Bretonnians of Ancistroux

[Sir_Glonojad]

Hello,

As some of You may know, I am primarily a Bretonnian player. I used to have some Dwarfs (now mostly sold), still have some Dark Elves, and recently paint High Elves for my Wife - but deep down, since the very beginning of my interest in Warhammer in 1996 or so, I have always been a Bretonnian player.\

I have posted some pictures of my army in the Caledor thread, but those were models done some time ago. For some four to six years, however, I have not finished a single Bretonnian miniature... until today. And I do intend to have some Bretonnians done as an army is never complete

So, to celebrate, I'd like to begin a new thread - with my Bretonnians.

The collection is quite large, but not really well painted and many, many things await painting or even - gasp! - assembly.

To cut long talk short, here's a picture of the Damsel that I finished today. As it sometime happen, only after taking the picture did I realise how many painting mistakes are there

Still, from a distance She looks nice IMO

[Grain Weevil]

Glad to see, your Bretonnians get their own PLog
IMO your Damsel looks really nice, great colour theme ( my girlfrend favourite ) and well painted.
Waiting to see more of your collection

[Sir_Glonojad]

Thanks! I actually chose the theme to make damsels stand out from the knightly crowd (I don't make heraldic green basing on Jade Green). That was also the reason to use an archive caparison horse - the damsel fits it fine as she's design to fit just as ancient "medieval horse".

The yellow&blue shields are there to link the girl to the rest of the army (I also use this solution on 6th edition models - I had to do something with all those little shields which are Bretonnian equivalent of Imperial skulls it seems ).

Since You asked, I attach some more pics of my knights - painted mostly in the last century (that statement does have certain gravitas, doesn't it )

The Knights of the Realm are pretty obvious. They are led by a BSB who is getting retirement when my current project is completed. He was based on the Green Knight. The champion is actually a 5th edition hero, whom I found to fun not to include just because I don't have points for him . The musician is another simple conversion using Knightly Orders trumpet.

The Questing Knights are the Ducal Guard- Knights of the Realm led by the Duke (my idea of painting Questors is completely different, but that project will wait for the new book I am afraid). The Duke is another Green Knight-based conversion, but uses the torso and head from the Grail Knight hero on foot; to put the outlook in line with 5th edition heroes (and Grail Knights) I put an extra headcrest on the horses' head (a manoeuvre I am executing on WIP BSB too). There's also a weapon swap, an extra lance, and a hand-made cloak (that I am not proud of anyway). The duke waits for painting to be finished when my eyesight improves.

The last picture are some assorted knights, whom I use to increase unit sizes for example. Or play 4000 pts. Some are reserve because I didn't find the effect of heraldry nice - that's why decided that champions should have some orange, and characters - purple, and rank'n'files should have basic six colours (or 4 colours and 2 metals) from the 5th edition book.

[Grain Weevil]

Hehe... classic knights, really nice miniatures You have here, and good painting.
Waiting to see your new BSB project

[Sir_Glonojad]

The project is on hold due to lack of paints (I guess I'll order Vallejos in Germany next time...), but the mechanical work is completed, so I'll try to grab some pics (or ask my Wife) to show the 'fiftheditioning' I did to him

[Sir_Glonojad]

Okay, so here are some more pictures.

The first two are of the Battle Standard Bearer. It is not a very complicated project - it was thought up as a way to integrate one of cooler new models into my mostly 5th edition army.

As You can see, most mechanical work went into the horse: I have removed moulded shields from the caparison (quite a lot of work if my notes serve me well) and used an extra helmet crest to double on the horses' head, as with 5th edition heroes and Grail Knights. The model will bear yellow&black heraldry with olbigatory "heroic purple" I (intend to) apply to all my knightly characters. Also the crest will be silver instead of chromatic that I do on regular knights.

The third picture is of my not-yet-complete Duke. I want to finish painting him when I feel my skills are somewhat better, perhaps when I finish current Bretonnian miniatures. The duke is a more advanced conversion - I used Grail Knight Champion's sword, Grail Hero on foot (twice) for body and horse's crest, a Green Knight horse with some minor changes to the tail and finally Grail Knight legs. The model, as may be obvious from the picture, will use yellow&blue army colours because it is HIS army in fact . The third colour for reins, cloak, caparison's inside etc. will be Heroic Purple again.

The last picture is of my primary Bowmen unit and the first Bret unit to get fully magnetised. Actually the magnetisation includes the brazier which I can quickly and cleanly remove if I want to deploy the unit without it. The models are not converted, although I did sculpt small "shields" for 5th edition models - that's actually one thing I like in 6th edition models, as I can elegantly differentiate between units, as I try to use at least three bowmen units in an army (and used to include two of M@A but have finally given in...).
Currently I am painting four metal bowmen (three 5th ed and one 2nd or 3rd ed), some of whom will replace the oldest-painted guys in this unit; the replaced ones will go to the second bowmen unit being currently completed.

