Nordland Empire swordsmen

Every Empire army needs its fair quota of swordsmen, and mine is no exception. In my last post I carried out a small conversion on some 6th edition spearmen to make them swordsmen. I have rummaged through my unpainted pile and have grabbed some more figures and painted what I can.

Please forgive the standard of the photos today,I have been playing with the settings and have got myself a little lost!

In the picture above you have two spearmen conversions and a crusty old figure from the 1988 catalogue.

Here we have more of the same, together with a modern chap (second from left). I use the same shields to tie them all together into a united force.

Hope you enjoy. Now I am off to set how I set white balance on my camera. Wish me luck!

Empire: Swordsmen conversion

Nice simple conversion going on here...

I recently managed to get my hands on some 6th edition empire sprues. These are the ones where they combined the spearmen with handgunners on a single sprue. All very nice figures, but not to put too fine a point on it, I have more than enough of both. My current need is for some more swordsmen.

The conversion, is just a straight hand swap.The swordhands come from my stock of empire spares, whilst the left hands are cut from any spare left hands I could find with closed fists. I assumed that I would get away without too great a job with the left hands since they would be hidden behind a shield.

I pinned all the hands and arms; not because they need to be, but rather because it is just so easy to that I figured "why not". Hopefully they will paint up OK.

Week 6: A slight diversion

This week I believed that I needed to paint a few empire figures to get an army ready for GT. I had six swordsmen, five halberdiers and a priest of sigma. I have been painting the army for 7 or 8 years now, but I always need to add a figure here or there to round off a unit to an appropriate size.
The centre figure here is a significant adaptation of the newer swordsman sprue.

The other figures date back to the last edition of the empire figures. Whilst these are dated now, I did not think that the two figure designs would work together within a single unit. I'm not keen on the empire state troop figures anyway, because they all look as if they are in desperate need of the toilet. I elected, back in the day, to keep to a single shield design. The problem with this now is that I need to special order in a few sprues of these. One day I will remember to do this.

The old metal halberdier figures I love and would paint whole legions of these if only I could find a tactical use for them and I could find a supply at a reasonable price. As it is I have to resort to bidding on EBay until I manage to happen upon figures that have not been overinflated to a stupid price.

The figures are used as detachments. Whilst I would love to try them as a unit, I cannot believe that they would stand up to any kind of damage.

I have also finished the warrior priest, but to be honest my heart was not in painting him because I am just not keen on the warhammer priest figures. If I ever have a few moments free I might consider a practical conversion alternative.

I have also had go at a ghoul ghast. This is a Mordheim undead figure. I'm undecided if he works or not yet. maybe I'll put him on the shelf and when I come back to him, decide if he works or not.

I will return to the project next week. I am thinking skeletons...