geitmeises army diary

[geitmeise]

Greetings, and welcome aboard my second army's journey towards completion!

I've been playing warhammer for a year and a half now, sticking to my skaven army (Army diary), I finally decided to start a new one. Having some guidelines in place to separate it from my first army, I had things such as; "any color but red", "more innovative bases", "more bright and vivid", etc, etc. Combined with the desire for alternate models I settled for a medieval asia themed empire army.

By using www.colorschemedesigner.com I settled for these colors. It's the first time I've used it and I must say it's pretty nifty. I can really recommend it for hobbyists stuck at that first stage of a new army.

So, after doing my appropriate research online I decided to go with Perry Miniatures which had reasonable prices, good quality and best of all, relevant miniatures for the empire army book (the range will of course be accompanied by various other manufacturers for characters, war machines and monsters).

So, without further ado, here's the first unit, 12 ashigaru arquebusier;



Followed by 15 yari ashigaru;



First thing I want to mention is the happy coloured hats. Initially I wanted the armor to be all black, trying to replicate the real ones, but what I noticed was that when you look at your army, you usually do so from above, and in this case 90% of what you see from that angle is the hat. Go figure it sure looked boring. Second is the banners, since I'm still waiting for some transfers to arrive, they simply isn't done yet, and a small third note; I dont have any matching movement trays as of now.

Alright, I think thats enough to get this diary a decent start. What I would love is some constructive criticism from you guys. Having only paited dirty rats for my entire hobby career, this sure is new grounds for me. Cheers!




Coming up; "whats on the hobby desk right now".

[geitmeise]

Teaser preview:



All the eight lore of magic are represented by models. Can you figure out which is which?

[Tom McClure]

Love the concept! I'll try!

Left to right:
Death, Metal, Heavens, Beasts, Shadow, Light, Fire, Life

[spanky100]

In general, I'm not a fan of using non-GW models for GW games, BUT these are great!! (Straw) hats off to you!

Looking forward to seeing that dragon painted up.

Cheers,

Spanky.

[heychadwick]

It's a shame you didn't have these for Animosity 4 last year. What am I talking about? Well, the admins from Da Warpath have done an internet campaign every year and last years was set in Cathay. It was a lot of fun and you could have gotten a lot of bonus points in the game for it.

Beyond that, it looks very nice. I agree about looking at the heads of minis. I was just thinking about that as I stared at some of the units I have just finished.

Good job!

[Chris M.]

I really like these. Clean paint and a great theme... thanks for sharing!

[geitmeise]

Alright, time to document what's on the work bench (I'll just post all the images and write the comments at the end of the reply).















1. So my first question to you guys; how do go about bases for war machines? Do you use any at all or just go without? I think it looks abit "empty" with the machine straight on the table, so I'm thinking about using one of these round bases.

2-3. Next issue; the dragon turned out to be alot larger than I thought when I ordered it. Since I both want to paint it AND field it, I'm in a bit of a pinch here. The only dragon in the empire belongs to a special character, but they do have access to the griffon. You think its possible to work it out as a griffon somehow? The issues beeing "wysiwyg" and the fact that a 50x50mm base might look abit silly. Help!

4. Group photo of work in progress mages and some samurai greatswords with failed color scheme tests.

5. Various command group models. I like the two man musician, one carrying the drum on his back and the other one behind beating it.

6-7. These are actually choson korean models, the first test models I ordered. I hope they will match the rest of the army because they so just happen to be wielding sam hyul chong (3 barrelled rocket launchers).
;D

[heychadwick]

1) I don't do bases for war machines. I like the option of having my war machines being able to go on castle walls, tower tops, or on boats. I sometimes do Shiphammer or siege battles. So, I need my war machines take up as little room as possible.

If you are doing bases, there are cool things you can add. The Hellblaster has some good stuff on the sprues to add (weapon racks, ammo cases). Maybe buy those bitz. A barrel would be a good thing. There is the powder monkey to add, too.

5) That's pretty cool!

[Tom McClure]

the paint job on the cannon is top notch. The corrosion is great!

[geitmeise]

(As usual I'll post images first and comments at the end.)









The first completed warmachine turned out to be the Shin ki jeon (or the Hwacha. You might have seen it on Mythbusters),which of course is going to represent the hellstorm rocket battery. This piece is actually a Korean war machine, but it does belong to the same time period so I figured it'd be alright.

Now I am having second thoughts regarding the flock. At single models it looks alright, but as soon as you view it on larger surfaces, like this base or on a full unit, its starting to annoy me. I dont know what it is exactly, but I think I might just have gone and put to much of the stuff there. Please, tell me what you think.

Beside finishing the hwacha I've assembled 30 Naginata Ashigaru, my halberdiers. Not much to comment yet, although I could mention the models are equipped with Haori (jacket over the armor) which hopefully will make them stand out abit more from the Yari ashigaru. (Also the models are marching instead of charging, making them even more distinct.)

Finally showing the progress of the eight mages, can you spot the different lores? Tom only got 2 out of 8 right on his guess. (hint; the color of death in asia is white.)

[hodge]

These are great. I agree with Tom, the cannon is fantastic. I hope to create the same effect with mine.

I also love the minis, non-gw stuff is always great to see. You tend to forget how many great minis are out there when your locked in the GW basement.

Can't wait to see more.