Beginnings of a Brettonian warband

[Kotobuki]

So, a while ago when I was having trouble motivating myself to paint some Marines of mine, I started posting some progress of the models to a forum, and it helped keep me going. That being the case, and wanting to get my Brets done, I think I may do the same here.

The entire warband is all of 15 Knights, so I'm a bit over half there. Though, at this point, everyone is simply Blocked in. Once they're all done, I'll go back and do the shading/highlights. Right now, I'm concerned with getting them fieldable. Both Knights of the Realm and Grail knights will be made from the plastic box. Grail knights shall ride white horses (and will later get the addition of a cloak). The rest of the Knights are all Realm Knights.

The paint schemes are based on actual arms, though the accuracy of them is less that perfect I'm sure. I am currently searching for suitable art to be made into decals for the shields. As such, they have only the fields and ordinaries painted. Some crests will use the GW crests if I find them appropriate for the Arms (when there is not a crest provided). Some will be sculpted (the castle upon the Black/yellow knight, and the scales upon the Red/White/Black) by myself.

Anyway, here is my army as it stands currently.


There are some basic rules I'm trying to keep to in the painting, to help speed the process. The one hurdle is that with such a limited pallet, It is difficult to keep them, from looking the same. As I expand the army, that should hopefully cease to be the case. Currently these represent mostly people I know. In the future, if my army expands, I will likely use any names that give me the color combinations I desire. Some may even lead to more 'intricate' design in the colors, such as halving/quartering the barding/surcoats. Time will tell, I suppose.

[Sojourner]

Very nice. I take it these are Knights Errant, or have you just not done the heraldry yet?

Also, is there a reason there's no trace of green? I don't know an awful lot about heraldry.

[Kotobuki]

Being that these are all based on people I know, or friend of people I know... I was limited in what I could do.

There are going to be two Knights in green. One will be the Paladin leading the band, and another will be a regular trooper. Next to Purple (which some do not regard as a true heraldic tincture), Green and black seem to be the least common heraldic colors. Green has not made an appearance as I do not have a suitable green paint. I have done a bit of mixing and come up with something I think I like, but i'm unsure. There are only 6 colors (seven, if you count purple) used in heraldry. White, Yellow, (which are metals, to couter the colors) Blue, Red, Black, and Green. All knights will have White or Yellow as one of the colors.

These are indeed Knights of the Realm, not Knights Errant. The charges (animals, stars, etc) are missing because I plan to have decals made for them. I have not yet found artwork I like/can use for this purpose though. For now, the colors and ordinaries are enough for me to identify who is who.

If I choose to add Knights Errant, they will likely use the GW charges available on the transfers, or will simply be made of Ordinaries. I am unsure of whether or not I wish to break the rules of heraldry with them. We shall see when that time comes.

[Sojourner]

I was under the impression that Knights Errant didn't take charges until they'd been honoured with one and thus become a Knight of the Realm - this is what I remember of Bretonnian background. Or is this the 'rule' you're thinking of bending?

[Kotobuki]

The rule I was considering bending was color composition for the Knights errant. I'm not entirely up on the Fluff for them, but the Knights errant shown on the box certainly have Charges on thier shields, in addition to Ordinaries. I may simply do away with charges though, for the Errant.

As I seem to recall though, Leoun Leoncoeur had the Lion Rampant charge on his shield as an errant, which was modified slightly as he rose through the 'orders' of the knights. (this is all according to 6th ed. bret rulebook)

[mirakel_jocke]

The riders look pretty clean and nice but the horses really need some highlightings..

/Mirakel_Jocke

[Valhallan]

Ya need some highlighting or something. They look like you took some plastic knights and glued em to bases.

[warpoet]

I think, at least in Brettonian lore, the color green is limited in its use to the Green Knight. So you may want to steer clear of green.

[Kotobuki]

Knight #10 is blocked. I think now I'll spend a little time devoted to my converted Green Knight which will be used as my Paladin. Oddly enough, that will be one of the two green colored knights that I have planned for my army. The green Knight is obviously VERY wip, as in the entire army. Once I get all these folks done up, I'll probably start going back and working on highlights, and getting the horse details and things.

