The Esquires Strike Back

 After my recent Nurgle shenanigans and going full dirty and rusty I felt like doing something completely different, something bright and colourful. Most obvious choice was Bretonnia, of course!

I've been working on these mounted esquires (an aside: are these now called "yeomen"? I've seen these minis called that way on the GW web and I'm confused. Please do correct me, but I believe there's quite a difference between a squire and a yeoman! Then the whole approach on the unit is absolutely different. When did the background change?)

Ahem, old man rants apart, these fellas are squires. Wannabe knights. Young noblemen, retainers who look after their knights' equipment, horses and estates, and occasionally get dragged into battle alongside their noble masters. All the privileges of knighthood, minus the privileges.

So, they being squires means that I couldn't just paint them all in matching colours and call it a day (I admit it would make sense if all of them are yeomen serving the same lord, sure, but that's not the case!). I really rather liked the idea of each squire wearing the livery of his own lord. I even imagined them wearing old, discarded surcoats from their lords. You know, the sort of generous gift a wealthy nobleman might bestow upon his loyal servant... a twenty years old piece of clothing with a few holes in it.

Enough chattering, let's go for the pics!

First one.  You can see his heraldry is one I've already used on my Knights of the Realm. I wanted to establish a clear visual connection between the knight and his squire, so I've tried to reproduce the same pattern on the shield, which meant painting all those little... (what's the name for that shape??) again. Gasp.

 I knew I'd regret painting that heraldry someday. I just didn't expect to regret it twice

His lord's old surcoat. Only worn on Sundays. And in a few battles

Next one was easier. I had a 3D printed shield with relief, so it was super easy to paint:

Looks suitably medieval

Now I have to paint a knight with this livery!

 I feared that next one would look too classical. You know, a white motif over dark blue & red. However, I have to say I like it; sometimes the classics are the best.

The fat unicorn is a freehand, I'm afraid

You see? A patch on the surcoat. Old clothes!

But again, for geometry lovers...

Bretonnian mandalas

I'm developing new levels of OCD

The fifth and last one is simplier, a white deer over black:

I should have gone full John Deere and paint it green and yellow

The fur hat looks disconcerting, but I'm not to judge medieval fashion

Here you have, the five of them:

Painting that geometric heraldry again has been a little bit crazy, but fortunately I've been able to replicate them! You know, my logic behind this self-punishment is that they are all squires for some knights in my army. So I chose a couple from my already existing Knights of the Realm and will have to replicate the new liveries on the future unit I still have to paint.

I chose these because I have two of each (wink, wink)

 I guess this counts as spoiler!

That will come, that will come...