Millsy's Empire - Militia and Crossbows (174 points)

Hi All,

After some health and work challenges I'm more or less back on track and getting some hobby time in. Apologies to all those who have posted recently for the lack of feedback and comments. Life just got in the way.

My March submission is two smaller units of infantry to fill out my army and support the heavier hitters - Crossbows and Militia...

State Troops (12 @ 106 pts)

A mix of plug-and-play and others, plus a hero fig and a spare artillery officer for a bit of character.

• 1 Marksman (Hand Weapon; Crossbow)
• 11 Crossbowmen (Musician; Hand Weapon; Crossbow)

Militia (12 @ 68 pts)

A real mix of Citadel minis, including modified artillery crewman and a few Mordheim extras. Really this is a load of spares but painted up they should look suitably roguish and ill-disciplined and the the whole "use what you have" idea is pure Oldhammer to my mind.

• 1 Sergeant (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon)
• 11 Free Company (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon)

For April I'll be jumping back into larger units so stay tuned. Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Millsy

Millsy's Empire - Wizards and Halfling Cocks (390 points)

Hi All,

OK, so it happened. All plans to save Lumpin Croop and his Halfling Cocks to the end were well and truly scuppered by my complete lack of self-control, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, they're done now so bollocks to any form of restraint and I'm jolly pleased with them so happy days!

I've used my usual style of a mix of two or three colour layering and inks on these. I was tempted to steer away from the canon green jackets but I've always loved them in green and it just seems so right.

Lumpin is missing his original shield unfortunately. I've replaced it with a small heater instead, appropriately sized and have hand painted a red chicken passant to match Ned's standard.

I've also gotten a bit fixated with character figs of late so I got stuck into my foot and mounted battle wizards as well.

I let the sculpts drive my thinking in terms of colour scheme with these. He's got stars and moons on his shoulders and what I envisaged as another moon on his staff so I went with blues, greys and black to represent the night sky and heavenly bodies. The cloak seemed a bit dull so I've jazzed it up with a blue and silver border replicating the stars and moons.

The wizards are a decent chunk of my points in one hit so I'm ahead of the game there a bit. Things will slow down now though as I've only units lefts to paint.

Cheers,
Millsy

Millsy - The Empire Returns

Hi Everyone!

It's great to be back. Last year was great fun and also very productive!

This year I'm revisiting my 6th/7th edition Empire army with another 1,000 point "extension".

The entire army presently stands at something like 3,000 points BUT there is plenty to add to that including loads more knights and light horse which are not included below. In total it will be near 5,000 points when complete.

The army list this time around in OWAC II consists of the following:

Mounted Battle Wizard (125 pts)
Battle Wizard 2 according to the Empire Collector's guide.

• 1 Battle Wizard (General; Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon)
• 1 Warhorse
• 1 Sword of Battle

Battle Wizard (115 pts)
The foot version of the above. I'm going to paint him the same as the mounted version for use either way as I have a full set of all the plastic wizards too so I'll never really need to field both together.

• 1 Battle Wizard (Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon)
• 1 Sword of Might

State Troops (24 @ 164 pts)
The Marauder MM61 Fighter Command set (don't worry I do have FC1 but he missed the pic) along with the somewhat rare Citadel spearmen.

• 1 Sergeant (Hand Weapon; Spear; Light Armour; Shield)
• 23 Spearmen  (Musician; Standard Bearer; Hand Weapon; Spear; Light Armour; Shield)

State Troops (12 @ 106 pts)
A mix of plug-and-play and others, plus a hero fig and a spare artillery officer for a bit of character.

• 1 Marksman (Hand Weapon; Crossbow)
• 11 Crossbowmen (Musician; Hand Weapon; Crossbow)

Knightly Orders (10 @ 300 pts)
These are the Knights of the Blazing Sun which I managed to find as a complete unit of 10 in mint condition. Not something that happens every day in these dark times...

• 1 Preceptor (Knights of the Inner Circle; Hand Weapon; Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield)
• 9 Knightly Orders (Musician; Standard Bearer; Knights of the Inner Circle; Barding; Hand Weapon; Lance & Shield x9; Full Plate Armor)
• 10 Warhorse

Militia Troops (12 @ 68 pts)
A real mix of Marauder and Citadel minis, including modified artillery crewman and a few Mordheim extras. Really this is a load of spares but painted up they should look suitably roguish and ill-disciplined and the the whole "use what you have" idea is pure Oldhammer to my mind.

