A step by step guide to painting a strip of Empire Halberdiers
Okay, so I thought I'd detail my painting process for those intersted, or those who might feel motivated to get their own warmaster armies out, finish 'em off and have some games.
Disclaimer: My objective is to get units painted and on the table to smash those snooty high elves, so I'm not spending hours on painstaking detail.
Colours: I had already decided to use Altdorf, so I kept the uniform colours pretty bright (like my WFB army), after all I figure all that an Empire soldier really has going for him in the Old World is a jaunty uniform! This meant that I painted the weapons and pouches a darker colour.So to start with the mandatory clean-up and undercoat.
There is an amazing amount of flashing on these little guys - you can spend a lot of time trying to clip it all off, just make sure you check your target (I recently clipped the serrated swords of my Slaneesh cavalry by mistake!). I undercoat black and mount each stand on a 20x20 WFB base for painting.
Next the basic colours. I personally find this part to be the hardest, as it takes quite a while (figure six stands per unit). I start with a light touch of bronzed flesh on faces and hands then do a quartered blue and red scheme (using mechrite red and mordian blue) with the odd guy as half and half for variety. Obviously not worried about being too neat here as the detail can get cleaned up in later stages.
Then I go and fill in the rest of the basic colours. Boltgun metal for weapons and armour, scorched brown for halberd hafts and pouches, vermin brown for soft hats and bandoliers, bleached bone for feathers and vomit brown for halberd fluff.
Then it's time for some washes. Ogryn flesh for all skin and feathers, badab black for all metals and devlan mud for the halberd fluff.
Then I do the highlights. This is where I tidy up the colours a little and correct and mistakes. Highlight the red with an almost equal mix of blazing orange, blood red and mechrite red. Blue simply lighten the mordian blue with some white, and add chainmail to the halberd blade edges, and pick out the hat badges. The skin then gets a (very careful) highlight with some elf flesh to pick our face details.
Then some more washes, ogryn flesh on the skin and badab black on the hat badges and other metals that need it. Rather than washing the halberd blades again I use boltgun metal to soften the chainmail on halberd edges. Then pick out the belts, moustaches and beards with black (I keep the face hair black as brown or blond is hard to pick out at this scale, and do all other hair brown for variety) and finally belt buckles with boltgun metal.
Finally I do the last highlights, applying lighter shades to the hats, weapons hafts, pouches feathers,and halberd fluff. Then I add some colour to the feathers so I can tell each unit of halberds apart during a game, then a quick coat of bestial brown to the base to tidy it up, and we're ready for basing!
