The Empire has the most decorative rank and file in fantasy: Renaissance landsknecht uniforms with halved hose, slashed sleeves, feathered hats and a halberd. It looks intimidating and it is not, because almost all of that detail is two colours meeting on a hard edge. If you can paint a straight line down a leg, you can paint a state regiment.
Pick your province before you pick your paints, because the province is the recipe. Altdorf is red and blue, Nuln black and white, Averland yellow and black, Middenheim blue and white, Talabecland red and yellow, Ostland white and black, Stirland green and yellow, Reikland red and cream. This guide works through Altdorf red and blue; swap the two colours for any other state and nothing else changes.
The signature look
A soldier split down the middle. Left leg one state colour, right leg the other; sleeves reversed so the colours cross diagonally over the body. Cream or off-white lining shows through the slashes in the sleeves and breeches. Everything else - leather, steel, wood, flesh - is deliberately drab so the halving reads at arm's length.
Decide your handedness rule once (say, red on the model's right leg and left sleeve) and apply it to every model in the unit. An inconsistent regiment looks like a mistake; a consistent one looks like a uniform.
The red half
- Basecoat Khorne Red, two thin coats.
- Shade the folds with Carroburg Crimson. It keeps the shadow red; Agrax Earthshade browns it, which suits a campaign-worn regiment if that is what you want.
- Layer Mephiston Red on the raised cloth.
- Highlight Evil Sunz Scarlet along the fold tops, then a final thin catch of Wild Rider Red on characters and the command group only.
The blue half
- Basecoat Kantor Blue.
- Shade Drakenhof Nightshade.
- Layer Macragge Blue, then Altdorf Guard Blue on the raised folds.
- Edge-highlight Calgar Blue.
Vallejo painters can run Bloody Red and Imperial Blue into Magic Blue; Army Painter Fanatic gives Dragon Red and Deep Blue into Crystal Blue.
Puff-and-slash sleeves
The slashes are gaps in the outer fabric with a lining colour showing through, and the trick is to paint them in the opposite order to the one that seems obvious.
- Block the whole sleeve in the lining colour - Ushabti Bone for a warm cream, Rakarth Flesh for a cooler one.
- Shade the lining with Agrax Earthshade so the gaps already have depth before you cover anything.
- Cut the state colour back over the sleeve in stripes, leaving the lining showing in the slash gaps. Follow the direction the sculptor gave the puff; the stripes should bulge, not run dead straight.
- Highlight each puff of the state colour on its top curve, and touch Screaming Skull onto the brightest edge of the exposed lining.
Cutting a dark colour over cream takes one pass. Painting cream into a dark gap takes three and never looks clean, which is why so many half-finished Empire regiments have muddy sleeves.
Leather, steel, wood and flesh
- Leather belts, boots and straps: Rhinox Hide, shaded Agrax Earthshade, layered Mournfang Brown, edged Skrag Brown.
- Steel: Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil, Ironbreaker on the edges, Runefang Steel on the halberd blade. Blackened helmets and breastplates are Abaddon Black drybrushed Eshin Grey, which reads as cheap state-issue armour rather than knightly plate.
- Brass fittings, buckles and handgun furniture: Balthasar Gold, Agrax Earthshade, Sycorax Bronze.
- Wooden hafts and stocks: Gorthor Brown, Agrax Earthshade, drybrushed Baneblade Brown. Wyldwood in one coat is just as good on a rank-and-file haft.
- Faces: Bugman's Glow, Reikland Fleshshade, Cadian Fleshtone, then Kislev Flesh on the nose, brow and cheekbones.
The fast state regiment
Undercoat Wraithbone, then one coat each of Blood Angels Red and Ultramarines Blue on the halves, Snakebite Leather on the leather, Basilicanum Grey over the steel and Wyldwood on the wood. Tidy the lining back to Ushabti Bone with a fine brush and highlight nothing else. That produces a convincing twenty-man regiment in a fraction of the time, and the halving does so much visual work that the shortcuts do not show at rank distance.
Tips and common mistakes
- Pick a state and stay in it. Mixed provinces in one regiment is the commonest Empire mistake, and it makes a unit look unpainted rather than varied.
- Cut dark over light, never light over dark. True of the sleeves, the halving line and the hat feathers.
- Keep the lining colour constant across the whole army, even when the state colours change. It is the thread that holds a mixed force together.
- Feathers are free character. A hat feather in Averland Sunset or White Scar costs one minute and lifts a rank-and-file model enormously.
- Do not halve everything. Hose and sleeves are halved; hats, boots, leather and steel stay common. Halving the whole model turns a uniform into a harlequin.
When you are happy with the palette, open this scheme in the generator to swap paints between brands, nudge the mood or add a secondary colour.