WHFB Empire Army of Nordland

[Wulf]

THE HOUSEHOLD KNIGHTS OF NORDLAND
- the Personal Guard of Elector Count Theoderic Gausser

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EDIT:

The Elector Count of Nordland Theoderic Gausser with his personal standard



This is the log of my Empire army. Its been a project quite some time now and I'm starting to get somewhere.
Latest army shot is on page 7

This is the current status
Green = finished
Yellow = wip
Red = not started

1 Arch Lector on War Altar
1 General of the Empire on foot
1 General of the Empire on griffon
2 Captain on Pegasus
2 Wizard on foot
1 Wizard on horse
1 Warrior Priest on foot
2 Warrior Priest on horse
1 Templar Master on horse
1 Battle standard bearer on foot
1 Master Engineer on foot

30 Swordsmen (aka Nordland Foot Knights)
30 Swordsmen (aka Nordland Foot Knights)
30 Spearmen, no shields (aka Mercenary Pikemen)
40 Halberdiers (aka Nordland State Troops)
40 Halberdiers (aka Camp Followers)
30 Spearmen, w shields (aka Salzenmund City Guard)
18 Greatswords (aka Nordland Foot Knight Veterans)
12 Flagellants (aka Zealots of Manaan)

10 Crossbowmen
10 Crossbowmen
10 Handgunners
6 Free company
6 Free company
6 Halberdiers
10 Archers
6 Halberdiers
6 Swordsmen
10 Handgunners

10 Knights
10 Knights
5 Knights

6 pistoliers
6 Pistoliers
8 Outriders

2 Mortar
2 Great cannon
1 Great cannon

1 Steamtank
1 Giant
1 Helblaster
1 Helstorm

End of edit, and on to the original start of this thread:
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For a while now I have been working on my Empire army. Unfortunately I don’t have time to play with it all that much but have been trying to attend a tournament a year and get a few friendly games in between.

Anyhow, as it is very much an army in progress so to speak I thought I should make a blog of it to document my progress – or lack thereof.

It started out as an effort to make a quite “historical” 16th century german landsknecht army – but it has now developed into something more Empire-like. The theme is now the Household Knights of Nordland, the Elector count of Nordlands personal guard (blue and yellow), i e a bit like the Reiksguard. I got hold of alot of knights awhile ago so that sort of decided it for me. In support they have a bunch of landsknecht mercenaries.

Anyhow, I know you want to see some pictures.

Household Knights of Nordland on Foot (i e swordsmen)


Another angle


A detail


One of the Household Knight (i e Templar Knight) units


C & C are most welcome!

Cheers!

Wulf

[Wulf]

And this is my latest project. I'll try to make it a bit different. We'll se how it goes.




/W

[Monsterzonk]

Cool theme and good painting! I love that guy with the hunting hawk. He's so... well, arrogant, you might say. Very nice! I'll keep an eye on this!

EDIT: Ah, posted too soon... Cool Steam Tank! I think the hull extension works really well!

[Wulf]

While I'm at it I should probably add these pictures of the "unit filler" in the swordsman unit aswell.

As I have a lot of templar knight units in my army I thought it would be cool to tie the cavalry and infantry together by having a mounted knight recieving orders.

I used the inspiration from the previous Empire army list. Remember this?


It took some serious repositioning (like the horses legs and the arms of both knights) and green stuff modelling (like the beard and the whole right shoulder plate on the foot knight) to build this :



/Wulf

Edit: Just noticed that the metals looks really grainy in some the pictures for some reason. Oh well.

Edit no 2: Thanks Monsterzonk! Yeah, I love how the pose of the falconeer came out. I used the legs from the really old metal standardbearer (with cuirass, salet helmet and chainmail) to get a gool solid stance - and that face has alot of character! The falocn is from the Brettonia knight box.

[Monsterzonk]

It seems that I was a little too eager to post on this thread. I'm sorry that I interrupted your posts!
I must say I really love that conversion based on the art from the Empire book. The poses look really natural. GREAT work!

