On medieval matters

 Hi everyone! A brief update on my most recent works. I've been struck by the Bretonnian vein, but have managed to only paint a couple of characters. I started with a Grail Knight on foot.

The good thing about Bretonnia is that you don't really have to care for actual heraldry (which is in fact way more strict and complex than one could imagine at first). You can mix whatever colours you fancy and it will be ok! (In fact I'm surprised that no one has ever painted Bretonnian Knights in Space Marines colours and heraldry, but that's another story...)

For this one I made this up:

Because orange & white look cool. Yup, that's my reasoning

Then you have to paint the big cup thing

Say what you want, that's not a carpenter's cup

 The fun starts when you have to replicate the stripes on the clothes of the little man. After some time I got this:

Looks like a permanent warning sign. Which is suitable for a guy with a hammer, I guess

Ready to discuss about cups. Cups are his passion

 Apart from the Grail knight,  I thought it was a good opportunity to paint the Sorceress. If I had gone for a warm palette for the warrior, I opted for a cold one for the lady:

I was happy with the colour, but it looked too dull and generic

So I thought of adding some trimming and embroidery

I even tried to make silver threads in the center of the lighter lines, but it really didn't work. The glow killed the effect and made a mere mass of unreadable shapes. Anyway, the final effect, as you'll see in the next pic, added some depth and made it look like an ornate and appropiate dress for a lady.

You can see that I made exactly the same for the mounted Sorceress:

Those dresses wer on sale at the store, you know

They are not exact replicas, but they are close enough, so I'm using these as mounted and standing version of the same character, just in case.

Well, my Bretonnian army was lacking characters, so I have tried to solve it to some extent. Here you can see how they face the enemies of the Realm:

I believe this has quite a Warhammer Quest vibe

 BONUS!

Apart from my Warhammer mumblings, we’ve managed a quick family getaway over the Easter break and headed off to Burgos, which is pretty feasible from home, and it's been quite fitting for this medieval mood!

You know I quite fancy doing this sort of drawings. I keep on taking the risk of going straight in with ink, one day I'm gonna mess it up...

This is supposed to be the Abbey of Las Huelgas

A late 12th-early 13th Century Abbey, conceived to serve as royal mausoleum and center of political/religious power. I won't bother you with thousands of pics, but please indulge me if I cannot resist to show you the burial of Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife Eleanor of England (daughter of Henry II and Elaenor of Aquitaine, sister of Richard the Lionheart):

Just a nod for you, my dear British fellas

Alfonso VIII led the battle of Navas de Tolosa, and in the Abbey is kept since then what is believed to be the banner of the Almohad Caliph Al-Nasir:

 

This thing is huge. 3'2 x 2'2 meters

The Town Museum keeps the sword Tizona, which is traditionally identified as El Cid's weapon (sorry, no pic!), and the Museum of Human Evolution focuses on the archaeological site of Atapuerca, which is quite impressive indeed. No pics allowed on the actual fossiles, but we are talking about 28 separate individuals of Homo heidelbergensis, early Neanderthals, which is like a huge discovery.

The following shots (last ones, I promise) were taken on the town castle, built on the top of the hill and currently under a daring project of renovation works, as a metallic grid is being put in place to show how the original structure was.

The entrance. Tiny Suberlings for scale reference purposes

The grid, showing he bulk of the original construction

A better view of the grid

 Well, I'm restraining myself of flooding you with more pics, as I also don't want to distract you from the minis! I hope you enjoy all my mumblings, I'll be bringing more stuff anytime soon!