VonBlogBath

Gaming & stuff...

Sunday 27 July 2014

1 Down...just!

And with little in the way of fanfare, that's my first Bretonnian unit done. 10 men at arms, including champion.


I was very pleased with how quick these were to do. Real army-painting stuff:


  1. spray black undercoat
  2. drybrush model with Eshin Gray (using large drybrush)
  3. paint metal areas with Ironbreaker
  4. paint brown areas with Gorthor Brown
  5. paint flesh areas with Cadian Flesh
  6. give detail areas a wash with Agrax Earthshade
  7. give detail areas a one stage highlight with base-coat (Ironbreaker, Gorthor or Cadian)
  8. add transfers to shields
  9. tidy up
  10. base
And you're done. 

Really quick;having the single wash for all detail colours helps speed things up, as does the black base, which means I don't have to be too neat with the wash. 

I have to give more props to Geoff at CitadelSix Custom Design who did the transfers. They tie the unit together brilliantly, and there's something nice about seeing my family crest on all those shields!

When I was assembling these, I was really pleased with the champion's pose, thrusting his halberd over his shield-rest.Very cool. Then I tried to rank them up. D'oh! Still, it just about works. :)

Next knight is about 60% done  - the white undercoat is making it all look messy, so it's taking longer. 

Next update when he's done, unless my resolve goes and I do the next 10 men at arms. I am really pleased with the poses for the musician and standard bearer. 

VBB

Friday 25 July 2014

Update

So the slow progress continues. I have another knight on the go (man, I'd forgotten how much I hate painting over a white undercoat!), and I decided to finish the 4 archers I had on the go, before I started on the men at arms.

So I now have 4 painted archers. Not a legal unit, but a start!apologies for the dim 'n' dingy photos, but for some reason the flash on the camera I'm using won't always fire when I tell it to.


Above is the 4 archers, with defensive stake & brazier. Originally I was going to try and paint the coals all orange and glowing - and I may still go back to add that in - but when I was painting them it did occur to me that it's when there's the white ash on the coals that a barbecue is at its hottest...


I've stuck with blue for the small shields, as these archers all form part of the retinue of my battle standard bearer (photo of him below...). I decided not to do a freehand little boar, as I'm already spending more time on these models than their measly points value can justify!


You may notice that they all have red hoods or jerkins; initially I included red as it was the only bright colour I had to hand, but I quite like the consistency. In my mind, it's the equivalent of a high vis jacket so they don't get shot by accident when on a hunting party. 


As I mentioned previously, I really like the detail on the plastic archers. I've stuck with my initial instincts, and kept the men at arms devoid of any extra accoutrements, but I've laden the archers down with accessories. I like the concept of them as foragers for the army, so I have all the food items on their belts, representing them hunting en route to the battle. This chap has a rabbit, a rat, and a turnip all on his belt. I suspect the rabbit goes to the Knights, while rat + turnip = bowl of brown.

I do have some issues with the command of the archers; I'll leave that moan for now, though.

I also took a couple more photos today, first off the aforementioned standard bearer.



I did him last year - at the time I had a slight issue with the transfer, trying to heat dry it too quickly caused it to fog up, but it looks OK. He's got the De Lisque banner, so he could be an army standard bearer, or if I downgrade De Lisque to a paladin or unit champion, this could easily be a unit standard. 


And speaking of De Lisque, here's a clearer picture of him too. 


So that's my total thus far: 4 men at arms, 4 archers, 3 knights, including a hero/champion and standard bearer. So...no legal units, yet, let alone a legal army!

The plan is to carry on plugging away at the knights, and to speed paint up my men at arms. Next update when I have at least 10 of them done. Or when I get this yellow-barded knight done. So probably the men at arms. ;)

VBB

Monday 21 July 2014

Back in the Saddle...

After an extended hiatus, I've decided to dust off the brushes again.

Down at Andy Lawhammer's last week we played a game of Dreadfleet, which was quite a lot of fun. The mechanics were unnecessarily clumsy and it suffered a lot, for me, through comparison to FFG's excellent Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game (which I have been playing a lot. A lot.).

But it was fun, and it was Warhammery. And, having sold off my Orcs and Goblins (for shelf-space and money to buy more TIE fighters!) my mind turned to my nascent Bretonnian force. A few days later, and I have another knight done.

I present to you Robert De Cendres!





I'm happy with how he's turned out. What I'm enjoying about painting Bretonnians, as opposed to the Greenskins, is that I can paint differently. My men at arms I am army painting, very quickly.  The bowmen get a little more attention. The Knights, as there are fewer of them, and they are larger, get a bit more. I've deliberately not  over-highlighted the barding, as I really want the block of colour effect. I highlighted the crest a little more. 

I'll take some pictures of my Battle Standard Bearer (as I just realised I haven't done that yet) and get him up here soon. 

In terms of the future, I'll be speed painting up some more men at arms over this week, to get them up to a minimum unit size of 10, and working on another couple of Knights. I'm breaking out the dreaded white undercoat as I'm going to try some lighter barding colours for variety.

More soon!