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Warhammer Freeguild Empire Standard Bearer - 28mm


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Hi All,

 

here's a WIP of an Empire Standard Bearer that I built and painted a while back. I used an Empire Captain (who now seems to have been promoted to 'Freeguild General' !!) as the basis, with a little bit of cusomisation to get the appearance of a battle-hardened campaigner grimly defending his banner. The pose of the figure lent itself to standing on steps - I decided to represent the figure on part of a spiral stone staircase. I decided to scratchbuild the base around the figure, keeping with the Empire/Freeguild theme of castles and the like.

 

As the figure was for display I felt that the kit cloak was too thick and I wanted a large banner that I could paint a freehand design onto. I chose to make both of these from copper foil - it would also be easier to paint freehand onto a flat banner and add folds later. I cut away the body of the cloak and made a foil replacement, using the original plastic part as a template, pressing the foil onto it to transfer the folds. I used cyanoacrylate to join the foil to the plastic.

 

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I then made a square banner with tabs to form loops around the pole; here it is in a prototype mock-up and after priming. I ceated folds by wrapping around a brush handle although flattened them back out prior to painting. I cut the figures left arm off at the elbow to make painting easier and to reposition it later. Traces of red paint from a previous abandoned project with this figure are still visible on the left foot.

 

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More to follow......

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Andrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The next part of the build was to create the base. I used a GW square base and sculpted some stone steps using Milliput. The post is a wooden dowel which conveniently was already fluted like a piece of stonework. The post is topped off with a heraldic animal taken from the helmet of a Warhammer knight. By this point I had chosen a head - this one came from an Empire Cannon crew kit. 

 

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I was reasonably happy with the composition and moved onto painting. I decided to only use the Non Metallic Metal (NMM) technique on this figure as I thought it would add to the challenge. I'm a bit weird like that. I started with the cloak - I figured if it didn't work out too well I could always repaint. I had a look through lots of Warhammer Empire references and decided that this cross and skull would be worth a try as a freehand design. I started with the silver NMM and then did the gold NMM. Sorry that the secon image is a bit out of focus...

 

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I then moved onto the banner - again using images and icons from various Warhammer Empire references - the Uniforms book and various things I found online. I blocked in the background of a skeleton with a scythe a banner and a 'Sigmar' comet. One of the great things about Warhammer is that the 'backstories' are so complete that it is always easy to find inspiration. I stuck with the 'Germanic' theme, given the number of German references in the Empire/Freeguild world.

 

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IMG_1417 (Edited)

 

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Next came the reverse of the banner - again a selection of Empire icons painted freehand in NMM.

 

IMG_1418 (Edited)IMG_1421 (Edited)

 Trying for size, still to paint NMM border on banner. The pennant is a strip of brass foil and the finial on the pole is cut from another Empire kit. I've also started painting the base.

IMG_1407

 

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Hi @amblypygid,

 

thanks for your kind comments - I don't have any more shots of the banner in progress I'm afraid - I can always take more of the finished banner if you'd like to see any details? Yes, Canterbury is a great plave to live!

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

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Thanks, Andrew. The details are very clear, but the photos hint at the unveiling of a great secret.  I've got a 40K Chaos Lord (or somesuch, I'm hazy on the details as I don't play, just paint) with an unfeasibly large cloak that would look very plain if left undecorated. Probably too late to replace it with a copper foil cloak, but you've inspired me to have a go at doing a simple design. I do have a question, though: you mentioned using metal foil as you can paint it while flat, then bend it into shape, but you don't seem to have done that. I'd have expected the paint to start flaking off when the metal is bent. Is there a way around that?

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Hi @amblypygid,

 

there's no great secret I'm afraid, it's just lots and lots of layers of heavily thinned acrylic, blending and building up the highlights. I used both GW and Vallejo colours, diluted with water, Vallejo thinner medium plus flow aid and retarder which helps with the paint flow and hence control when painting these fine details. I use good quality sable brushes and for this kind of work would probably use a 00. Any smaller than this and I find that the brush doesn't carry enough paint.

 

I painted the cloak 'as is' after forming the folds as I had to fit and shape it to the figure to get the size and shape correct. I think it would have been damaged if I'd done this after painting. Also the cross design was quite compact and didn't cross too many ridges and valleys. With the banner I folded it before painting to check the overall effect; I then unfolded it to almost flat for painting - I intentionally left gentle folds so that I would know where to highlight and shade. As the foil is very thin it is easily bent back into the folded state - acrylics are very flexible when dry so there is no problem bending after painting, at least not to form the type of gentle curves found in fabric.

 

I could perhaps do a step-by-step of something similar on a piece of copper foil if that would be useful?

 

 Here's a photo of the finished figure which shows how folded the banner was in the end:-

IMG_1466 (Edited)

 

 

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I also painted over the twin-tailed comet on the front of the banner, as I preferred the look of the NMM comet that I pained on the reverse. It now looks a little bit like the 'golden snitch' from the Quidditch game in the Harry Potter movies, which wasn't intentional......

The 'ivy' vine and leaves on the base were sculpted from Green Stuff, and the skull was taken from a WH skeletons set.

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Please don't go to any extra trouble on my account! The secret is probably in the doing, I just need to give it a go and learn, but it's very helpful to have an idea of how others do it, otherwise I tend to come up with some wildly impractical techniques that don't work very well. The NMM work that you've done is also very convincing, and I think it suits the sculpt, which appears relatively plain compared to some of the stuff that GW is putting out these days. I like the face as well, particularly the work around the eyes.

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Hi @amblypygid,

 

Thanks again - you could use an ultra-fine permanent ink marker (e.g. Pilot 0.1mm drawing pen) to get the basic design layout as they work on acrylics. I've used these pens for lettering and script on various figures in the past. Then you can fill in the outline with the background colour and work out from there. It's probably just a case of trying a few techniques and finding the one that works for you.

 

Cheers,


Andrew

 

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