St. George and the Dragon

It was a matter of pure coincidence, but I was looking for some other stuff over the net and I eventually found this:

 Oh, you can see how I had no option but to get it, right? It belongs to Reconquer Designs ranges, which have quite pretty interesting medieval stuff, mostly focused in Reconquista, but with some other generic models.

In fact I found it on my local shop's web, which has a 3D printing service, and it made the whole thing much easier. When I got the actual model I couldn't be more pleased. Absolutely delightful and just right like the pic above. The details are stunning and everything was lovely. So I couln't wait to throw some paint on it!

This is technically a Wyvern, but it will do

I thought of doing the dragon red, but in the end I went for a more classic green. In fact I gave it the same treatment as the Orc Warlord on Wyvern from a few weeks ago. I made some research on St. George and the Dragon representations in art through history and there are a lot of different interpretations and readings of both the knight and the beast. However, I think this is the first time I see St. George in this Norman style.

To be fitted later!

Apparently St. George was a Roman officer of Cappadocian Greek ascendance, a Praetorian to Diocletian, and who was sentenced to death for not abjuring his Christian faith. Wikipedia assists me by stating that the Diocletian Persecution of 303 was especifically aimed at Christians within the ranks of the professional soldiers of the Roman Army, and hence when George was caught. He was beheaded at Nicomedia on 23 April 303. So the tradition says.

It seems that the cult to St. George became popular in the following centuries. But what about the dragon? The legend doesn't come up until the 11th century, spreading through Europe during the 12th century.

Yeah, that guy is nothing without me!

 

(By the way, do you see that hole on the dragon's neck? It's designed so the spear can go through it when the model is assembled. Seriously top notch design work!)

Once upon a time... It is said that a dragon built its nest on a natural spring nearby the town of Silene, Lybia, and that the people gave two sheep each day to the beast so they could get water. But at some point there were no sheep enough, so they started to give the dragon human sacrifices, on a raffle basis. The system worked until one day the King's daughter was chosen. Only then people seemed to have a problem with the whole thing (Hello?? No one is making any kind of social criticism here? Ahem. Never mind...). Long story short, George faces the dragon, kills it and the citizens of the town became Christians. Woohooo.

Well, there are way better sources for the story than this blog. Go make some research.

Going back to the model, I had this little frame at home, and I thought it was perfect for this occasion:

Come on, dragon, go home, you're drunk

Some DAS putty to make it more 3D

I had some doubts when it came to painting St. George. There are as many representations as artists, I'd dare to say, so I didn't feel bound by specific colours. I couldn't make his clothes white, as that was the colour of the horse. I thought of green, but it was all too green alongside the dragon.

Besides, I'm getting a Rohirrim vibe here

So this was my final take:

It took me some time to get to this solution

In the meantime, I moved forward with the base:

Barren desert. But the dragon's lair was supposed to be close to a spring

So some vegetation is required

I took my chances with the black edge on the base, I thought it would look better this way, instead of using the whole base as part of the vignette, with land and grass.

This is the final result:

St. George seems to be quite popular all over Europe, being the patron of many countries and regions, revered from East to West, from Russia to England, spanning Ukraine, Hungary, much of the Mediterranean.. and outside that, even Ethiopia! As I googled him to write this post, I discover that Muslims also consider George as a prophetic figure in Islamic sources. I'm happy to display someone who brings together so many different people. We have too few of those.

The Dolorous Stroke

 Something unexpected today!

A few months ago I was lured into this new project by a group of fellow fools which enthusiastically committed to build up a tiny force -and eventually even get to play!

Then the lockdown loomed upon all of us and of course, as it tends to happen with these group projects, it all got stagnated until today. But hey, now that at least I got my bunch of minis painted, I thought I could show some pics.

You can find the rules here. It's a pretty narrative oriented game, in which you take control of a Knight and a small retinue and get to live adventures and encounters. The background is wide open, so it's not specifically oriented towards the Arthurian Legend, despite the title. You can perfectly set it in the ambientation of your choice -though, of course, it works better on the low fantasy side of the things, with a knight errant taking quests and fighting for honour and virtue.

Let's move on the minis. After some debate, we agreed to use Valdemar Miniatures for the project. It was challenging, as they are 1/72 (roughly 20mm) scale, which is most definitely out of my comfort zone. But precisely there was the carrot for me. 1/72 it was then.

