Qrab's Empire: Endgame (105 points)

Back in December, as I finished preparing the models and planned for the months ahead, I realized the stars would have to come into perfect alignment if I had any hope of completing this year's Old World Army Challenge. However, looking back, much like the purple-skinned, scrotum-chinned villain of the latest two Avenger's movies, this post was ...

INEVITABLE

I finished January and February with a fair degree of confidence, despite having to travel out of town for nearly half of each month. Those travel days were during the week, so I was able to get the bulk of my painting done on the weekends (which I just barely managed to do). Unfortunately, my travel obligations continued through March and April and in a couple of cases extended into the weekend, with predictable results. The diminished weekend painting time coupled with an increase in the number of models to be painted each month and (lately) a cold that has dragged on for two weeks, put the target of 200 points a month out of reach.

In March I did manage to paint one unit, the Reiks Kanone Batterein (60 points) as well as one model from the Helblitzen (9 points). Rather than sacrifice those points in a Mulligan blog post, Iannick suggested I bank those points and use them in April. Looking at what I had left, I figured if I could paint the command group (hero, standard bearer, musician) and at least a full rank of the Helblitzen, then I'd be able to scrape by with 175 points; any additional rank & file I could finish would be a bonus. This would put me over the 500 point mark, but still under a lot of pressure to pump out 500 more points in the remaining months.

However, in the end I only managed to paint another four Helblitzen (36 points) and lay down the base coats for the command group. But enough babbling, I've got some pictures to offer up as I bow out of the Challenge.

First is the Reiks Kannone Batterein:

I've christened it: The Mulligan.

Next is the single trooper from the front rank of the Helblitzen:

Followed by the second rank of the Helblitzen:

Creative positioning needed for the plug & play halberdiers.

Finally, a photo showing the lamentable progress made on the Helblitzen command:

Base coats don't count.

So, my total output for March and April combined: a pitiful 105 points. This still puts me over the 500 point mark (just barely).

Some final thoughts:

1) Going into the second Old World Army Challenge, I knew I had set a high bar when I decided on an Empire force because of the high model count and the amount of detail on each model. I'd probably be in a better position to finish the Challenge if I followed the easy path and continued expanding my Chaos army; or even began an Undead army. But I really wanted to paint a good army to counter last year's evil army. That way I'd have two ostensibly balanced forces if I ever found somebody interested in trying out some 3rd edition WFB.

2) Given my love for the old Empire range, I didn't want to take any shortcuts while painting them. As it is, I'm not terribly happy with the Kannone crewmen, and will probably go back to add some embellishments to their clothes. Same for the shield-backs of the Reiksgard - they are rather plain right now and I'd like to add some faux wood grain. The front-rank Helblitzen is wearing striped hose and my intent was to continue that level of detail on the rest of the models in the unit, but with the Challenge's deadlines, that really isn't possible for large units of models. So even though I'm disappointed I didn't finish the Challenge, I'm happy I didn't take shortcuts just to finish the units only to find myself unhappy with the results at the end.

3) Paralysis through analysis is a thing I struggle with when painting. I probably would/could have made more progress, but I spent more time than I'd like to admit looking at the models & thinking about how I wanted to paint the various details. This would have only gotten worse as I began working on the unit of Ersatzsolder, because I really want to make each one look unique.

4) Even though I'm officially out of the challenge, once I'm over this cold I'm going to resume painting these models because I'm determined to finish this army before working on something new. I'll post photos to the appropriate Oldhammer f-book groups, but will respect the rules of the Challenge & not make anymore blog posts.

This post is already longer than expected, but I figured I close out with a trip down memory lane by doing a photo dump of the other units I finished:

Till next the Old World Army Challenge!

Overlord Note : Thank you for leaving this last post Richard. tTe high quality of your work will be solely missed! Best of luck and hopefully we'll see you next year! Undead, maybe?