Surfacing from mypaintdesk for a while I spotted the Mantic Slow grow thingy, What a great idea err excuse to put yet another army onto my desk, so which army to do ? I decided I wanted to do an Army from the Invasion Book so that there was a more complete list and background, as I already have two Xirkaali Armies to paint for commissions I looked elsewhere, my Partner has a Salamander Army planned and so it was either Trident Realm or Halflings, I chose the Halflings for ease as I had picked up the old Mega army set for Half (giggle) price at the Mantic Open Day.
Reading the background and also having just read the Stand at Callenspire book , I decided my army needed to be led by the man himself Aeron Cadwallader, He also features in the book, Broken Alliance about the conflict between the Shire and Rhordia and the Storm in the Shires, a two player starter set in which the Riftforged Orcs invade the Shire.
As far as I know there is no current Model for aeron Cadwallader and so I decided to make one, following the description in various sources and a bit of my imagination.
As the First part of the Slow Grow is 500 points I looked at what I could have for 500 points that was still sort of legal for KoW, I don’t play champions and , although I do play Ambush, I wanted the Army to be for KoW straight off.
looking at the List, Aeron is a straight 200 points, he also makes Jugger Regiments Core so I decided his bodyguard would be one of the newly raised Ej Jugger regiments at 190 points, that left 110 points and looking down the list Hey Presto a Rifle Regiment is 110 points so Exactly 500 points for the first installment.
so cracking open my Mega Army I sorted through the sprues, at the same time my 3D printer ( yes I’m one of those 
) set off printing Jugger parts and, as the Vieshlar campaign in set in Rain forest/Jungle I also printed some of the new Salamander basing bits to decorate the bases.
I am painting this Army mostly in Speedpaints from Army Painter although some other paints creep in from time to time 
I undercoat Standard Grey from Colourforge and then give a heavy drybrush of matt white. Over that go the first set of Speedpaints, those are my shades, then I give a lighter drybrush of matt white ( when the first coat is dry) and the second layer of speed paints, lighter or thinner shades of the first layer, once this is dry some detail is picked out then a very light off white (ivory) is applied and a Matt Varnish over the top of that. I know a lot of people don’t like the effect but I find it striking and it really makes an army pop from 3 or 4 feet away, usual table viewing distance
so the Juggers where completed first to see how they looked
Having got them to this Stage I think I may go back and add detail and maybe a Standard once I have decided on some more colour schemes and insignia for the Army as I need to find more things about Ej and its inhabitants, but overall I am happy with how they have turned out.
I then went on to paint the Main Man, I converted a set of stalwart arms to make the model look as though he has taken his helmet off while inspiring his troops. I made a scenic base from the Salamander bits and after reading the Stand at Callenspire I chose to put a Pumpkin on his base, the Standard bearer is a normal Halfling with a hole drilled through her hand and a wire spear placed there to make a banner pole.I decided to paint the banner to represent Aerons affiliation to the Shire, sun , grass, water and Pumpkins , the banner is quite plain at the moment , but again I will no doubt revisit it over the course of the Slow Grow as more ideas flow.
I painted Aeron with a slighty pale complexion because I am trying to show that the Ej Halflings are slightly different so I am using a Colour called Dusky flesh from Wargames Foundry to show that they are darker skinned than the Shire Halflings, we shall see if this works once the Rifle Regiment are painted up 
Hopefully I have not bored you all too much and will post again when the Rifles are finished
