Sunday, February 3, 2019

Knights of the Mittelmark Pt 4: Even more Bretonnians/Imperials

Every year as winter approaches, I find myself thinking:  "Oh, boy!  Lots of cold dark afternoons and evenings with nothing to do but stay inside and paint!  I'm going to get SO much done!"  It never happens.  Vitaimin D deficiency and general weariness and ennui ensure that I spend almost all my spare winter hours draped lifelessly over various bits of furniture, floppy and useless as a boneless chicken.  Arrgh.
Still, one must keep plugging away until life and sunlight return.  I've been trying hard to concentrate on finishing my unisex Warhammer humans army.  I conceived the army as a blend of Bretonnian and Empire stylings, but its looking more and more Bretonnian as time goes by.  Anyway, here are my two latest knights and the twenty fighting men which the Prinz von Refn requires they bring to battle with them when called.
The leader of this tough regiment is one Jan Slitsya, a priest and tutor to the children of one of the knights.  Though blind, Slitsya insists on leading his master's retainers into battle, and his apparently aimless strokes have an uncanny way of always finding a home in somebody's skull or shoulder...  Divine guidance, perhaps?  His magic war hammer inflicts dreadful wounds, and the Orcs and goblins of the Black River country fear him greatly, believing him to be possessed by daemons or worse.
Again I painted the infantry in colors to match the knights.  My original plan for the army was that every infantry guy would have a shield which would match his knight's coat of arms, so you would be able to pick up any trooper in the army and match him to a knight somewhere.  My ambition on that point has cooled somewhat...I've now accepted that a lot of the retainers won't have shields...and some of the knights probably won't have retainers...but I'm going to continue color-coordinating units with certain knights' coats of arms because I think it looks good and it's fun.  Notice I've sort of given up on painting eyes with these guys.  It's just not possible anymore, not until I break down and get a pair of readers, anyway.  Man, once your eyes start to go, they go fast.  Rejoice, O man, in thy youth.
The two knights...used the same color scheme on them so that their infantry would have a nice, uniform feel.  Once they are mixed in with all their knightly buddies, their identical color scheme won't look so odd.
Repeated the chevron design on the shield fore and aft on the caparison.  I think it looks pretty good.
I originally planned to repeat the shield design on this fellow's caparison as well, but I  the end I thought he looked ok as he was and decided not to press my luck.
The white reins maintain the color scheme anyway...
Off to battle.  When I was finished with these guys I yarded out all my Warhammery humans and was startled at how many I had.  I have a lot.  I actually have all the infantry I need for a strong army.  What's missing are characters, artillery and of course, I need more knights, especially if I am using the Bretonnian army list.  So time to try to get on with some of that!  Perhaps a clutch of spell caster types next?

12 comments:

  1. Yes, it's funny how summer is too busy and winter is too depressing. Shoulder season productivity for the win I suppose.
    The knight looks solid without needing an elaborate caparison. The whole groups looks sharp and unified. Very nice work.

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    1. Urrgh. Winter blues. Got to fend 'em off and get to work on these wizards. But...Paint brush...so...heavy...can't...lift it...help...me...Spock! Thanks for the nice compliments.

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  2. Very nice , and good work on the caparisons. Spring and Autumn (or Fall!) are the best seasons but certainly over this side of the pond we seem to go straight from Winter into Summer with no happy medium nowadays. Still trying to think of uses for a boneless chicken, but without much luck.
    cheers
    Mike

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    1. Well...you could eat him, I guess. I suppose its not a very good metaphor but I thought it was funny. Thanks for the kind words.

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  3. I like the idea of retainers having a colour scheme similar or matching their lord, I did this with my historical feudal guys even though it's not historical, who cares it looks good.
    For someone with bad eyes you've made a good job on the chevron and quartering, readers is not so bad, it's when you get to the big magnifiers you start to worry.

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    1. Thanks, Vagabond! Yeah I think I'm finally going to take the dreaded step and go down to the drug store this weekend to buy some. It might get my hobby mojo rising again to actually be able to see what I'm painting.

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    2. I started using them a couple of years ago and found the big problem is that when wearing them I can see to paint but can't see the bottles of paint or which brush to use. It's a bugger getting older;)

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    3. Sounds terrible. I agree this getting old business is pretty lame.

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  4. Looking good. I get a bit more interested when the subject is 'historical' than fantasy...but that is just me.
    Painting is painting.
    keep up the good efforts.

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  5. Don't beat yourself up too much. Your men look great, and painting eyes just sucks no matter what. I have great eyesight still, but my hands are so damn shakey...

    I dig the color and pattern coordination. I'd love to see them all out on the table.

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