01/11/2018

Octobretonnia

I've gone rogue. While everyone is doing Orctober, Zomtober or Dreadtober, I've set sail for my own sea of madness and I've declared... Octobretonnia.
Ehm. Well, yes. I needed an excuse!

Long, long time ago, I sold my WHFB armies, but I kept a few Bretonnian Knights, just out of nostalgia. For years they were simply gathering dust on a shelf, until I was brave enough to repaint them. I will save you the sheer horror of their original paintjob. A younger me, you know.

Anyway. New life for these blokes then! You will see, all of them are mere 5th Ed plastic Knights of the Realm, but for the leader, a Knight of the Grail. I wanted them to look really gaudy and flamboyant. Kind of the craziest armorial you can find. However, you can say I started in quite a restricted way...

Classical and easy
Don't worry. It got more complicated soon.

Yet still manageable

As usual, you cannot see the highlights. I promise, there are highlights (sigh)

But, of course, it eventually got out of control...

I blame Google. I would have never imagined such a design

Good thing about painting fantasy is that you don't have to pay attention to actual heraldry rules. You can use whatever colours you fancy and any design that comes to mind.

I mean this about colour
At some point this became a 3D mandala. The craziest, weirdiest mandala ever.

I think I might be developing a true OCD
Pics are awful, I promise you should be able to see much more depth.

I really mean it, this pic brings shame to me and my family

Some designs are more inspired than others. I'm happy with some of them but horrified at a few others.

Particularly this one. I may repaint him again
As I was working with an autoimposed schedule, I haven't been able to give the unit a banner.

I will have to solve that

Anyway, I managed to finish these just on the edge of midnight, so I declare this mission successful :P

This one was particularly dreadful

The Knight of the Grail. Most likely my favourite Bretonnian mini ever
So here we have this particular round table:

No epileptic was damaged during the production of this unit
I still have to make a proper banner, to improve the bases and likely to repaint the yellow/green one. But I think I passed the test/challenge. Wow, man, what a month!!


BONUS:

I was committed to make a true Octobretonnia. This is a commission for a friend, just a conversion work; the paintjob will be his. He asked me if I could 40K-ize the Bretonnian Reliquary so he could use it in a Necromunda setting (within a Cawdor band, I presume).

I started with this

And went crazy wiring it all
Remember, there is no such thing as 'too much' in Warhammer
Specially in 40K
I'm looking forward to seeing what my pal does with this now!

So, as of today Octobretonnia has ended, back to regular stuff!

25 comments:

  1. Fantastic work! Maaaaybe some of those designs are a bit eye watering, but the discipline you must have in your brush work! My favorite is the standard bearer, which then leads to the question, what are you doing to do for the standard? colors of the leader, or national colors, or something crazy like leader colors quartered with the national colors, quartered with his mother's colors? ;)

    The 40k Reliquary is great, but I shudder a bit knowing how much those go for on Ebay... hopefully it was finecast/cost to make me feel better?

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    1. Haha, thank you! I honestly have no clue of what to do with the standard. I guess I'll have to do something new, not tied to the bearer. I'll go find inspiration on actual banners, there were real pieces of art back in the day!
      About the reliquary... ehm, I'm afraid it is pure oldschool metal. My friend didn't settle for less! :D

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  2. You've gone rogue indeed ... Octobretonnia ... what a fantastic concept, even more fantastically realized via execution. And that last bit of conversions work is simply awesome. You have talent my friend. Real talent.

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    1. Thank you very much. Now I have to think something for November. 'Xenovember' sounds pretty good to me, hmm...

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  3. Bretonnians need no justification! Wow some of those designs - the wavy one must have been a headache to do.

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    1. Indeed it was! But all of them were tricky. As a matter of fact, all but a couple of them are inspired by actual heraldry -shapes if not colours, where I took some liberties. It's been a fun challenge :)

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  4. What a great idea! Really love your Realms knighta!

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    1. Thanks! They are pretty basic minis, but wonderful indeed, I'm reasonably happy with what you can achieve on them.

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  5. Para lo feotas que son las minis viejas bretonianas te han quedado espectaculares, a ver cuando terminas la versión del 40k que tengo ganas de verlo pintado.

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    1. Dan más juego de lo esperado, permiten hacer locuras de este tipo. El relicario de 40K es un encargo, pediré fotos a mi amigo cuando lo pinte :)

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  6. Wow, that is literally dazzling. (and I mean literally, not that fake literally used by airheaded Kardashian watchers)

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    1. :D :D :D
      Thanks! Despite the inherent loss of sanity, it's been enormously enjoyable.

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  7. Astounding stuff! I have always been intimidated by the idea of painting Bretonians, they look very challenging to me. Yours have turned out brilliantly!

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    1. Well, these were more like an experiment, but the possibilities are endless, I totally encourage you to go wild an paint some designs!

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    1. Thank you! Quite a challenge, I have to admit, but I've enjoyed doing each one of them!

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  9. Fabulous work on all these knights they truly are outstanding. Please post pics of your mates finished job on your conversion piece it looks brill.

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    1. Thank you! I'll definitely ask for pics, I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

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  10. Fantastic knights! Lovely conversion work on the reliquary,it looks suitably excessive!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you! It's quite reassuring to know that there's no such thing as 'too much' when it comes to these things :D

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  11. Goodness me, you must have a lot of free time on your hands to try paintjobs like these. I always liked the simplicity of these knights but you just elevated them way way beyond simple.

    Great conversion by the way 😁, I think you could have gone a little bit more over the top ;).

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    1. Haha, of course they are quite time demanding, but not as much as I thought at first. Once you have a clear picture in mind it all comes faster than expected.
      And right, you can never go too much over the top when it comes to Warhammer :D

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  12. Individually those paint schemes are quite confronting, but the 'group effect' is bold and exciting and likely to strike fear into the hearts of your unworthy enemies! For Bretonnia!

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    1. If they aren't aggressive enough, at least they will cause epilepsy within enemy ranks!!

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