Warhammer Fantasy Battles Empire Army

Before you get started, you're going to need to pull together your painting tools and materials. And you're going to need to come up with some idea on what you want the army to look like. Games Workshop provides many sources to get inspired - from White Dwarf to the Empire army book to their web site to an entire book on Ensignia and Uniforms of the Empire. I think that the simplest place to start is the army book. Specifically, pages 92 and 93. These provide some basic ideas on colors you might want to use. I want to do my army very simply and quickly, so I'm going to use the forces as Nuln as my inspiration.
You'd be surprised at how few tools and materials you can get by with in painting your army. And, you'd be surprised at how overboard you can go with collecting tools and materials. Let's keep things simple. Here's some of the things you're going to need:

• Primer
  
• Snips
  
• Craft knife
  
• Glue
  
• Paper towels
  
• Paint pot
  
• Brushes
  
• Palette
  
• Newspaper
  
• Paints

We'll discuss these as we assemble the army. However, as you can see, your basis supplies list isn't that intimidating.

Now that you've got your Battalion (or whatever you bought), its time to get started. If you haven't already, use the Army Book to design your Army. You can make a legal Warhammer Army and should. You may find using Army Builder makes this much easier, but you'll still need the Army Book. Once you do that, the process is fairly simple and is outlined below. You can do this for the whole box or for each unit -- your choice. Doing the whole thing is more efficient, but also much more tedious.

• Use Army Builder to make army -- the Empire Battalion box is big enough for around 800pts
  
• Familiarize yourself with sprues
  
• Select and snip model pieces from sprue
  
• Trim flashing and sprue bits from pieces
  
• Trim flashing from bases
  
• Organize all the parts that will go to each model
  
• Assemble (dry fit, glue, let dry, repeat) and mount on base
  
• Glue gravel or sand to part of base; also other bits (this step is optional, but recommended)
  
• Prime (use painting stick)
  
• Paint (a variety of approaches here)
  
• Flock base (other than gravel and bits you added) and paint edge
  
• Protect (matt spray varnish or clear coat)
  

Each one of these steps will be touched on in future posts.

You can play a fully legal 800 point army using just the Empire Battalion box. The 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles rule book provides specific requirements for your army. Every Warhammer army must have a general. Of course, there are additional requirements. On page 135 there is a table titled "Army Selection Summary Table". This identifies the points limit and duplicate choice limits you may have. In summary, 25% or more of your army must be Core units, and then up to 25% Lords, up to 25% Heroes, up to 50% Special, and up to 25% Rare. You may have up to 3 Special units of the same type and 2 Rare units of the same type (the other unit types do not limit duplicates). You can look at the Empire Army Book to see what type of unit fits into which category.

Army Builder takes care of balancing this all out for you. You can just start trying things out until you have a list you like that meets your point limit. In this case, we're more limited by the number of models we have. The Empire Battalion kit contains 48 plastic models including 20 State Troops, 10 Handgunners, 10 Great Swords, and Eight Knights. To create you leadership, you're going to need to make them out of the choices here. I played around for awhile to try to make what I considered a balanced mix. It is lacking in magic capability, but you've got to have a general and that doesn't leave much points budget for mages. My output options on Squidoo for Army Builder lists are a bit limited. I'll post a better presented list at Warhammer Armies.

807.0 Pts - Empire Roster

2 Captain of the Empire

   2 Captain of the Empire

10 Greatswords

   7 Greatswords - Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor

   1 Count's Champion - Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor

   1 Musician - Musician Mus; Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor

   1 Standard Bearer - Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor

10 Handgunners

   7 Handgunners - Handgun

   1 Marksman - Handgun

   1 Musician - Musician Mus; Handgun

   1 Standard Bearer - Standard Bearer Std; Handgun

8 Knightly Orders

   5 Knightly Orders - Lance & Shield; Barding; Full Plate Armor

   1 Musician - Musician Mus; Lance & Shield; Barding; Full Plate Armor

   1 Preceptor - Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield

   1 Standard Bearer - Standard Bearer Std; Lance & Shield; Barding; Full Plate Armor

17 Swordsmen

   14 Swordsmen - Light Armour; Shield

   1 Duellist - Light Armour; Shield

   1 Musician - Musician Mus; Light Armour; Shield

   1 Standard Bearer - Standard Bearer Std; Light Armour; Shield



Total Roster Cost: 781.0



Created with Army Builder® - Try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com

You've made your Empire army list with Army Builder and then bought what you need. Its time to put your models together!