[Reik]

WOW Wulf you're my hero. I realy love your empire the unit filler in swordsmen just like the whole unit is wonderful Consider me subscribed Keep up the great work
Cheers.

[odmiller]

Wonderful stuff. From the big conversion to the little ones, and the painting is excellent.

[Count Sinister]

Spectacular work! And to think - I only stumbled across the Empire thread by finding your equally excellent Imperial Guard thread (which I'm looking forward to your return to).

I love the knight receiving the orders from the guy on foot - I've always loved that page of art from the old Empire book, and this is a great idea. In fact, I may well have to borrow it for my own Empire Witch-Hunter army.

Looking forward to more, in both threads, because this is seriously good work.

[Harry]

Brilliant. Love the unit filler. Wonderful painting. Can't wait to see more.

[mrtn]

That's looking great, especially the unit filler.

[Meraklis]

I really like your conversions and your painting style! Please show us some more!

[daemonkin]

I really love the colours of Nordland. Great job on the unit and the knights look great.

D.

[Griffonclaw]

These are great!
Your painting is really neat and clean while it still has depth.
Great job!
Can you tell me ( us) how you paint your armour?

[Anardakil]

Wow what a great looking army!

I love the diorama with the knight being given a scroll.

But you gotta paint the cross on the flag yellow. Swedes can't be waving around what looks like an inverted finnish flag

I'm looking forward to seeing more brave nordlanders

[Wulf]

.

Thank you all so much! This really encourages me to try and finish this project. I've come quite a long way but still have a few things to do. And I'd like to do some touch ups on the painting here and there. Some of it is a bit rushed - to get it done to the latest tournament.

I love the knight receiving the orders from the guy on foot - I've always loved that page of art from the old Empire book, and this is a great idea. In fact, I may well have to borrow it for my own Empire Witch-Hunter army.

Do it! The plastic knight wasn’t that difficult to do, except for maybe the horses legs. The guy on the ground is based on the old metal reiksguard on foot standardbearer (the same model that I've also used as a base for the swordsman standardbearer). I removed the banner pole and his sash and remodelled the right armour shoulder plate and modelled the beard and the blue and white ribbons down his back from green stuff. The head is a plastic clean shaven head from the multipart empire soldiers box with a knight panther top.

I really like your conversions and your painting style! Please show us some more!

Thank you! I’ll try to put some pictures up of the two detachments for the swordsman unit.

Can you tell me ( us) how you paint your armour?

The receipt for the armour is quite simple. It is bolt gun metal, then some black+water mix to shade it. And then mithril silver (thinned with water) for highlights.

But you gotta paint the cross on the flag yellow. Swedes can't be waving around what looks like an inverted finnish flag

Actually, some sources imply that the Swedish flag was blue and white early on – also then being a logical reason for the inverted colours of the finnish flag (as Sweden and Finland has been a single country through many centuries). For me though the reasons are aesthetical. Blue and white has a more clean feel to it and looks good against the yellow clothes. Also, even though these guys are from up north I’m trying to avoid a “Swedish” feel to the army.

Again, thank you!

/Wulf

[Wulf]

As requested.

The idea with the mercenaries (i e all non knights in the army) is that they haven't got a unified colour scheme, much like the landsknecht of 16th century Europe.

One of the detachments; mercenaries (i e free company)



And another detachment; more mercenaries. with crossbows this time.




/Wulf

[Commodus Leitdorf]

That unit filler is simply gorgeous, I love how you managed to pull off the pose from the old Army book. I especially like how you painted your yellow, a particularly annoying colour to paint!

[Monsterzonk]

Lookin' good! I like how the mercs add some variety to the colour scheme. Keep up the good work!

[Morglum Necksnapper]

Keep on going. This is going to be a beautiful army!

[Golden Lion]

Wow, your empire looks fantastic. The swordsmen unit looks ace, especially with that great diorama, I love that artwork! I have to point out as well that your shields look very good, the yellow is shaded smoothly.

Those old empire mini's are superb! The mercenaries look colourful and - well - like mercenaries.

Good job, keep this up, I am definitely keeping a tab on your log.