The First Foray

My first foray into the new hobby was to be a pack of Empress British Infantry in Campaign Marching Poses and a pack of their unmarried Zulus.  Bought as a birthday present by my dear lady wife in 2009,  they then promptly sat around gathering dust until 2010 (not as bad as it sounds, just a matter of two months) as I was gripped by panic.  I suddenly realised that there was a lot more to this than I had first considered!  I had brought down from the loft the remains of my Games Workshop paints, last used before I was married, and was surprised at how many were still liquid.  That's not to say that there were not casualties and again panic set in, where do I buy paint from?  What colours do I need?  What bases do I use?  There was nothing for it I was going to have to invest in some serious research.  A couple of second hand Osprey titles from Amazon and few phone calls to my good friend Richard and I was starting to believe that I might actually getting close to starting!  I had made the decision to invest in some Foundry paint palettes to get me started as I have to confess to rather liking the work of Kevin Dallimore and his three colour technique.



Empress British Infantry Campaign Marching Poses



I was becoming absorbed by the research, expelling the myths of my childhood (what do you mean they didn't sing 'Men of Harlech' whilst manning the mealie bag barricades?) and more importantly enjoying the hobby.  It was working I could now, when requirred, allow myself to be completely distarcted; to blot out the hum drum and be enriched by this most absorbing of hobbies.  All this before even rolling a single die.



Empress British Marching (side)



I found the Empress Sculpts, ultimately very forgiving.  Good clean modelling allowed me to pick out all the detail I felt I could manage and before long four characters were emerging form the black undercoat;  I was hooked!







Empress British Marching (rear)



These first examples can be seen with the old Games Workshop bases I had lying around but shortly after I discovered the 25mm Lipped bases that I felt gave my creations a certain completion.  I may still rue this decison but have now started using this style of basing for all my models to the extent that I actually recalled and rebased the first four efforts shortly after they first rolled off the production line!

I was like a child in a sweet shop who couldn't decide what to sample next; heaven!

Rebased with the favoured 25mm Lipped