The first thing is to organize. Figure out what models you're going to build and find the sprues those pieces are on. Pull together your tools. For basic assembly, you're going to need:

• Snips (GaleForce Nine has great snips)


• Hobby knife (like X-ACTO)


• Small files (GaleForce Nine has great files, too)


• Super glue, plastic glue, or plastic weld (I use Plastruct)

Make sure you have a nice, clean work area (don't want to be loosing or misplacing your Empire army's arms, heads, and weapons). Cover it with something you don't mind getting glue on. Then start snipping. The tool I like to use is flat on one side -- you want to trim as close to the model as possible without cutting detail or damaging the figure. Trim out all the bits you need to assemble several miniatures.

The next step is to remove the mold and flash lines left when they cast the models -- these are little seams that you see running over the model. There are really two ways to effectively remove these -- scrape with a knife, or use a file. My preferred method is to use the knife. Just use the sharp edge of the knife to scrape along those lines. If you come to a place where you've a bit left from where you cut the model from the sprue, you'll probably need to cut that. Be careful, and take your time. As you go, organize all the bits for each model. This includes base, legs, torso, arms, head, and accessories. I like to arrange them with their respective base as shown in the pictures.

Then it's time for assembly. Before I glue a piece, I always dry mount to make sure of the fitting. I glue all the legs to the bases first for all the models I'm building. Once they are dry enough to handle, I mount the torso on the legs, then usually the head. Depending on what I'm doing and how fast I need to paint, I might wait to put the arms on until after painting. This allows putting detail on easier, but also might be slightly slower (because of the detail). Then all the odd bits like scabbards and pouches and what not. And now you're done!

A word on glue. You can use plastic model glue, which may be the safest, and is certainly easiest for younger modelers. It's also very slow, and only and OK bond. It's very good if you might want to unglue the part at a future date. You can also use cyanoacrylate, also known as super glue. This forms a better bond and can dry VERY fast. You can even buy accelerant to make it glue faster, though accelerant can be dangerous (it causes heat and if you get glue and accelerant on your finger, it will HURT). This is NOT recommended for younger modelers. Finally, and my preferred "glue", is plastic weld. This has the most scary warning labels, and smells strong enough to give me a headache quickly if I'm not in a well ventilated place. But, it's super fast and gives a very strong bond. Note that it melts the plastic, so don't be sloppy.

After assembling your Empire Army, the first step is priming. Priming is essential. A good primer is designed to adhere to plastic and metal, unlike the other paints you will use, and it also provides an easier surface to paint. I like using Citadel's primer, or Army Painter. Priming will make your models look better and make their paint jobs much more resilient as you play with them game after game. There are only a few considerations here. If you are painting a predominantly dark colored miniature, you can primer the model black. This has the added bonus of making all the recesses and other hard to get spots dark as well so they won't stand out on the finished model. If you are painting a predominantly light colored model - one with very bright reds and yellows, for example - you may consider priming the model white or perhaps tan. This can be a bit more work, in that you will need to ensure to paint all the recesses really well or the white will show through quite well. Finally, you use the Army Painter method, priming your model in its base colors before assembly - flesh on arms, legs and heads, metal on weapons, your major color on everything else.

Spraying the primer should be done in a well ventilated area at room temperature. Outside is ideal if the weather is good. Consider wearing dust mask or respirator. Don't wear clothes you would rather not get painted. Shake the can of primer very well, and apply according to the instructions on the can. Place your models on a large, clean surface. Usually, this involves spraying in short, quick strokes about 8 inches from the model. Let the primer dry for 15-60 minutes, depending on temperature and humidity, in a well ventilated place.

