The Order - New Army Thoughts!

I've wanted to start a new army for a while, having done most of the things I wanted to do with the Nurgle army (although there is of course always more to do!). I decided to begin a Devoted of Sigmar army, as I liked the idea of Flagellants being buffed by a load of Warrior Priests! In typical fashion, I have so far painted exactly one Devoted model, my Excelsior Warpriest. I've instead focused on AoS-ing some spare Bretonnians. I felt these would fit the aesthetic of the Devoted more than the traditional Empire equivalents. I also had a spare Island of Blood elf on griffon I was dying to convert into a Freeguild Lord on Griffon, as well as needing to fill out the army until more Devoted of Sigmar stuff is released for AoS.

I'm beginning to stockpile stuff for the Devoted lot, but for now am building up my Path to Glory warband for Hobbyhammer's Realm Hoppers event. On the workbench currently are 3 Demigryphs and 10 Greatswords, which will act as the hard units for the force (if I ever get a game in!).

As I said before, up next on the blog should be a unit of Demigryph Knights, which I've come up with a pretty interesting backstory for!

Interspersed with the photos below are pieces of fluff written for the Realm Hoppers campaign for each unit.

Blub was even more tired than usual. His regiment had been on the move for as long as he could remember. Even through absolute fatigue however, he knew each and every man would follow the Order to Aqshy and back to achieve their goal, even though it seemed unfathomable to these common men.With their lives on their backs, Blub's men were scouts of the assembled Freeguilds of Azyrheim, part of which had been attached to The Order long ago. Moving through the Realm of Beasts at the forefront of The Orders forces, they were tasked with tracking any signs of Chaos they could find, with particular importance given to that of the servants of the pus god Nurgle...

The first unit I did for the army, old metal Bret Squires (hence the varnish)

Lord Constantine was inducted into the Order after being gifted with armour plate and parchment from the Holy Stormcast after serving them in Azyrheim in his early years. Constantine brought his Freeguild detachment with him on his Pilgrimage with The Order. Only he of all the Freeguild is fully briefed in The Order's purpose.

Constantine rides his griffon Dimfeather into battle, raised by Constantine himself from an egg gifted to him by the griffon handlers of Azyrheim.

This is the dude I converted from the Island of Blood griffon. I heavily underestimated the green stuff work needed after chopping off the elf rider! Doesn't look too bad from a safe distance though. I'm really happy with the rider however. I wanted to convey a more priestly look to the model, rather than the standard guy charging with lance and shield with a helmet on. I feel I achieved this with the less aggressive left hand and lowered lance, plus the bare face, which incidentally covers the eyes, something which I intend to do with all the priest type characters in the force as a narrative element.

Many priests of The Order give up their names and titles upon entry. They each adopt hoods to cover their eyes, needing only the light of Sigmar to guide them...

The hooded head came about as I wanted to really differentiate between this model and the stock Warpriest from the Silver Tower set. I also changed his weapon into something other than a hammer, to link him to the units in the army.

Many Freeguild Guard followed Constantine and The Order out of Azyrheim, none understood the hardship they would face out in the Realms. Constant travel, war and fatigue soon took it's toll, only the hardiest of men still survive.

These guys are standard Bret Peasants, now used as freeguild guard. Tried to do something different with their shields, as I felt such a large surface area of the model deserved something other than blank colour.

The colour scheme for the army is;

Reds: Mephiston Red, Agrax Earthshade, Wazdakka Red

Greys: Eshin Grey, Skavenblight Dinge, Adminstratum Grey

Bones: Bleached Bone, Agrax Earthshade, Bleached Bone + Skull White

Skin: Kislev Flesh, Agrax Earthshade, Kislev Flesh + Skull White

Metals: Leadbelcher, Agrax Earthshade, Mithril Silver 

Rust: Typhus Corrosion, REyza Rust, Mithril Silver

Weathering/Bases: Doombull Brown, Light brown (can't remember which!), Typhus Corrosion, Doombull Brown, Light Brown.