Questing for the Realm

 Now for a totally diferent thing! What can it be?

Oh, it seems that I'm mixing the holidays and I'm back to Christmas in the middle of Easter. Look, look at this candy cane:

Hey! That's no candy cane!

Oh, you got me. I'm starting a new project. Well, you can say that technically it's not really new, but after all these yearts it feels like that, and given that it involves painting a whole army, I'm counting it as new!

I started playing WHFB at 4th Edition, the first one released here in Spain. I had a few Empire minis but not a proper army. Later on, at 5th Edition, I also got some Bretonnians, even the core of an army. But my pals back there weren't that much into Fantasy, so I ended up focusing on WH40K and selling most of my stuff.

I don't know if all this new "The Old World" is responsible for the WHFB revival, but the fact is that I can see a lot of people undusting their old armies, and I'm doing so! I've recovered what I had and have patiently bought some old stuff, so now I can say I'm on my way to build a Bretonnian army!

I had already repainted some plastic Knights of the Realm (that was 2018!! Seven years ago!). Not necessary to click on the link, I'll be bringing them again on this very same post. I decided I could re-start this project with a few Questing Knights, this was my first one:

The Knight of the Stairs

It was fun and I enjoyed it, so I immedately painted another one:

The Knight of Snowfield

It's not that easy to paint heraldry without any figures on it (as Questing Knigts must be!) and yet make it look interesting. My greatest fear was to make them look dull. So I tried something different for the next one:

The same blue I'm using on my Titans!

Three of them!

 

Believe it or not, this is already a whole rank of a unit

The good thing about Bretonnia is that it's not real heraldy, so you are not restricted by its rules, you can play with different hues of the same colour and go wild with some things.

Once I got the basic knights, I started with the characters. First, the trumpet guy:

That one would look better with some figures on that shield

 

I had some problems deciding how to paint the banner bearer, as I hadn't still decided what colours I would apply on the banner itself. I played it safe and used white as base colour, being neutral enough to combine with anything I could come up later:

At the moment I didn't realise I was painting the flag of Finland. Hei ystävät!

 For the Paladin of the unit I got infatuated with the idea of bright red, as I thought it would combine well.

Not original at all, I admit it, but I hope it works

With this one I got six Questing Knights:

A full unit! Weeeee!!

Time to think of the banner. At first I was reluctant to use heraldy figures on it, but in the end I leaned towards that idea, thinking that it would look nice and it can represent the banner of a higher Lord. So I came up with this:

I'll try to pay attention to proportions next time, I promise

OK, let's leave these young, impetuous Knights for a moment, as I will do their bases later. Let's pay some attention to my old Knights of the Realm. I can do all the bases at a time.

I know that Questing Knights don't bear figures on their heraldry and Knights of the Realm do, but I guess that if I was crazy enough to paint these schemes, you will be indulgent on me. Remember them from seven years ago? Well, I don't blame you, here you have them again, with a Knight of the Grail Paladin:

Knights of Epilepsy! Charge!

If you check the link I provided before you may notice I have repainted one of the knights since then, a yellow/green one with an awful and failed scheme. I used an easier pattern:

The Knight of Argyle. His socks combine, of course

 But I wasn't really happy with the Paladin of the unit. That livery was awfully dull among his peers. I thought of a new design, but you see...

...I lacked the stenght of will to do what I had to do

 The only reasonable option was... not to think about it and just start doing it!

Sir Proton, he leads quite positive charges

 It was kind of a hell. I started painting a chequered pattern, which gave more regular spaces, but in the end I was messing up the places I had to paint. So I started over again and painted the crosses just by approximation. However, I think it works. More or less.

Once I was using turquoise, I made the banner in the same colour:

I wanted to make a lion, but it can be a wolf, a dog or a cat deopending on the angle

With all this work in order, I just made all the bases. The ones of the Questing Knights as well as some refurbishing on the Knights of the Realm ones. Here is the final result:

Bushes to hide the plastic grass

The background book is an A3. I need a bigger one!

I don't quite remember the rules, but I pity the poor chaps who have to bear this combined charge

Well, this is it for now! May the Lady of the Lake guide my hand and bless my brushes. I think I'll be doing some men at arms next, but before that I still have Orks to paint! And Titans! And...