# Azezel's Bretonnians



## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

I rarely visit this part of the forum since it's almost exclusively all Space Marines all the time.

Today, I've decided to be part of the solution.

Moving onwardly.



To begin, allow me to state a few things.

In primus, I am by no means a top-rate painter. I never shall be - my eyesight is only getting worse with time and I've never has a surplus of talent, but I work with what I have.

In secundus, I have never fielded an unpainted model and I have no intention to start now. I certainly do not intend to rush painting my Bretonnians, though. I have fully painted High Elves and Sisters of Battle eager to take the field for me.

In tertius, I don't base my minis. I just plain don't like the way it looks - I've had all the conversations you can imagine on the subject, so while I welcome almost all criticism, 'base your minis' is a wasted sentiment.


On to the army - I've been working on the army for about three months now, so there's a modest forelog of stuff I've already painted and will post now. Hereafter I will post as I paint.


I've a small selection of character models - these will be joined by many others I don't doubt - Bretonnians have strong characters and need character support to really fly.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

On to the army - I've been working on the army for about three months now, so there's a modest forelog of stuff I've already painted and will post now. Hereafter I will post as I paint.


I've a small selection of character models - these will be joined by many others I don't doubt - Bretonnians have strong characters and need character support to really fly.

The Damsels of the Lady, Alistriss (in red) and Jenevive (in Blue).










I have to say, it looks like the moulds for these figures have seen better days. There were a large number of manufacturing defects and general wonkiness which I tidied up as much as possible, but I was quite surprised. As a Sisters of Battle player I'm well versed in GW's ninties-era metals and expected higher quality.

I'm rather happy with how the crystal on Jenevive's staff turned out. Could have been better of course but could have been much, much worse. Her hair leaves a lot to be desired, though. I've since discovered a more effective way to paint red hair, but it's too late now. May strip her one day.

Alistriss' bust turned out beautifully - good thing too since she has a lot of it...

These were the first Bretonnian models I painted and my ability to paint horses has come on massively since then. I still struggle hardest with white, though, and therefore, paint few white horses.


Kilmeny Thunderchild










Kilmeny is my Prophetess and as you may guess from her name, uses the Lore of Heavens.

She's a Gamezone figure and by the Lady was she a terrible cast! Nothing remotely fit right, awful mold-lines, giant gaps, you-name-it. Very annoyed - would have sent her back with an angry letter if I'd bought direct, it was that bad. I just about got her servicable, and I'm quite happy with the paint job.

Her dress looks pretty spiffy and I'm actually quite good at palomino horses, if I do say so myself - certainly the colouration I am best at.

I like the blue and gold scheme, which rather suits her and I'm very happy with how the parchment scroll looks. Have to say, I consider this to be one of my best ever paint jobs. Or in other words, you may want to turn back now, 'cos it's all down-hill from here.


Dame Regina, Battle Standard Bearer










I'm thrilled with how the unicorn turned out, it's not often I attempt something a bit ambitious and it works, but I think that did. That unicorn took a great deal of greenstuff gap-filling to make it remotely presentable, mind. Still - I'm happy, and as I say, the palomino colouration is the one horse style that I'm actually pretty good at.


The Dame Regina is rather less good, but c'est la vie. She is of course, Repanse de Lyonesse... Mostly.

I cut Repanse' lance off above her hand and pinned a plastic lance on instead so I could use plastic glue to affix the Standard. The Standard is made from various High Elf bitz and freehanded. Yup, my freehand still sucks. The Grail charge on her shield is from the Sisters of Battle transfer sheet - it's the symbol of the Order of the Ebon Chalice.

The one thing that I am happy with about her paint is the shine on her armour. The photos don't show it properly, but it is noticably brighter than anyone else's armour. The other models have armour done in Boltgun Metal, Chainmail or Mithril Silver (or Brassy Brass). Dame Regina's armour is pure Metalic Medium without any pigment - basically just metal particles suspended in transparent acrylic. It's noticably lighter and brighter than any other armour in my army. Because that's how a Paladin should be!

Her face I am going to claim is not my fault! The model itself has an almost featureless face and there is an upper limit to how much detail I can paint on it. So there!

I drybrushed the same Metalic Medium onto the unicorn's horn, lending a subtle, but noticable shine to the raised fluting. It looks quite good, though the camera didn't pick it up well.


Sir Simeon the Brash










Sir Simeon is intended to be a rather OTT, showboating sort of man. He is riding the horse that comes with Repannse de Lyonesse, and it is the giant feather on that horse's champron that made me set out to create a fancy, dandy knight.

