ive been eyeing...

[spikedog]

I like what you have there.

They may not be golden daemon standard but they look great as an army and that is what counts. You have a good colour scheme that is simple yet striking. I would very much like to see a group shot of the whole army.

The only criticism I have (Which I understand will come too late for you to do much about it) would be the snow. It looks very powdery, very much like you would expect snow to look like from this angle but I'm afraid it just doesn't work for me on the models. I think it needs to be more..... unrealistic. I know that is not the best way of explaining it but imagine if you will highlights, if we painted like things are in real life we wouldn't need to highlight anything but we do because it just doesn't work on miniatures and that is how I see your snow.

Also it seems a little sparse, I think there needs to be more of it. What did you use to make it out of interest ?

But ignore my minor criticisms, you have a nice army there that I would be happy to play against. Good work.

[Ethereal]

thanks. I made the snow out of bicabinate soda mixed with pva glue, and you bring up a good point. Its like the old "why paint a rock to look like a rock" or "why paint wood to look like wood" argument. The problem is scale, i find. I will probably apply another laver of snow, as the dark colour of the sand shows through it and makes it look grey. I also need to cleen up the gause trims but i cant be bothered except on characters.

[Sureshot05]

I like the snow effect, very effective and gives the army a real unified theme. Well done

[Crube]

Looks like a nice coherant army...

I think the fact that the photos are so close up does your army an injustice. As Spikedog says, a picture of the whole army would probably be quite impressive...

Good stuff

[Ethereal]

Incidentally, ive only been painting for 8 months, but my parents are loaded so ive got almost every paint, a 7 megapixel camera and new models every week. But i guess you cant buy talent.

[Ethereal]

and your right. ilol try and take one now. The problem is my display cabinet, my empire shelf is small so youllsee the crappy orcs i cant be bothered ranking up.

[generulpoleaxe]

try puting some static grass down first, this will help break up the snowy patches and help with the realism with little bits of grass poking through the snow.

also, the cannon once fired wouldn't have snow on it, it would melted as well as shaken of the carriage.

try and make the ground riped up a bit due to the cannon being forced backwards as it fires.

hope this helps

[Ethereal]

thas a good idea

[Ethereal]

but all my photos are blurred! i have to take them standing up and they are at my eye level! Ill try moving them down...

[Ethereal]

Hers those zoomed out shots. Ill get some more tommorow after ive tryed some of your suggestions.

hers most of it

heres the rest

[Crube]

Thought so... They look pretty cool as an overall army, but when you get so close, witha top notch camera, you start to notice all the little faults that arent generally apparent, even to the naked eye...

Looking good

[Ethereal]

Yeh. Next up is skull pass, then a 40k army (death korps of krieg maybe?) Then Chaos Mortals!!!! And then a lotr army and then get these guys to 3000 points, so i can go all out against my mates wood elves (which i painted).
Thats about a years work, then who knows what. Im looking forward to chaos dwarfs (romoured for late 2008..)

[Ethereal]

Tomorrow ill start a new thread with my friends elves. He shouldnt mind and you can probably help me with one of its main problems, weve put 2 coats of purity seal on his general (the one on the stag) but paint continues to rub off. Which is frustrating because i cant remember how i painted it.

[Ethereal]

actually, can you help me now?

here he is in all his out of fucus goodness...

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!AND IT KEEPS HAPPENING ALL OVER THE GOD DAMN MODEL!!! My friend also has some kind of moral objection to gloss varnish so what can i do to protect the models painting while keeping a matt finish? (purity seal does not work)

[Crube]

You could try a gloss varnish, followed by Purity Seal... may leave the model slightly shinier than just PS, but worth a go...

Try it on an old / unwanted model first though...

[Ethereal]

hey thats a great idea!
thanks crube

[Crube]

Make sure you let the gloss dry thoroughly though...it takes longer than PS to dry properly.... ideally, overnight from my expereince