Empire Halberds: Citadel and Artizan

Good day one and all; For your viewing and my playing pleasure (and also because I have entered a proper tournament) I am currently painting up a whole load of Empire Halberds.

I have always loved the mid nineties style of empire state troups with their ridiculous bows and overlarge silk shirts. Following advice I have opted to buy in some Artizan figures and have equipped them with Halberds.

If you like what you see, then please tell your friends (or press the Google+ button)

If you hate them, have ideas on how I could improve or what to paint next, leave a message below. It only takes a minute and I really appreciate it...

The chap on the right in the photo above is Citadel 1996, whilst the other two are armoured artizan Landskneht. As you can see there is a slight height difference, but on mass this is easily lost. Also it might be worth pointing out that not everyone is the same height; just look around you at work or school tomorrow...

All my Empire are painted in Nordland state colours. It is how I started the army, and I am getting far too many figures to change now. Once again, in the picture above we have two Artizan and one citadel, see if you can work out which is which. I found the pipe in the musicians hand very fragile and in the end I had to replace this after painting. I would recommend that you just bow to the inevitable and replace it at the start.

Slightly blurred picture here, but we have another three Artizan halberds. I like the models and I think they fit pretty well with the overall look of my army...

Finally some rear views...

From Landskneht to halberdiers

I have started working up my existing Empire army into a playable force for 8th edition. In changing the army it was clear that I needed more troop figures. Specifically Haberdiers. I am not a fan of the current GW state troop figures. I have always preferred the halberiers from the 1996 journal. The problem with these are that they are getting difficult to track down. I had a small collection from a detachment I had, but getting more through places like ebay was going to get very expensive. They look like they go for around £8 GBP each. I need another 50, so there is no way that that was ever going to happen.

So I looked around. The warhammer-empire site gave some great advice and pointed me in the direction of Artizan designs Landsknecht regiment. So I took the plunge and ordered some. at £22 GBP for 20 I figured I would not be going too far wrong.

They don't come with any weapons so I made mine with a short piece of rod and harberd ends from the bits box. In making these 20 I have emptied by stock completely so I will need to find some more from somewhere ready for the next lot I need to buy.

I am very pleased with the figures that artizan make. There appear to be 8 basic figures, 4 with breastplates (armoured) and four without (unarmoured). The details are crisp and there was only a small amount of flash. I especially like the fact that they all face in different directions so a unit will not look to uniform

They include a four figure command group. I am not too sure if I will use the leader figure, but the rest are good.

I have also stripped the paint of some old mid 90's halberds I managed to get my hands on. The chap in the centre is off the old battle waggon whilst the chap on the right is one of my oldest figures. It is from the 1986 journal and was brought by me at the time because I quite liked the idea of buying some figures. I think that the paint job shown is my second attempt at painting it in the mid 90's. Lets see if my third is any better...

Flag painting

To mark the new year, I have opted to enter a tournament and take the chance to tidy up my Empire army. So I have ordered some new figures... yummy...

Whilst waiting for the postman to knock I thought I would paint up a flag and talk you through the way I go about these things.

Way back when I started painting the Empire, I selected two colours that I thought would go together, looking at my colour wheel I choose blue and cream. Now, years later, I have done some research and it appears I am painting up a Nordland coloured army (who would have guessed). Complete with this new found knowledge, I looked up the appropriate flag on the Warhammer empire site. This sets the general tone of the principal army flag. In the case of Nordland this is red and blue with pictures of ships and griffins. Not liking the red and blue combination, I decided to keep to a blue and cream colour. I then had to decide what flags to use for the units. I decided to use either ships or Griffins.

20 minutes on the web, and I had found an image I wanted to try and copy. In this case I cut & paste from a website about cheshire heraldry (?). I then printed out the image and drafted on some guidelines to help me visualise the proportions...

I then took a flag which I had painted a background onto...

and marked out roughly the vague shape of the image I wanted.

I coloured in the shapes.

and then added a little shading.

A bit more work and I got to the rough look I was after.

...and don'y forget the other side...

I quite like this figure because the chap is working hard to hold a flag that is clearly too big for him.

Hope you like the pictures....

New year target

It has been a busy Christmas period, but now it is time to return to real life.


At new year it is traditional to set yourself a new year resolution; and I am no different. In previous years I have set myself challenging new year targets.

In 2010 I tried to paint three armies in a year. This was roughly 15 figures a week. Needless to say I failed.

In 2011 I set myself a target of ending the year with less unpainted figures than I started it with. I blame the Internet. A quiet five minutes and I pay a little visit to the web and minutes later I have an order for yet more shiny metal.....

So in 2012, it is time to set myself a target I have some chance of achieving. I have decided to attend a full proper tournament and to tidy up my Empire army enough so that I am not embarrassed to present them at the tournament.

This seams more achievable.

To achieve this I first needed to find a place to play. After a tour of the web I have decided to attend The Polish Sausage Warhammer team event at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield UK. It is a team event at the back end of February. This should just about give me enough time to finish the army and to pull together the three other players I need to go with me. I have asked around my local club and I have plenty of interest and have one player committed. Just two more required.

The next step is to decide on a list. After a few hours reading the forums and with my own knowledge of the Empire I have decided on the following list.

Arch Lector with sword of battle, Dawn armour, Dragonbane Gem & Van Horstmans spectrum

Battle standard bearer with Armour of Meteoric Iron

Naked Master Engineer

Captain on Pegasus with Dragonhelm, Luckstone & crown of command.

Two level two Wizards (One fire with dispel scroll & one Shadow with rod of power)

Two units of Halberdiers (1 of 29, 1 of 30) both with full command

30 swordsmen with full command and 9 handgunners

30 Greatswords with full command and 9 handgunners

A mortar, cannon, Helblaster Volley gun and a steam tank.

I have most of these but I still need to get 50 halberdiers, 10 greatswords and I will take the opportunity to refresh my character models.

My preferred style of play with the Empire is to sit back a bit and then try and dominate the centre ground. I hope that this list will work with that.

No doubt I will change the list and probably rage quit many times between now and the tournament, but I need a starting point.

Now to visit the web and buy some figures.