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!

Pleasant peasants

 Time to get back to Bretonnia again! Last thing I painted were some men-at-arms, and I thought some archers would be in place now. I had enough minis to build two 10-man units, so I got to work!

There's not much to say, these are the classic Perry miniatures, which are of course delightful to paint. I used dark red as main colour for the first unit, kind of a no brainer, it simply looked good:

Steady hands and serious faces (mostly)

Kelpie-looking motif for the banner. Just because

 The banner is hand-painted on simple paper – nothing fancy, but it does the job. Maybe that Kelpie is running or maybe it’s dancing. Hard to tell, but I like him. I thought of a more complex design, with heraldic waves or stuff. Maybe if I ever pait their lord I'll make an according heraldry, but for now this will do.

Red lads lining up nicely

Arrowhead formation! Just by the book

 I tried to stay true to the 5th edition army book, so they’re ranked in the classic wedge formation, which I think suits the visual identity of the Bretonnians. Not sure how will those ranks shoot their arrows behind that banner, but I'm sure they'll manage.

Let's see the other unit. My first instinct was painting them blue (as opposite to the other fellas), but didn't really envision it. Green looked like an obvious option but... nope. Then I took some risks and went for a dark brown:

Darker tones, but no less heroic. Probably

They look like reverse Swedish or something

The earthy palette somehow works, though I can only think in archer monks or something. However I kind of like the result, treating brown as a heraldic colour (this is fantasy; if there are Orcs and Undead, brown can be a heraldic colour!)

They look gritty and certainly have seen some stuff

Again, the arrowhead formation. I bet you hadn't seen that in a while

 As I said before, there's no much else to say, this felt like true, proper Oldhammer, which is quite satisfying, I have to say!

I may have to bend those banners a little bit more

Well, two little units done! Now this is becoming to look like an army. Not sure of what will come next, but you know I can think of that while I go back to any other of my ongoing projects (scenery, I hear?...)

More stuff soon! 

Men at Arms

 Bretonnia on the works again!

After the Knights Errant (which I mistakenly called Questing Knights!), I needed some good, old infantry, the reliable men at arms. I have fifteen of them, enough to build up a unit.

Four models (repeated) and the command

 As you can see, there is no much variation. Though conversions could be technically achievable, it certainly was not worth of the work. What I tried instead was different colours for the hoses. You can see above two different tones of brown and one grey. Idle work, as they will eventually be covered by the shields, but at least in my mind there is a subtle difference.

They fit in nicely. I haven't studied how would they look on ToW bases, but not my priority

These minis have aged well, I have to say. Even in their simplicity they still keep that special charm of old, that strange quality that the new plastic minis didn't get to grasp. Assembling the unit was quite easy, and then I paid some attention to the shields.

It was time to choose the livery. I went for a simple green and yellow pattern, quite classic and simple, yet effective, I believe. It works on the garments and is easy to repeat. However, back to the shields themselves, I thought I could do something more. I didn't want to paint full heraldry, as that would be the prerrogative of their lord, but I could add something else without necessarily painting heraldic figures. The obvious solution in Warhammer is always some chequered strip.

If it hasn't any chequered patterns, then it's not Warhammer

Little else to add, this unit is pretty straightforward to paint and assemble. I added some grass and tufts to the bases, replicated the shield pattern on the banner and here you have them:

Compact and battle ready, as they should

Here you can see them a little bit better

I have some archers that I believe should be next, but I'm still undecided. Don't worry though, I still have plenty of other stuff to paint while I make any decision XD
 

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...

Second chance

These days I've been in an unexpected project. Back in 2004 I painted an Orc Warlord on Wyvern as a commission for a friend. Recently both rider and beast suffered from an undesired gravity challenge, and were reduced to this state:

Ouch

My friend asked me if I could glue the pieces again and restore the model to its previous general shape. But of course, once I had this in my hands, I couldn't just reattach the bits back and leave it alone. A 20 years old paintjob deserved some deeper restoration.

So I took this different approach!

I repainted the whole Wyvern. Both belly and wing membranes were painted in Vallejo Khaki and I tried a slightly more vibrant green for the scales and so.

There are not two adjacent scales in the same exact tone of green

I kind of did the same to the Orc Warlord. I dared to paint more pieces of armour in red, instead of plain metal, and added Orc flames, checkers and stuff. The helmet had lost the horns/fangs/whatever it had at both sides, so I replaced them with a couple of horns belonging to the Dwarf plastic boxed set (form 5th Edition, I believe?)

If he sneezes, chances are to get his eyes ripped off the face

Here you have the whole piece back again to life:

I'm suddenly feeling the urge to play WHFB again after so many years!

It's not that usual to get such a second chance of painting a commissioned model. It's interesting, as you get to see how much you have actually evolved along the years, and to see what you do differently now or keep on doing the same.

Let's see what comes next!