WIP: Cursed Company

Hi all,

Today, let's talk about a unit from the forgotten army that is the Dogs of War: the Cursed Company.

A few months back, I found Richter Kreugar, the captain of the Cursed Company on Ebay. I always loved Dogs of War as I love having these completely different units in the same army. I remember reading back in the day an article in White Dwarf about the Cursed Company, an undead unit with skeletons from all races. Honestly, having saurus and orc skeletons really look awesome, even if they are to be used in a regular undead army.

The problem with OOP miniatures in general and Dogs of War in particular, is that you can buy them online, but for indecent prices... Take a look at Ebay, Birdmen of Catrazza for £150, various Tileans at £19 a mini... And it is the same for the Cursed company, roughly £18 a skeleton... And let me tell you I am not willing to spend £200 on 20 guys.

My plan is simple, after buying Richter, I will try to buy a few skeletons along the way. But I am also going to build some with the various bitz I have in my seemingly unlimited reserve!

Let's start with pictures of Richter:

Then, I created an Empire skeleton. I used the legs of an empire soldier and bitz from the black knights:

Finally, I had some high elves bitz and built this Phoenix guard skeleton:

Steam Tank Commander

Hi guys,

Today, we find ourselves with some good news. Remember when I was presenting my OOP Empire Steam Tank. The two missing parts from it were the hatch and the commander. Well today I found the perfect match on Ebay, as I usually do. Okay I decided to repaint all my badly painted Empire army. But let me reassure you, my level of painting has never been that bad! After a good bath in acetone, I'll prep this guys for an extreme makeover!

New arm for my first Salamanders Dreadnought

Hello everyone,

Two days ago I was posting a few pictures of my second Salamanders Dreadnought with its magnetised arms. Well I forgot to mention that I also had painted extra magnetised arms for my first Dreadnought. I have a power fist and a minigun. Nice different combos:

WIP: Catachan Sergeant Harker

Hi guys,

Whilst still working on various project, I do not forget to dedicate some time to my Catachan project. With my nasty habit of painting different things and NOT finishing them, I accumulate a LOT of WIP pictures. So, before getting the proper motivation to paint one bolter, please find some pictures of this massive guy from Catachan: Sergeant Harker!

The two Salamanders Dreadnoughts together!

Hi everyone,

Whilst taking pictures of my second dreadnought, I thought it would be cool to have the two brothers reunited in one picture. They really look awesome!

Second Salamanders Dreadnought

Hi guys, do you remember when I told you that I had painted the arms of my second Salamanders Dreadnought? Well, let's just say that I finished them this weekend. With the box, I had a power fist or missile launcher for the left arm and a lascannon for the right arm. In addition, I searched through Ebay to find additional arms that looked cool and found a plasma cannon as well as something unidentified which looks like a double heavy bolter. These are all painted now. I still have arms in my bitz box that I plan on painting: two autocannons. Here are a few pictures of the few combinations I can make. Of course, you will probably have guessed by now that every arm is magnetised and can be changed at will!

The painting scheme is roughly the same as my first dreadnought. I just exchanged the two leg plates with the flames on the right leg this time. I also thought the a gold fist would make a great touch, as gold and green really go well together.

Empire Steam Tank

Hi all,

In the middle of my Empire painting frenzy, I will take a few moments to introduce a piece I already painted at the beginning of the year: the latest Steamtank model. When I decided to start a Catachan army, I had ordered a bundle containing troops and tanks from a now defunct French website that was selling everything at broken prices. The bundle was equivalent to the Catachan Defense Force available on GW's website but in individual image-less boxes. I guess there must have been a mistake in the order as I got an extra box containing the Empire Steamtank. Lucky me. Actually, having a free Empire model gave me the opportunity to test a color scheme for my project to repaint entirely my Empire army. This is how I came to choose Talabecland, whose colors are yellow and red. I felt that these colors are rather easy to paint with the airbrush because you can use the same ink. 

Here is the beast:

WIP: Empire Mortar

Hi all,

A new week starts and with it a new article about the Empire artillery. This time, I would like to present one of the least chosen units in an Empire army: the mortar. It is true that compared to the volley gun or the plain and simple great cannon, the mortar does not do much damage. With only strength 3, it might be useful against big packs of really weak creatures like goblins or skeletons, but definitely not against saurus or Chaos warriors...

Still, I remember this was the first blister I bought in a Games Workshop after buying a second hand Steam Tank and a few halleberdiers. I was so excited when I opened it and it holds a dear place in my ever growing collection.