[tzeentchgiant]

Nice, infact, I'll link another thread in with this one, as it shows simple bocking in of colours excellently.

I eagerly await you going back though, good work, and post more pics of the finished (reworked) articles.

TG

[nurgle_boy]

ah, very nice, as the others said though, chuck a hghlight or 2 oin those ponies, theyre looking a little bland.

even an inking would do..

[Kotobuki]

After a good deal of work today, the green Knight stands as such...



I like the way the armor is turning out, the heavy Chainmail coat with the Gold detailing is befitting a Paladin, I think. His surcoat will be white, But I'm disappointed that there's not layers like there are on the plastics to make it easy for me to break up the colors. I don't want him to look like a blob of white.

The horse is definitely missing something when compared to the rest of the Knights. I think I'd like to add the shields to the Barding, to make it fit in, but there's no way on God's green earth I can freehand them in... and with all the curves, tryingot sculpt them on would be just about impossible for me. I'm tempted to try some of the harnessing like the rest of the horses have, see if that's enough to make it work.

The crests... I don't know if I want to go with a White crest on the Horse and a Green crest on the Knight... or if I should make each of the crests a mix of white and green.

If anyone's got any suggestions on any of those points, I'd love to hear em.

[proximity]

for the white on a figure like that id go from blue to white, makes for beautiful looking shades, but is very time consuming - thus ideal for a character model like that.

[Kotobuki]

A little more work on the Paladin leads to this...



The barding over the front legs is too thin to use the same shields I've made for the back legs... it coves from edge to edge completely. So, I made some smaller shields using the plastic shoulder shields as a guide. I'm unsure if I'm okay with the different sized shields or not. I may also try using the larger shield size, but trimming a bit off the edges.

I will be adding more detail to the harness, most likely. I will probably try to recreate what's on the plastics, including the small shields. He's definitely beginning to fit in a bit better with the rest of my army.

[Kotobuki]

Wooh updates. There's a little cleaning up to do, and Some detail to add to the harness, but all in all, I think I'd call him playable.





Now to figure out how to do the 12th horse.

[Kotobuki]

I have my 12 horses for the 350 point band blocked. Got a game in with them a couple weeks ago, and got stomped pretty good. It was a 2v1 (500+500 v 1000) game... me and Chaos Vs Orcs & Goblins. Was a good game. I like it, I think I'll probably end up expanding to a full army. I did get complimented by everyone on the guys as they stand... so that makes me feel good. Anyway, here they are all blocked together.



In preparation for the impending army (and to get a break from horses and figuring out heraldry) I decided to start some work on my requisite BSB. He is a minor conversion of Reaper's Marcus Gideon from thier Warlords line. He will be a Paladin with the Virtue of Empathy (hence the Montfort heraldry on the left shoulder). I do not know what banner or magic items he'll carry, but the plan is to put him with a large block of Men at Arms.

Using the Empathy virtue, I figured less blatant use of the Heraldry would be more appropriate, as well as more subdued/dirty colors. The sheild on the right shoulder is done in the bright pure colors of the rest of the heraldry in my army, but the clothwork is darker. The white cloth, for instance, is bone, instead of pure white. The cloth beneath his chest armor (seen on the back, mostly) is UM blue, instead of Enchanted, and the small strip of red cloth (which you cannot see in the photos) goes only up to Red Gore, instead of blood red. His armor is also darker, being done in Boltgun as opposed to ChainMail.




I don't know how I want to go about doing the banner. It is a bit small, and I'm afraid it might be a bit overshadowed by the infantry banner... but I don't have much else in the way of options for it at this time. Knightly Unit standards will bear the heraldry of the unit champion, and the banners for infatry will bear the Heraldry of the Knight who they serve. I don't know if I want to simply make this banner the Heraldry of the General, or if I should make it completely different... Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[strv]

You could allways make the infantry banner smaller then, or have you done it allready?


Ps Looking good by the way.