Sir Simeon is a very frankensteinesque made-from-bitz model. The legs are High elf, of course (who else wears Scale armour?) and the head is an Empire Knight head, the torso is a standard Knight of the Realm one.

I'm really rather happy with how most of the model turned out, both painting and model-sise. The only exception is the gold charges. Unsatisfying... Feels bad. Should have gone with silver. Lesson learned there.


Sir Galen the Skymarshal










Another bitz-box creation. Intended to serve as either a Lord of Paladin, depending.

Ah... That colour. I saw a photograph of a horse once, it was the most astounding blue-black coat with bright orange mane and tail - really something to behold. That is the colours I was going for here, and almost nailed it. Almost...

The rider is again a KotR body (I have many spare for reasons you will understand presently) this time with Eldar Shining Spear legs (I used to play all-jetbike Eldar). The back of his Saddle is a sisters of Battle Immolator seatback. Hey, it has a fluer-des-Lys AND a Lady on it - can't get more Bretonnian than that!

Now's a good time to talk about armour - y'see his armour, the very dull gold-brown shade? I like that a lot. It's Brassy Brass washed with Asurman blue, and it looks rather good, so I use it fairly often.

Next up, Knights (shock!).


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

These guys were the first Knights I painted. Not much needs be said about them. The only thing which springs to mind is the caprisson on thhe champion's horse. Wow, did that take a long time to paint? Yes. Yes it did - but it was worth it, it turned out very well. Not perfectly, but well. It should, b rights have been a mess.

I've not been brave enough to try anything that audacious again, but I think I will have a go soon.











These three are the remainder of that unit - my freehand becomes bolder, if not better. Actually - over the course of painting my army so far, my freehand really has improved a great deal, far more than I dared hope.











More Knights. Anyone else getting a wicked James Earl Jones vibe from that musician? Just me?

The first hints of my Freehand improving. Three of the five fleurs-des-lys on the Standard Bearer are not terrible. Result!


I have a whole 'nother lance of knights after these guys, but I don't currently have pictures of them. Suffice it to say they are similar to the above, though there are improvements to the freehand here and there. The next picture will show just how far my freehand has come, though.


My Little Ponies










Yes, they are My Little Pony Knights.

now, quick compare the cutie mark heraldry there to the heraldry on those first knights. I think it shows distinct improvement, and that is very, very satisfying. Also, Ponies are awesome.

The torsos are custom creations of mine which I duplicated with greenstuff and Instant Mould. Of course, female knights are not exactly canon, but I do loves me my Fantasy in this fantasy game, so of course I'm having female knights. And not just these six (and Dame Regina of course).


Next up, Pegasi.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

Pegasus Knights









I'm mostly happy with the Palomino and the Brown, but the Grey looks far too flat. Not sure how to do better in future. Shame, Pegasus Knights are, to my a solid contender for the coolest unit on the whole of Warhammmer (right up there with the High Elf Dragonmage).

I really wish there were more posses available, a whole flight of Pegasi all in one static pose is a little dispiriting.



I realise that they aren't always the best choice to spend my points on, but I like having full command in every unit over three. It feels wrong to have a unit with no-one in charge and no colours to show. Therefore I created a Standard Bearer and Musician for my Pegasus Knights.


Pegasus Knights Banner










*SUBTLETY IS FOR THE WEAK!*

I'm told that Pegasi should be white, so here's a white one. I drybrushed Metal Medium on the high spots to give it a certain shine which really rather appeals to me. Still can't paint white for toffee, though. Ah well, like anybody's going to be looking at the Pegasus when there's a Banner like that to distract the eye. Highlighting on the banner and caprisson came out rather well, which is nice since I'm normally pretty poor at reds.

That's the last of the female knight torsos I cast, and the worst of them, crack in the back, but not really visible when on the tabletop. I shall very likely cast some more in the future.


Musician










I really rather like the blue and white scheme - I think I will use it more often, it looks nice amongst other models. I think the black pegasus turned out better than the grey.



All of my pegasi (appart from Sir Galen's) are magnetised at the wing for easy storage or ranking up. I'd highly recommend it.


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

Disregard my post in the My Little Pony Marines thread. I see the pics, they are glorious. (I'm partial to Twilight Sparkle and Rarity myself.) 

I'm not too familiar with WHFB, so I have no idea how many knights make up a unit, but if you do make more knights I am curious what they're going to be--more knights like your earlier ones, or more Ponies?

Oh, and how will you flock the bases? Will your knights be charging across verdant fields?


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

That brings me up to date as of right now

One of my iron-policies in Fantasy is that no two units should have the same banner. As I said, I really do like to have Full Command on all units and no unit will have the same banner as another. I think it adds a great deal of flavour to an army. Especially to a Bretonnian army, where every man is the hero of his own story and no two units should be the same. No two knights, in fact.

