Wednesday 17 June 2020

Soldiers of the Empire & Lukes APS Commission

Just before the Coronavirus hit I went to Warhammer World in Nottingham and bought a bunch of Empire miniatures which are still available.

I got:

10x Greatswords
10x Crossbowmen/Handgunners
10x Spearmen/Halberdiers
5x Pistoliers
1x Captain of the Empire

I also managed to get some OOP bits on eBay for a decent price:

10x Forgeworld Nuln Ironsides
&
10x Archers/Huntsmen

I feel like I have a lot less time to do hobby activities during the pandemic - which I suspect is related to the fact that my hobby area is now essentially in my office since I'm working from home. When I finish work for the day, I just want to get out of the hobby room and away from my PC. This means I'm doing less writing and less painting unfortunately.

As a result of having a large number of new miniatures which are unpainted and having less time to paint them, I thought this would be a perfect time to try out getting my miniatures painted by commission.

I built up some of the models and made sure they were trimmed nicely.

Captain of the Empire

Forgeworld Nuln Ironsides

Greatswords

I searched the Internet for local commission painters. There are a lot of good ones in other countries, but I wasn't sure about putting my rare forgeworld models on such a journey when there's a pandemic going on (and a lot of mail seems to be getting lost in the post).

Turns out Luke's APS - a somewhat famous YouTuber within the hobby - has his business nearby where I live. I e-mailed him and asked whether he does miniatures commissions and we agreed a price and the models to be painted.

I gave him some screenshots from the old Heraldry of the Empire book for reference - I wanted them painted in Altdorf colours. This means I can use them in Warhammer Fantasy Battles and in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for the Ubersreik adventures/campaign.

In the meantime I realised that I had a lot of ranged units and not a lot of line infantry, so I had a look on eBay and found a group of regular swordsmen for a decent price. They were painted in Altdorf colours, but weren't the best paintjob - far too dark and splotchy. I didn't like the shield design either.

eBay picture of original paintjob

I tore the shields off (and some hands in the process, oops!) and applied a drybrush of Evil Suns Scarlet over the red, and Calgar Blue over the blue. I also painted the shields these colours. I then painted over all of the metals with Leadbelcher, followed by a nuln oil wash and a light drybrush of Army Painter Plate Mail Metal.

I touched up a few areas where paint had chipped off (hair and hats mostly). And then glued the shields back on.

Repainted Empire Soldiers

I'm not completely satisfied with them. There's a lot of mould lines visible still, so I think I'll have to get rid of them and repaint over the resulting damaged areas. I'm also thinking I should put some kind of motif on the shields, but I'm not sure what yet. My friend Rick has sent me various bits over the past year, including shield bosses, so maybe I'll be able to find something which will fit in there. Failing that, I may look for some decals online.

After a couple of weeks I got word from Luke Fellows that my commission was done. He sent me some pics to make sure I was happy with them:




I think they're great! Crisp details and lovely middlehammer bright colours. The service was friendly and it was very quick. 

I think the price agreed was fair, and the communication was good throughout. I'm happy to use Lukes APS again in future. I'll probably get the archers, crossbowmen and pistoliers painted by Lukes APS as well, although I'll do it over the period of a few months so I don't blow my hobby budget all at once.

I immediately got them out for a battle against Laura's Wood Elves - that'll be my next post.

I would definitely recommend Lukes APS for commission painting if you have the money and a shortage of time (or maybe an abundance of models you're not looking forward to painting). Obviously painting your own models makes you more attached to them, but sometimes you want some models painted and know you won't be able to get around to painting them to a decent standard in the foreseeable future.

Using this commission service means that I'll get to paint my Bretonnian army and Necromunda/sci-fi models without worrying about having a bunch of unpainted models sitting around for years.

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