+ inload: Warlord Epic scale ECW +

+ English Civil War +

Chipping away at these has been a lovely break from the norm. About twice the size of GW's Epic figures and half the size of a 40k model, these Warlord Epic (WLE) scale models paint up quickly, fittingly using a combination of techniques picked up from painting larger and smaller figures.

Taking a prompt from how I tackled my Epic Salamanders [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I worked these on the sprue. Being a little larger and single part (aside from the guns), I simply left them on the sprue rather than clipping them off and rearranging them.

You'll spot I've removed a few supports from the frames to avoid creating more tidying up later. The supports attached to the built-in 'puddle bases' are more than sturdy enough to hold them steady.

In terms of colour choices, I've used a variety, avoiding a completely uniform look, but having some common buffs and browns. I figure the firearms and leathers would be fairly similar to one another, but the men might have had a mix of their own coats together with those supplied by the Colonel of the regiment – who in those days would have paid for much of his forces' equipment from his own pocket.

I also included some brighter blues and reds to prevent everything looking drab. I've learned my lesson from painting 6mm GW Epic figures that washes can really flatten everything, and so kept the paint application fairly vibrant and layered.

For the horsemen, I started by painting the horses, then picked out the troopers on top separately. 

I enjoy painting horses at this scale; they batch up quite nicely, but there's enough freedom to play around with different colours and patterns (as you can see on the upper left) when I get bored.

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As outlined in the previous inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], this single sprue gives a bit of a mix of bits and bobs. Once clipped from the sprue and popped on group bases, here's how they look:

As an aside, it was fun to find some source material for painting ideas from some days out!