I felt I needed to achieve two things with my first month's entry. 1) Settle on the core colour scheme for the army 2) Get a big batch of the monopose plastics out of the way. The missile troops rather selected themselves as I get a bit of variation in painting the uniforms and it will be a big block of troops under my belt.
It took some deliberation to settle on the colour scheme. Initially I considered having my human contingent in the tan leather and canvas green of the militia of Felmoor in my ongoing D&D campaign, but that was just a bit too dull for the OWAC and I didn't want my Halflings and Dwarves having to pick up those colours to keep consistency with the army overall. In the end I went for the entirely unadventurous Dark Red and Cream (with mid brown leather work and dark wood for contrast) as this is both utilitarian in terms of the models being used in lots of different games, and having a slightly historical/crusader type feel to it which will fit the army theme better. I do paint a lot of red though so part of me thinks I should have chosen something else.
I call this colour palette 'Ham and Tomato on Rye' |
Ah well - the die is cast now and I'm not unhappy with the resulting colour scheme. The most important thing is that they are getting painted! :D
But then almost immediately I changed my army list, even if only slightly. I
decided I only wanted two units of 10 rather than three units of 7
archers. This was partly influenced by finding/remembering that one of
the archers was missing his helmet plume so looks like the odd one out,
and partly as it would mean only needing to do two variations on the
colour scheme for the archers uniforms rather than three.
A minor set back, but worth doing |
10 Archers #1 |
10 Archers #2 |
Nine Crossbowmen |
10 Archers (with Light Armour, Longbows, Hand Weapons) - 100 pts
10 Archers (with Light Armour, Longbows, Hand Weapons) - 100 pts
9 Crossbowmen (with Light Armour, Crossbows, Hand Weapons) - 90 pts
Month One Total - 290 pts.
Things I have learnt this month. BM plastics do have their charm, but as is obvious from some of these photos they also have some horrendous mould lines and slippage issues at times. The other thing I found is that the plastic they are made from really doesn't like paint, and the (different) white primer both I, and whoever owned half this bunch before me, used doesn't like it either. I found myself constantly having to touch up the bows in particular as the brown was rubbing off back to the white. People often say you can't polish a turd. I'll say you can but it takes an awful lot of gloss varnish.
Did someone say stretch goals!? |
I also managed to get one small piece of scenery done as a stretch goal after it was suggested on the fb group. This is one of those pewter souvenir pieces from a museum stuck on top of a plaster cake column but it will do nicely as a campaign trophy being used as a road side mile stone.
I'm absolutely, positively sure I won't need to buy any more minis for this OWAC now... |
Huzzah! Onward to month two!
Sounds like you gave yourself a hard job to start with, but they're done and they look great. The colour scheme is great- sumptuous but subtle. And the terrain piece looks superb
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Joe! I knew I had some time available in January and really wanted to get a block of troops done. I feel like I have earned a 'treat' next month :)
DeleteThe colour scheme is fine and will look good en mass. That's a lot of old plastic seeing new life. looking great and a good start!
ReplyDeleteThanks James :)
DeleteLove seeing these plastics getting some love!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love them again now they are varnished and I don't have to paint the bows again ;)
DeleteI love these old BM plastics. I still have the knights in my Empire Army. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteHow do they scale/rank up against the metal Empire Knights out of interest?
Very nice work and a productive month. congrats!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrea :)
DeleteA turd well polished my good fellow!
ReplyDeleteNice use of the little pewter fella too. I have a couple lying around that I've been meaning to Do Something With; this might be the boot up the 'arris I sorely need!
You should! :)
DeleteIt was a fun little side project and it was ridiculously easy once I got my 'arris in gear! ;)