A Start on the Bretonnian Knights

 It feels as if it's been a very long while since I posted anything on this blog. I've been pretty busy with my day job and my writing, but I've been able to get some painting done too. Unfortunately, as usual, my camera is refusing to take any half-reasonable pictures.

Anyhow, I have finally started on my oldhammer Bretonnian knights. These are really old models, dating back to about 1991, and are metal bodies on plastic horses. They're very nicely-sculpted miniatures and, like all the Bretonnians from those days, look a lot like generic medieval people.

But before that, here's what my knights used to look like, when I painted them in my early teens. They were some of the first miniatures I ever made.

They're actually not all that bad, considering. The chap on the right in the bottom picture was originally named Varian the Black, but became known as Pancake Eyes because of my somewhat inept detailing. He looks like a cartoon of a startled anime character.

Anyhow, here are the first two knights. They're painted in livery used in the original WD army. The camera has messed it up, but they're much more shaded than appears below.

Painting the little hooked bits at the end of the green guy's crosses was really hard. They're nice models, though, and I really like the lack of details on the barding. Definitely a blank canvas.

Bertrand le Brigand, the Bowmen of Bergerac and a very old cannon

 More Bretonnians this week! As with a lot of these miniatures, I've been chipping away at the slowly over the last month or so, until I've got enough models to put together. 

First up, we've got the Bowmen of Bergerac. They were an elite unit you could take in the first Bretonnian codex: you got Bertrand and his friends Hugo le Petit and Gui le Gros (in no way similar to Robin Hood, Little John and Friar Tuck respectively), and the option to upgrade a unit of regular archers into marksmen.

First up, the characters, from left to right. Hugo le Petit is a conversion based on an Age of Sigmar blood-something-or-other, with a head from Mordheim and quite a lot of green stuff. Bertrand le Brigand, who looks a lot like Errol Flynn, is an old metal model from the 90s. He's a really nice sculpt and has a jolly enthusiasm that you wouldn't see now. Gui le Gros is made from plastic bits from the modern men at arms, with some conversion work. It's hard to see, but he's holding a tankard made from green stuff.

The bowmen are an interesting bunch. They're all metal miniatures, comprised of archers, models with names on their tabs rather than descriptions, and "brigands". I gather that the brigands are a bit obscure. We've got (L to R): archer, brigand, brigand, "Hobbs", archer and archer.

Here's the front rank, consisting of: brigand, 1990s musician, Hugo, Bertrand, Gui and "gamekeeper".

And her's the whole lot, about to go and rob the Sherrif of Nottingham:

And now for another unit lost to time - a cannon! Well, I gather that some Bretonnian armies can now take a primitive cannon in The Old World. Cannons were available in the original army list, and I've painted these guys in the style of the Ordonnance du Roi in White Dwarf 139. The crew consists of "gunner", "master gunner" (sensibly equipped with armour and shield) and "Otto". Search me.

I think I'm approaching the point where I'm going to have to start on the knights, which is rather daunting. Before then, I've got a couple of damsels to check out. It's a hard life.

More Loonies from the Future

 Just a few sinister loonies here, made largely with North Star models. We've got Frostgrave Cultist bodies and Stargrave Scavenger arms, except for the chap with the chainsaw. He's got a Scavenger body and Cultist arms, and the head of a Frostgrave demon. The guy with the green helmet, who looks like a feral John Wayne, has a Bolt Action US marine head. 

The paint scheme is quite like the Vox Populi faction in the old computer game Bioshock Infinite, who are some kind of crazed anarchist types from 1910 or so. These guys are suitably ragged and filthy, and the bits of red cloth suggest both violence and the French Revolution.

The last model is another repaint. She's a resin model with a Dark Eldar gun and a spear that I think is from a Warhammer skeleton. She's well-sculpted but really odd: she's got a vest, chaps, bare feet and several belts, and I've got no idea where I got her from. Anyhow, I added some more detail to her face and hair, and painted some brighter colours on her weird outfit.

More next time. It's been a busy week, and I've not had that much painting time. But I've got plans...