For Empire Armies, there is a trick to make it faster. This is a technique that must be done outside. Take a stick -- at least 3/4" square -- and wrap masking tape around it, sticky side out. Alternatively, use double sided tape. Fasten the miniatures to the tape. You should be able to get miniatures on all four sides of the stick, but don't place them too close (1 1/2" apart is good). Usually, the bases provided sufficient contact area that this is fairly secure. If you want to avoid getting paint on your hand, either wear plastic gloves or make sure none of the miniatures will be within 12" of the hand holding the stick. Hold the stick out, and paint the miniatures. Move the stick around to help get good coverage. You'll find this more efficient than when flat because some of the over spray will get on other models.

After the primer dries, you can paint your Empire figures. It actually only takes a few colors to come up with some reasonable results. Many Warhammer tournaments require you to paint your models to at least a three color standard - meaning the models must have at least three colors. There are many approaches to painting models. This article will present a very traditional approach.

While very "old school", this traditional result provides consistently excellent results. It involves three steps - base coat (or blocking in), mid-tones, and highlights. The theory behind the approach is to layer on successfully brighter tones to provide greater depth to your model and to make it look naturally lighted. Each area of the model will be painted with matched tones of progressively lighter color - for good combinations for Citadel paints, see Games Workshop's How to Paint Citadel Miniatures, page 96.

First step, apply your base colors to all areas. If your hands shake or you have problems being neat, don't worry. You will successfully be able to cover up any stray brush marks as you go. If you used black or a dark primer, try to let the primer show through in the deepest recesses; if you used white or light primer, you pretty much need to paint the whole model. Multiple coats of thin paint will work better than a single coat directly out of the paint pot. Let these dry, and then "wash" a dark tone (such as Badab black) over the whole model. A wash is watered down so that the paint flows very thin, with color pooling into the recesses and folds of the model. If desired, many paint manufacturers provide pre-mixed washes. This will take some time to dry.

The second step is to apply the mid-tones. A key point here is you want both the base coat and your wash to show through in the recesses and folds - you're only going to paint the more exposed parts of the model. There's two methods - dry brushing and over brushing. Dry brushing involves get paint on your brush, brushing it against a towel until dry enough that you only paint the highest parts. Then just dust it onto the model. This can provide superior results, but it does take time and practice. If you live in a dry climate, it might not be practical (the paint dries too fast). You can also just carefully layer the paint onto the high points of the model directly. This is called over brushing. Over brushing is quicker, but will look sloppier than dry brushing. When done, wash again, but something a bit lighter - such as Devlan Mud.
When dry, you can execute the final painting step - highlighting. You use your lightest tones to highlight the very edges and points of your model's details. You can use the dry brushing method for this, or just the edge of your paint brush. After this dries, you should paint the model with clearcoat matt varnish to help protect it - after all, it took effort to paint the model and you want the paint job to last a long time.

If your Empire Army is large, you may want to work more quickly. You can block in the model and then dip them in Army Painter Quick Shade. This is ideal for large armies. The results will be good. In fact you can even do a layer of highlighting before dipping to help add more depth to the model. If you want more detail, you can do more layers (rather than the three shown here). The ultimate technique is to actually blend the paints on the model. This is a very advanced technique.

Give painting your models a try - even a mediocre paint job will look great from three feet away on the game table! Your painted models will make playing Warhammer much more rewarding.

One of the neatest things about playing and painting a Warhammer Fantasy Battles Empire Army is that The Empire has wonderful and fantastic toys! The Master Engineers of the Empire design and fabricate a wide range of killing machines, as simple as the brutal Great Cannon and Mortar to the problematic yet devastating Hellblaster Volley Gun and Helstorm Rocket Battery. Yet none of these are a dynamic and fun as the Empire Steam Tank! The Steam Tank counts as a Rare Unit and requires several points to include in your army list, so it works best only in lists over 1600 points or so. Yet, it is very fast, has ranged weapons, powerful in close combat, immune to psychology, and difficult to kill.So, it's one of the perfect things to add once you've finished your Empire Battalion.