If only I had more time for the hobby...

Ideas, comments, questions - everything is welcome!

[sigur]

Those are some lovely models you got there. I'm a big fan of those 5th edition Bretonnians. Really like the flags as well and the patterns and heraldry on the knights. You obviously put a lot of work into these miniatures. The basing is very good, I like it. At this point I think just keep on painting.

[Sir_Glonojad]

Well, thanks for visiting and for kind words! I hope that with some current models You will like more than just basing

[ladykatz_02]

Color scheme is nice, its will stand out well on a table. The conversion of the Duke is well thought. Inspires me to work on my own conversion for a Lord (I'm not overly fond of any of the existing Lord models).

[Sir_Glonojad]

Well, gold&blue is a classical "French" set, isn't it . Still - thanks

I'll try to get a group photo of my peasants sometime, I have halberdiers, spermen, swordsmen, two mounted squires and two bowmen units in the livery of the lord. Plus a unit of Knights Errant.

[Sir_Glonojad]

OK, so now some pictures of (mostly) peasants wearing Duke's colours. These are models in state that I find somewhat acceptable to deploy in a friendly or tournament game with not that much shame
I wanted natural light for the pictures but it may have been not that good idea - the sunlight is bright, but the angle is already quite low so some shading details are lost (and the point of shading is, obviously, fix the lighting faults of a small scale, so some dispersed light might work much better... still I hope some of my hard shading work is visibile).

Anyway - first, a group photo (there's no unpainted High Elves in the background, carry on citizen!):


Some unit photos: bowmen, spearmen, swordsmen, old (not even shaded - I didn't do that in 1997 or '98) mtd. squires:

And some highlights - models that I like most (especially the chainmailed bowmen on the third picture):

And, as a bonus, my BSB who is getting a well-deserved retirement soon:
(the banner is printed and than overpainted, obviously)
Hope You like them a little.

[Sir_Glonojad]

Okay, so now time for something new and current.

Straight from the painting board - metal bowmen - one 3rd edition, three 5th edition.
First, some shots of the models:

And for a group shot (the guy with the orange mark goes into a second unit).

The brazier is magnetised, that's why it's not on the first three photos.
The only changes I made to the models are small green (orange) shields identifying the model's parent unit. Other than that - there's no need to fix what's not broken!

[Grain Weevil]

Holy crap, soooo jealous of this vintage footed knights! They looks excellent (one of my long term project is to complete a full unit of these). And Your fresh painted archers looks really great
One thing that looks wrong is the toothpick

[Zujara]

Excellent work here, love the old models and colours you used. These bring back good memories of when I first got into the hobby

[Sir_Glonojad]

@Zujara: Thanks a lot. Yes, some of the miniatures are with me from the beginning of my play with the hobby... and it begins to show I guess.

@Grain Weevil: Get them while You can, Foundry which sells these models now seems to double their prices every other year! I remember when I'd get eight of the foot knights for just 10GBP (and they had a weekend of "free P&P in Europe" which was how I got them actually). Now they're just expensive almost as GW... and I am glad You like my latest handiwork, although I wonder if grey aren't a little overdone as far as layering goes. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't limit myself to just three layers (shade-colour-highlight) when the end effect doesn't show that much intermediate tones I used (the Damsel opening this thread has seven on her horse, plus edges...).

The toothpicks... well... the idea seemed much better on paper, especially that I wanted to put three to four on each of the "corner bases"... well - I've got some extra plastic stakes (the second good thing about ugly plastic 6th edition bowmen actually) from one of the bitz web-stores, so the next batch of archers will see some of these too. But I guess that as a get-You-by they actually work.

Next for Brets - time to finish the Battle Standard Bearer and then - some more Knights Errant!

[Sir_Glonojad]

And now an update - although BSB is quite close to completion, I didn't have a heart to push him much recently. Instead I made a quick conversion (not yet finished around the waist) for a Questing Knight Hero on foot for my M@A unit (both as an extra tooth but also as a motivator for the commoner brigade).

So the WIP picture is below:

[Grain Weevil]

Wow! Nice one, I really like his pose. What parts did You use?

[Sir_Glonojad]

5th edition ones: Mounted Grail Knight Hero (top of the crest got lost anyway, so I decided to chop it to enforce the "unheralded" look I enivision for the Questing Knights) and Knight of the Realm Hero on foot (actually still available). I actually find it astonishing that the single foot-knight combination that was made new by the new edition - questing foot knight with greatsword - was not sculpted in the 6th ed and all the foot knights (all two of them at that) are old 5th edition sculpts... and to think Dwarf players want to have theircore choices replaced, heh.

[Grain Weevil]

Yea... as Brets player myself I know what You do mean... There are still some 5th ed. figures on store shelf for example Mounted Yeoman, and knights You mentioned.
Anyway the figure is great, nicely done

[LocaLicious]

Good job on those guys! I love those old spear men and you handled t hem well!