Warm Ale and Mud

COUNT HALVEN For a number of generations, the Halven family has lived in the Manor House just outside the village of Heiligsheld. From here the Count commands the garrison which protects not only the village of Heiligsheld but the nearby hamlets. A modest and devout man, the Count lives in a simple manor house with his wife Carmilla and a few servants. The garrison consists of 15 Helblitzen, 10 Erzatsolder and 10 Ambrustschutzen, more than enough to deter bandits, mutants, and the occasional goblin raiding party. Should the need arise, the woodsmen let by Martyn, and the villagers themselves will also rally to defend the village. Here we see the Count in full battle gear, resplendent in its coloured finery. The armour is blessed by Johannes Andreaes prior to each battle as is his mighty Warhammer, “MachtigAver”.

JOHANNES ANDREAES Elementalist and Alchemist Born 2459 IC in Talabecland. Studied religion and alchemy. Travelled a lot after leaving the province due to some minor controversy and has finally settled in Stirland after hearing that Count Halven was mostly unfussed by a persons past, that and his preference for Taal over Sigmar. Spends most of his time studying and practising his crafts and is a practitioner of the elemental magycks. He is the Counts counsel on all matters magyckal. (He also likes a drop of sherry or two, and pipe, ideally filled with Mouldy Leaf tabac from The Worlds Edge Mountains.) Only the Count himself left to do for my Stirland garrison!!  

Finally, the last of my infantry units is done!! The reliquary started off as a flagellant accessory I think, but then I added a back and doors and popped it on a pole with supports then added the tassels, it has turned out quite nice I think. HELBLITZEN The Helblitzen make up the bulk of all the imperial soldiers and Heiligsheld is no exception. These are led by Jurgen Lebowski who is in charge of the day to day running of the garrison. Jurgen grew up with Count Halven and they have been friends since childhood. He is the master of ceremonies and a capable, albeit aging leader. The reliquary carried by Karl Frazetta is from the private chapel to Morr from the Halven manor house. It is said to protect them from a visit from Morr and help keep the soldiers from visiting his kingdom before their time. It is said that this protection is possible thanks to some arcane ritual that the bearer must make with Morr, some sort of deal with death himself, as part of this ritual the bearer, in thi...

Just a quick question. I am nearing the end of my Empire painting queue. I am 2/3rds of the way through my final unit, the Helblitzen. After that, just 2 hero models to do. Then the cannon. But what cannon, I do not want to go newer than 4th edition, and as it happens I really quite like the 4th edition one (except the wheels): But I don’t have one and ebay prices are quite a bit more than say some alternatives from Wargames Foundry: I am struggling to decide which way to go, what would you oldhammerers do, or indeed what did you do? (Next blog post the finished Helblitzen!)

I decided that I should get on with painting that last unit even though the size of it daunts me, so here is where I am after a quick bit of skin work on the front row. But then during the process something occurred to me. Just like all the models, they get filed, and prepped, and primed, and I start with the face, cos if the face ain't right then the whole figure ain't right. But every now and then once the face is done the figure suddenly turns from just a guy in the unit into a person. Suddenly once the face is done I can imagine this persons life. Suddenly Wilhelm appeared to me. Having not painted anything but oldhammer models in 25mm is this unique to these old sculpts where they each had their own faces, they were not generic heads, but the faces have character, big noses, broken noses, big mouths, yelling, smiling, facial hair, scars, strong jaws, weak jaws, they all seem as if they could have easily be based on real people. Do you find this with your own figures, once ...

Having recently finished my Fleglers I reached the stage of only having a single unit left to paint. But… It is the largest unit of my force, daunted by the hours it will take to do (approx 120 hours, 8 hours a figure and 15 figures) I looked for a distraction. Warm Ale and Mud is my long term project and will chronicle the various events that happen to the good folk of Heiligsheld, culminating in a might battle for survival against the undead hordes of neighbouring Sylvania. However that is not all the games will be, there has already been the Orc raid led by Scrotter Brokenstaff and soon there will be Trolls at the Door, when a wandering troll comes to pay a visit. Here is the self named Felsbloch the interloping sheep stealing troll.   Being a player of WFB 3 rd edition in days before River trolls, Swamp trolls, Stone trolls and even internet trolls, trolls was just trolls. Normally brown or green in colour; and as we all know, proper trolls are green, so yes, ...

FLEGLERS Whilst not a part of the Counts garrison as such; after all who would want religious fanatics living with you day in and day out, there is a semi regular presence of flagellants in the area, being so close to the borders with unholy Sylvania there can often be found a group of Morrite Fleglers heading into that dread county to purge the area and cleanse with the lash and rod. One such group is shown below. They call themselves The Children of Morr. First we have Brother Verfechter who found Morr after his village bar him were killed by marauding greenskins, believing himself spared for a greater purpose he has become an extreme devotee of Morr bent on ridding the Empire of all goblinoids. The large and heavy metal pole he carries with chains attached was once the giant clapper from the bell in the villages chapel to Verena. He thinks it apt that he will meet out justice on the greenskins with it. Brother Holbein is the oldest devotee of the Children of Morr, he ca...