I just need to finish the remaining servant and apply matt varnish and it will be entirely done!

WIP: Empire Great Cannon

Okay guys,

Today, let's have a look at one of the most beautiful miniatures IMO of the Empire army: the vintage Empire cannon. I can say that I am really happy with the Talabecland color scheme in the end. Red and yellow uniform are the embodiment of what an Empire army should look like! This miniature has been extensively used in battle over the years and it was time it had a new coat of paint! It will probably take a long time before I entirely finish it, as the last servant is probably still in its acetone bath.

But the result at this stage looks pretty good to me

WIP: Second Salamanders Dreadnought

Hi everyone,

Let's pause for a second with the Empire stuff, it is getting quite overwhelming. I had a picture of my second Salamanders dreadnought waiting to be published, but I had stop posting for a long time. Let me tell you that with a baby at home, work and the big news that we are moving to Germany at the end of the year, this has been quite busy.

I have actually painted the missing magnetised arms for the dreadnought a few weeks back and will probably post pictures of the final result soon. 

Whilst we wait for those, please find a picture of the (almost) finished dreadnought.

WIP: Empire Great Cannon (plastic)

Hi guys,

Repainting my Empire army made me realise that an Empire army is very nice army to paint. I must say I am really having a good time. When I started repainting all my war machines a few months ago, I had bought resin artillery bases from Ebay with the idea of decorating a little bit the cannons as well as using the accessories that I never used like chest, buckets etc...

In total, I have two cannons, one mortar and one hellblaster volley gun and all four are pretty much entirely painted with just a few servants missing. You will see on the pictures that every artillery base is customised with rocks, blossoming flowers (bought from a railway model shop) and accessories from the various cannon sprues.

Let's start with the plastic cannon that came with the box for the 6th edition (Empire and O&G). I still have two servants that need painting and still need to apply matt varnish to the bucket to remove the shiny effect.

 

Empire OOP Steamtank

Hi everyone,

Today let me show you some pictures of a miniature dear to my heart. Back in 1998, when I was introduced to Warhammer by some friends from school, the first miniatures I bought were the old metal steamtank and a few plastic halberdiers. There were a few attempts to paint the metal monster of course. The first one was the blue color scheme from the 4th edition army book and the second one with my black and green color scheme. Both were of course awful. Unfortunately, I do not have old pictures to show the before/after, neither do I have the complete mini, having lost the commander as well as the hatch a long time ago. I know that miniatures of the commander are available on Ebay. As for the hatch, the search will probably be longer...

Anyway, I consider this unit to be finished until I find the necessary bitz. Enjoy:

Great makeover #2 - Empire War Wagon Crewman with Repeated Musket

Hi guys,

Today, I am honored to publish the second post of the series Empire: The Great Makeover. Three years ago, I was presenting in this article a few of the vintage miniatures I had of my Empire army. At the time, I had lost the Empire War Wagon that I had bought as a youngster but still had the crewmen that I used as engineers or champions in my unit of hand-gunners. When I had the opportunity of buying a second War wagon on Ebay last year, I decided to recreate what I still think as one of the most iconic pieces of the Empire throughout the years.

I will try to finish the entire model by the end of the year when I find opportunities to do a special airbrush session for it. In the meantime, and to show the difference between my old painting skills and the new, please find a before/after picture of the crewman with the repeated musket:

WIP: Empire handgunners

Hi everyone,

Today, once again I will present my refreshed Empire troops. I am almost done with my unit of gunners. 7 are painted and 5 are about to be finished. My goal is to finish them this week, as well as finishing my Salamanders Tactical Squad presented here.

The quality is tabletop, but much better than my previously painted army. I have tried to vary the hair colors instead of having an all black haired Empire army. The second picture is not great, but I will try to do a better one of the finished unit.

WIP: OOP Empire War Chariot

Hi guys,

I continue with my ongoing Empire project. As I am trying to optimise my painting time, I go along with different types of units painted at the same time just because they were part of the same airbrush batch. All the miniatures that had a Dettol bath and were cleaned at the same time were given a yellow and red layer at the same time, which means I have a lot of WIP empire units.

This is why today you I present the picture of one of the servants of the OOP Empire War Wagon that I started painting with the rest. Long story short, I still had the servants from when I had bought this wagon around 20 years ago, but had lost the conversion I had made of the chariot itself... On a day of complete Ebay luck, I was able to buy the exact same wagon at roughly £20 without the servants, which meant having the complete Empire War Wagon!

I have to paint 5 more to finish the project!