Welcome to the KINGDOM of halfMEN.
Let’s start this month by introducing the newest recruits to the Army of Fordern.
Regiment of Foot Guard x 2 (270 points)
Last month I committed to painting up a regiment of these sword and board halfmen. Given that I had an awesome pair of regiment bases that fit together to make a horde I decided to go ahead and paint up 2 regiments instead. One other change in the original plan is I wasn’t able to finish making larger shields. This means that I will run this unit as Foot Guard and I’ll create a separate unit to use as Shield Wall in the future once I have the larger shields worked out.
I really had a great deal of fun painting these units and it went unsurprisingly quick given all the armor. Looking at the finished unit it is currently my favorite unit in the army. The mountain backdrop provides an interesting juxtaposition between itself and the diminutive halfmen. I also like the simlar call back to the unit of spears with the commander standing aloft on a rocky outcropping high above them. Plus, the unit has a little secret you’ll just have to see in person to experience.
Troop of Arquebusiers (100 points)
Given how quick the 2 units of Foot Guard painted up I figured I had a little time to knock out a troop of these hard hitting hand gunners. They were painted up in the exact same way as the Foot Guard and compliment those units quite well. There is a pretty good chance I’ll add another troop of these little buggers to the army in the near future.
Given how busy April was with running the Blues City Brawl I was quite pleased to be able to add 3 units and 370 points to the army, which now stands at 1250 points. My plans for the army is to unveil 1k of it at the Living Legends team tournament this fall followed by the full showing at Forge GT in November. So let’s get on to what I have planned for May.
Regiment of Gnights (195 points)
As I had such a good time with the first batch of Gnights I figured I’d add some more. Plus, huge thanks to Kawe from Westfalia Miniatures for getting these new Halfmen Winged Hussars into my grubby mitts early. These are absolutely the coolest mounted halfmen models I’ve ever seen and they will look great cresting a large hill to the edge of a large cliff!
Cannon (85 points)
I realize that a cannon is not necessarily the most efficient use of points or even all that effective in the game. However, that’s never been the goal of this army. This army is all about making the coolest army I can imagine and create. To that end I do not want to spoil the surprise for next month, so all I will say is that I have a really fun concept for the cannon that many of you will enjoy.
I’ve had a few comments and questions about my blackened armor used in this project so I figured I’d share my “recipe”. The armor is the first thing I paint on each model. I start with a base coat of Blackened Steel, making sure to get good solid coverage. Next I dry brush all the chain-mail with Tarnished Steel. I then apply a few highlights of Tarnished Steel in the less textured areas like chest and the helmet. I then edge highlight with True Silver paying a lot of attention the the rim of the helmet. Finally, the whole model gets a bath in Nuln Oil. Models may get additional layers of wash depending on how dark I want the armor. Just keep in mind that the focus of the model will not be on the armor, it’s sort of a background color. So less is always more to maintain the subtlety that I’m going for with the armor.
In closing, here’s a photo of the entire army to date. It’s starting to look like a real army. Until next time…
