20 Halberdiers (Part 1)

The next unit for my Empire project is a big block of 20 Halberdiers. These are the classic mono-pose miniatures from the GW/MB game Battlemasters. Battlemasters came out in 1992, and although those miniatures were revolutionary for their time, thirty years later... they appear to be quite crude by modern standards.. 

20 guys, primed for action. 

I decided to do up two models first to act as "controls". The first model was stopped at the finished basecoats step. Black Templar on the metal areas, Snakebite Leather on the leather and clothing, Wyldwood on the halberd shaft, and Baal Red on the shield and tassel thingy on the halberd. 

Basecoated.

The second one I worked up to what is often referred to as a 'battle-ready' standard.  My old paint recipe for Reiklander uniforms is worked up from the Snakebite Leathe Contrast Paint basecoat, then  a craft paint by Folkart called Linen. I then went over that with another craft paint by Delta Ceramcoat called Raw Linen. I finalized the scheme with a highlight of Skull White. I used Nuln Oil Gloss on the recesses of the armored areas before topping them off with a Stormhost Silver highlight. 

Battle Ready

I was reluctant at first to add yellow to their feathers, but this choice was supported by the Reikland pages of the Uniforms & Heraldry of the Empire book that GW published way back in the last days of WFB 7th edition (I was always bummed out that they never finished the series, but I treasure the three books that they did release). 


Well, doing 20 of these guys is definitely a time consuming war against tedium, and just the Black Templar stage took me awhile. 

Black Templar. 

In Part 2 my goal is to get all of them basecoated. Stay tuned!