Adding a little personality

It was several months ago now that I was preparing for Cancon. I had come up with the silly idea of entering an Empire list with as many special characters as I could jam into it. As it turned out, that was 4 - Kurt Helborg, Marius Leitdorf, Ludwig Schwartzhelm and Luthor Huss. It struck me as a funny plan, and the tournament didn't even go as badly as I had feared it might. However, in the rush to get things ready for the event, I didn't actually get around to properly finishing the characters. This was about as far as I got. Actually, I got slightly further than that, mostly finishing Luthor Huss and adding colour to the blade of Ludwig on the night before the tournament, up in our cramped accommodation in Canberra. Painting late on the night before the event is tradition, don't you know?

Anyway, that was in January. We're now well into June, but I finally got around to picking up the models again and finishing them off! Huzzah!

From the left: Luthor Huss, Marius Leitdorf, Ludwig Schwartzhelm and Kurt Helborg. You know you've made it in the Empire when your horse is different from the zillions of regular barded steeds in the army. 3 of these guys have entirely metal steeds, so they're clearly fancy men of some importance.

So many shiny swords. And so much flipping gold on their armour...

Kurt Helborg, the Reiksmarshal. He was my army general and actually performed pretty well at Cancon. The model is pretty cool, even if I did have to scratch build his cloak.

From the left

And the right

Ludwig Schwartzhelm, the Emperor's personal standard bearer and beheaderizer of his enemies. This guy took ages to paint, even with my pretty sloppy, "fast is good" standards.

Not sure what the deal is with the cherub helping carry the banner, but it was going to be too hard to remove it so I guess I just have to live with it.

It really is an elaborate model. It's the banner that kills you.

And another view

Luthor Huss, prophet of Sigmar. I lost track of his book, so he scored a back banner instead. Helps him to stand out more anyway. And he doesn't have time for reading - he's too busy whacking people. Heretics and stuff.

Of all the special characters here, Luthor is the most blatantly good - a clear improvement over a regular Warrior Priest for a reasonable price.

Marius Leitdorf, the mad Elector Count of Averland. And his horse, of course - Daisy Kurt von Helboring II.

This guy was the reason I fielded the army in the first place - he's funny and characterful. And a pretty cool model.

Daisy was the real commander of my army. Don't tell Kurt - might hurt his feelings.

In other news, we have finally gotten around to ordering an entry-level digital SLR camera, which should arrive shortly. I'm hopeful that I might be able to produce some better photos with it - in particular I'm looking forward to having a go at another battle report. This will be a learning experience for me (I am in no way a decent photographer), so I'll let you know how I get on.