• 1 Sergeant (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon)
• 11 Free Company (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon)

Lumpin Croop's Fighting Cocks (10 @ 150 pts)
One of my favourite Regiments of Renown and a bit of a reward for painting seemingly endless lots of complicated renaissance style clothing over the last few years :-)

• 1 Lumpin Croop
• 1 Ned Hamfist
• 8 Halflings

Total: 1,028 points

Here's a quick shot of all the lead laid out for prepping...

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone else's efforts once again. Thanks to our OWAC Lords and Masters for putting things on again. Great community spirit is the very essence of Oldhammer to my mind.

Roll on January 1st so we can get started!

Cheers,
Millsy

Millsy's Empire Wrap-Up

G'day All,

So I've finished my army for the very first Old World Army Challenge! As the OWAC ran in parallel with the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (which I entered for the sixth consecutive year) I was already primed and ready to paint like crazy through the Aussie summer. Being able to enter my work in both challenges didn't help with painting time but it certainly did help with motivation! :-)

To kick things off, here's my own personal take on the Warhammer Armies 3rd Edition "family photo". Things will look a lot less neat and organised once my particular brand of generalship comes into effect.

And here's the story of my challenge...

Millsy's Empire: Steam Tank and Halberdiers (284 points)

G'day All,

I'm all done! With this submission of a Steam Tank (200 points) and 12 x Halberdiers (84 points) I've completed my force at a total of 1,035 points. Sweet!

So here we have my last two units, firstly an as-yet-to-be-named Steam Tank. I'm not a fan of the crew figure - there's something a little to steam-punky about him for my liking - so I've left him off and closed the hatch. It's a lovely little model and although a bit fiddly to get all lined up right it goes together well enough.

Millsy's Empire Outriders and One Third of a Mulligan...(140pts)

G'day All,

Unfortunately, deadline driven commission work has chewed up a lot of time this month to date and will do so for the remainder. That means I'm not going to get all the way to 200 points in February, so I'm going with 140 points of Outriders and roughly a third of a mulligan :-)

At least I did finish a unit so without further do here is my latest effort, five somewhat top-heavy chaps on armoured steeds and toting ridiculously large firearms. I really love these guys and they will give my force some much needed mobility on the field too.

Millsy's Empire: Duke Leopold von Bildhofen (157pts)

G'day Guys,

Here's my January submission, Duke Leopold von Bildhofen of Carroburg mounted on a pegasus. 157 points of feathery, fanciful goodness to take me past the 600 point mark.

It's a lovely model but was a right bugger to paint and assemble. Being an all metal model I elected to do the rider and saddle separately to make things less likely to topple over or get damaged. Whilst that certainly helped with the painting, assembly and gluing caused me a number of headaches with glue spills and a repaint of part of the pegasus. Such is life!

Millsy's Carroburg Greatswords (234 points)

G'day Folks,

Having painted a couple of 12 figure units to test my Carroburg colour scheme I felt ready to tackle the real stars of my show... the Greatswords! Glorious blood red uniforms, massive swords and even bigger plumes on hats. Woohoo!

The unit is composed of a combination the three variants of the 1997 catalogue Imperial Great Sword miniatures, sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry when they were (IMHO) at the very peak of their GW sculpting powers. Each of the three poses is represented in roughly equal amounts and I have varied the colour scheme for each and every figure to add individuality.

Millsy's Carroburg Handgunners and Swordsmen

Hi All,

So my first units and my first 200 points are complete I'm pleased to say. For your edification I present two x 12 man units, one of handgunners and one of swordsmen, totalling 220 points. I wanted to leave the greatswords until I was happy with the overall colour scheme and I'm quite comfortable with how these have turned out.

Both of these units are painted in the traditional Carroburg red with a proportion of black on most to break things up a little. Plain white feathers top things off.

Millsy's Empire - The Garrison of Carroburg

G'day Folks!

I started gaming in 1982 and like many my age my gateway drug was D&D (1st Edition AD&D in my case). Within weeks I was buying Essex Miniatures 25mm fantasy miniatures and painting them badly in Humbrol enamels.

Through a combination of football, study and one particular girl (the right one as it turned out) I somehow managed to remain oblivious to Warhammer until 4th edition was released in 1992 when I finished uni. This meant I missed all the wonder of older Warhammer editions in terms of narrative gaming, playing for fun rather than competition and all the other great stuff that pervades the Oldhammer ethos. Even then I didn't dive in, not having the disposable income required. By the time I finally did start playing Warhammer it was 6th Edition but I was hooked.