Emerging from nearly a decade of being suspended in stasis, or what is known to those unfamiliar with the 40K universe simply as parenthood, I find myself dreaming of an Empire army for Warhammer Fantasy. Later on I’ll talk about my plans for the army and the agony of finding your old paint collection did not survive stasis. For now, I will go straight ahead and show my first two units painted, state troop swordsmen and greatswords.
Swordsmen
The state trooper plastics assembled really well and there’s a god mix of different weapon types on the sprue. I opted for using only the two-edged swords and heads with feathers, to ensure a sort of continuity between the models in the unit. I think it’s important to be strict on a type of continuity and uniformed look across the unit, as there is already a lot of variation on the different torsos. It’s tempting to try and individualize the models, but in my opinion a unit should be seen as a whole and looks the best when individual models are fairly matched in weaponry and garments. Besides, there’s always a champion, a standard bearer and musician, that deserve a little extra loving.
Simple conversion tip: The champion got a sword and helmet from the knightly orders sprue.
Paint scheme is blue and red, with white as a tertiary color. Feathers were base coated white and then heavily washed with Vallejo grey wash. Armor is kept in blank metallics, as blackned armor is reserved for elites. I have yet to decide on a motif for the banner.
Note on assembly, paint shields separately and glue them on later.
Greatswords
Oh, how nice it was to see some puff and slash again on an Empire model, and to top it of, asymmetrical armor. In short, these models reek Old Worldness. Only downside is that assembly of the arms was a bit annoying, arms need to be paired correctly left and right, limiting the final number of poses possible.
Paint scheme is blue and white, with red as a tertiary color for feathers. Black armor was a difficult thing to do. I could go plain black with grey and white highlights, sort of a NMM (Non Metallic Metal), or use metallics. I ended up doing the later, starting on a base coat of black, then a broad area highlight with black spiked with a bit of metallic. I washed with Nuln Oil, and also washed with Guilliman Blue to tone down the metallic shine. The blue wash is important because black is never black, one should always try and tone it slightly if possible. In this case blue is also a good resemblance of how actual blackned armor looks like, which can be either brown-black or blue-black, depending on the sort of oil and chemicals used for the blackening.
The banner
So I decided to try and test my freehand, which apparently, if I should say so myself, turned out quite alright. Black is an excellent base to apply freehand on top of, because it’s easy to erase and touch up your mistakes.
In hindsight
This was my first time doing white and I should have started on a base of light grey, instead I started on pure white and looking back I may redo the white on the greatswords.
I would also like to add more highlight overall as they are a bit too dark, future models will definately get more agressive highlights.
Slowlypainted 
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