As you will immediately see, the minis are amazing. Incredibly detailed. Not 'incredibly detailed for 20mm minis'; they are awesome in absolute terms. More than many 28mm minis. The variety of the ranges is sweet and you have anything you need to create any kind of medieval vignette imaginable. Just have a look at the link above and judge by yourself.

Stretching it to my particular project, the challenge consists of a knight errant, a squire, a retinue of men-at-arms and a monster. Absolute freedom of choice within those categories, but that's what we all agreed to do. Let's get started then:

The Knight Errant

I needed two versions, a mounted knight and a foot one. I got these:

Awful, overexposed pic

Awful, overexposed pic, but on foot

They were not exactly the same mini, but the differences were minor, I could make this work.

Head swap on one, sculpted mail on the other...

This should be enough

They are not 100% exact replicas, but at this scale it was more than enough to make them look as two versions of the same knight. Time to splash some paint!

Basic livery

The fresh shield is for the mounted knight; the worn out one for the dismounted version

The loyal horse also needed the same treatment

This is my first experiment with yellow Contrast paint (everybody was talking about them, I had to give them a try!) and I have to say it worked much better than expected. It solved me the whole shading work and just had to focus on highlights. Point to GW, render unto Caesar.

I made some different quick designs to decide over the heraldry.

In the end I used a mix of A and C

See, the drangon from A

This took some time

Yet some more time!

Then the checkers from C

Could you imagine me doing a project without checkers?

I say no. Not on this blog

Just a close-up of my insanity

Time consuming and pretty exhausting, but the model deserves it, trust me.

Almost there

Let's hope I can glue it this way and it resists!

This is the final result on both:

I'm happy with them, specially considering the scale. So it was time to move along...

The Squire

This mini was meant to be simpler than his master, both in design and livery terms. I got a mini bearing a banner, which I thought fitted the subject.

Quite a simple surcoat and no fuss about this one

The squire still has to earn a heraldry of his own, but his shield could still show something that tied him to his knight, so this is what I did:

Checkers. More checkers. Hahaha (maniac laughter)

This is the basic thing, bearing his lord's banner:

I had to sculpt that thumb. The tiniest thing I've ever sculpted

The final pics:

Alongside his master:

Well, it looks like we have the core of something. Now it is time to muster the troops...

The men-at-arms

The rules of The Dolorous Stroke are designed for a group of 4-5 miniatures, I think. But once I got all these minis... you know. These things happen.

I had to paint them all. You would have done the same

The short pikes (or are they long spears?) are 28mm spears. They fit in surprisingly well.

 As opposite to the knight (and in lesser measure the squire), the men-at-arms were supposed to dress in a more simple way. Not a gaudy livery, but just earthy colours; unexpensive clothes for humble peasants.

Fifty shades of brown

The restricted palette is a conscious decision, with the sole exception of the yellow sash, to tie in with the knight theme. In cases like these is when you realise you can never have enough tones of brown.

Why the lack of variety in weapons?

They all have the long spear for one reason. They are not to fight some other knights for a piece of land. They will have to hunt and face...

The Monster

The archvillain will be this beast:

Growl

A Hydra by Grenadier. Extremely beautiful, seriously.

And huge. I needed a CD as a base

I think I've seen a lot of hydras in dark, cold tones. Greens and blues mostly. I wanted something different, something warm, so I tried brown. Brown and yellow would keep visual coherence within the whole project.

Contrast again. Time saving indeed

However, I highlighted each and every scale, one by one. Four layers. Four f&# layers.

This is the second layer, I think

I used Contrast again for the crest. I'm really making the most of these paints!

Here it is. I used DAS for the base

And this tiny branch I found on the park

The problem is that the base is really huge and the hydra leaves a lot of open space at both sides. I needed something else. A pal from the group suggested me a corpse or someting like that.

Fortunately I had these

Speed paint, I just wanted to have him finished

Enough as a base filler

The pose of this other one was just perfect for this

Ouch. Blurry pic

But you get the idea

Sniff sniff

So just have a few pics of the whole project:

We have been talking about adding some scenery, but I still don't have it. Until I wait for the rest to finish their projects I think I'll get a  piece.

I've enjoyed this thoroughly. The change of scale and theme has been challenging, but refreshing. I really hope I have the chance to get a game with these anytime soon!

I have another medieval project pending (in fact I planned it like more than a year ago, sigh), so I'll see if I'm in the mood for keeping the knighthood-ish painting mojo!