I haven’t painted much over the last few weeks as it’s been a bit of a busy time, with some travelling (more on that later!) but I managed to chip away some more at some Empire models.
After learning to sculpt beards for last post’s Valten, I tried my hand at it again on these swordsmen. I wanted to represent some state troops from Middenland, one of the northern provinces of the Empire which is presumably filled with gruff bearded men. The Storm of Chaos campaign is mostly set around Middenheim which is the capital of Middenland. These models will then be fighting on their home ground.
The uniform of Middenland is just blue, but the book I have on Empire uniforms suggests multicoloured feathers, and I extended that to the shields. They might be a bit more colourful than the average representation of Middlenlanders but they work for me.
These models are “rescues”, in a previous life they belonged to a friend that had built them as halberdiers, but all of the halberds had broken over the years. I inherited them a little while back and have since then stripped them of paint and rebuilt them as swordsmen from spare arms I had.
I find that I can get most if not all the paint off when stripping plastics, but there is always some residue which adds a bit of texture to the models. As a result I wouldn’t use these as display models but they’re ok for armies!
You can see what I mean in the unpainted photo above, the light grey plastic is the new parts I glued on, while the dark grey/black areas are the stripped models. You can also see my attempts at sculpting!
I mentioned travel above, I ducked over to Sydney for a few days to see a concert at the Opera house (a metal band would you believe!). I took the opportunity to visit some museums and the art gallery there and wanted to share this humungous painting of some Napoleonic cavalry by Édouard Detaille.
The painting is something like 4.5x5m and dominates the room. You can get a better view of the painting itself on the gallery’s website (https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/4560/), but hopefully my photo gives you a sense of scale! The whole gallery was very inspirational, plenty of ideas to pinch for hobby projects!
Lair of the Lagomorph 
Its nice to see you working on Empire and using snot green bases as well! We’ve come along way on base rims, I reckon 🙂 I think they came out nicely and I wouldn’t have guessed they were stripped or rebuilt so kudos to you on your modeling skills.
That sounds like a great trip as well! While I am a Francophile and Anglophile, I’m not very knowledgeable about the Napoleonic era. When I went to Paris, we decided to skip visiting Les Invalides in favor of art museums and the zoos. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of my favorite oversized paintings would be at l’Orangerie which is very different but no less fantastique!
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Thanks Jeff! Glad you like the green bases, it’s been interesting venturing into that space again. Goblin green is a bit too much for me nowadays, but I’m really enjoying these darker greens for base rims.
Good to hear you enjoy a good museum! There’s a lot to be said for looking at paintings in the flesh, really interesting to get in close and look at the brush strokes, especially for seeing how the masters paint different surfaces.
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I forgot to mention that I like how the shade of green matches the static grass! I always have to remind myself that that was why Goblin Green was used back then though I definitely was guilty of using it myself! 🙂
And yes, its interesting to see Trompe-l’oeil in person and with bigger brush strokes! It certainly gives you food for thought when it comes to painting miniatures.
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I generally think the base rim needs to either match or be darker than the basing material. Can’t have it overpowering it! Goblin green is quite bright all things considered so really forces you towards bright bases.
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Nice working on the beardies, Nic! 🙂 I think they look really good! I’ve not painted much for ages but am trying to catch up now at least! Glad you enjoyed your trip!
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Thanks John! I was just thinking I must have missed some posts from you but that explains it! Look forward to what’s coming up next!
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