Every knight has his own colours, his own heraldy and his own story - I love that. Speaking of colour, yes, there is a whole range of skin tones in the army, no, I'm not making a political point, I just think it's cool.

The next project is a Trebuchet (GW metal), which was an absolute pig to assemble, but I actually quite like the model itself, though many do not.

After that, I have two Battalion boxes to burn through - I bought them just before the last price-hike and now have more sprues than I've ever had at one time before. Daunting. Nevertheless - I think it'll be the Knights in those boxes that get built and painted first. If I feel like infantry, I have my Elves - for now, Bretonnia is all about the horses, and that's the way I like it.


_For the Lady!_


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

Dicrel Seijin said:


> Disregard my post in the My Little Pony Marines thread. I see the pics, they are glorious. (I'm partial to Twilight Sparkle and Rarity myself.)


Rarity is, and always will be my favourite pony.



Dicrel Seijin said:


> I'm not too familiar with WHFB, so I have no idea how many knights make up a unit, but if you do make more knights I am curious what they're going to be--more knights like your earlier ones, or more Ponies?


Between five and fifteen per unit, typically in multiples of three.

And no, no more Ponies, I think. It could very rapidly change from a cute little indulgence on my part to a silly gimmick army, and nopony wants that.

I did consider doing the Princesses as well, but they'd really have to be characters and I think that would be overstepping the above line.



Dicrel Seijin said:


> Oh, and how will you flock the bases? Will your knights be charging across verdant fields?





Azezel said:


> I don't base my minis. I just plain don't like the way it looks - I've had all the conversations you can imagine on the subject, so while I welcome almost all criticism, 'base your minis' is a wasted sentiment.


Funny story... A few weeks ago a friend of mine suddenly said, out-of-the-blue 'hey, none of your models are based!'.

I've been playing this guy for over a year at that point - he'd seen my Elves grow from 500 points to 2'500, week by week. He'd never noticed that every one has a plain black base.

Well of course he hadn't. The eye just slides right over a plain black base, ignores it, edits it out of reality. When he looks at my army all he sees are painted models (since I've never fielded an unpainted one). When I look at his army all I see are little squares of sand dotted with spiky tufts of acid-green fluff.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

I have some more additions to the army to show off. Some have been waiting a long old time! My Trebuchet has been painted and ready since before christmas and has still never seen the table (I'm still in love with my all-cavalry lists, but I mean to change things up, just to have a little variety).

The Bowmen turned out... Acceptable. In a lot of ways they're much easier to paint then Knights. The Knight's large, mostly flat caprissons are a nightmare to shade and highlight (or I find them so) whilst the bowmen were far easier, being smaller and more wrinkled and wibbly.

The bowmen are in four uniforms and colour schemes, each belonging to a different Knight Champion. Since there are four different bodies, that seemed to make sense.

I tried two different techniques for the braziers, Technique 1 was a dismal failure, Technique 2 looks actually pretty good, at the risk of sounding immodest.

They're on bases as part of my cunning master plan. y'see, I bought two battalions and, through a willingness to stick almost any damned thing on a 20mm base, squeezed fully 30 Bowmen and 50 Men at Arms out of them!




Since we're talking about honourless peasants I also have a Trebuchet.

Not much to say about it. It was fun to paint, but doesn't look that spectacular... Didn't expect it too, of course, but I'm happy enough that it will just sit at the back of the table not taking the attention off better looking models.

It only has four wounds/crew so the kid-with-a-slingshot got upgraded to Man at Arms.




But what I really want to talk about is my last Knights. D'you remember at the start of this log I talked about Sir Palomon? He with the red and blue checked caprisson?



> The only thing which springs to mind is the caprisson on thhe champion's horse. Wow, did that take a long time to paint? Yes. Yes it did - but it was worth it, it turned out very well. Not perfectly, but well. It should, by rights have been a mess.
> 
> I've not been brave enough to try anything that audacious again, but I think I will have a go soon.


well, 39 Knights later I still hadn't summoned the will to do something like that again. I wanted to, though. so when I realised I was painting my final Knights I knew that it was now or never, and the last five of my 48 Knights were bedecked in checks.

They are my last Knights, so I gave them my all. I'll never be a great painter, but this is as good as it gets and I am satisfied.



(Edit: Does anyone know why Photobucket is shrinking my images!? They are half the size they should be!)


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## Yllib Enaz (Jul 15, 2010)

I was thinking that your bowmen might look better arranged with the braziers in the number 2 and 4 slots in the front rank

overall its looking quite good though


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