FKB XCVII: Hero of the Background - Hunter Militia, command Group

Another polish Blogger, koyoth, proposed a new topic for this month, a "Hero of the Background". Seeing as my table is chock full od various Bretonnians at the moment, I had something just perfect for that - the peasants! The whole army concept revolves around the shiny knights on the front and dirty unfortunates behind them, useful, but never in the spotlight.

I actually painted a couple of them many years ago, but they were really flat and boring. To bring them up to speed (and make them match ones that I'll paint later) I added extra shading, some highlights, a little dirt and some simple OSL. The color choices and overall design stayed as it was back then - as well as those damned mould lines... I should have made a before and after comparison, but when I thought of that, it was already too late for the "before" photos...

Here is the command group, which for some strange reasons, include 4 dudes on the sprue. 3 of them actually have specific functions in the unit, while the one on the right just kinda... hopes to blend in with the rest. They use the same color scheme as Earl Sagremor and they are meant to be serving directly under him.

Azulejos wooden mannequin

While I have new stuff painted, I haven't got the time to make photos, so here we go with some older filler - a bit off-topic, but better than nothing, right?

Some time ago I decided to keep the knick-knacks in the living room in a white and blue color scheme. I got rid of some old ones, got new ones and repainted others. This is one of them, a cheap, small (~20cm high) wooden mannequin that I painted to resemble artwork found on azulejo tilework, a motive I absolutely adore. I even coated it with gloss varnish to make the glazed ceramic effect more convincing. The whole project turned into quite a freehand, so I decided to share it here.

If I was a daring person, I would field it as a Lord of Change and start a very weird Tzeentch army.

Earl Guiscard Sagremor

Finally, a Bretonnian that isn't just another namless rank-and-file dude! I actually managed to paint the main hero and leader of this whole force, good and brave Earl Sagremor. This mini, bought about 15 years ago, went through numerous iteration of conversions and now managed to even get some paint on him. He was an absolute pleasure to paint, as he hails from the era of GW that I like the most, with it's metal minis with lots of pouches and other details, all in that proportion of fantasy to realism that I like the most (or its just nostalgia speaking).

He's also the first one to get that black-blue color scheme of his family painted on. I was worried that the blue and the black would meld into one dark mess, but I believe I avoided somehow. I still have 2 of his sons to paint in the same style, as well as a surprisingly large amount o archers I managed to get in those Bretonnia-unfriendly times!

His WIP post can be seen HERE.

Lands of the Sagremor family were beset by enemies for many decades - as long as the vampires and greenskins avoided raiding the great halls of the nobility, the high-born didn’t care. Then, a third son of the current earl, Guiscard, embarked on his quest for the Grail. After years of traveling the land, he understood the sickness wasting his homeland and returned to set things right. With the help of some of the connections made during his journeys, he took over the title from his father after a short, but violent war. With newfound powers, he drove out the bloodsuckers, painted the greenskins’ dwellings with their own blood and actually strived to protect his peasants. Those were hard years for everyone, but they paid off with prosperity that was unheard of for years, all thanks to the new Earl Sagremor. He became known as the one ready for the harshest methods to reach the noblest of goals, yet still compassionate and understanding. Life of the quest influenced him so much, that even now, years and years after, he’s still more comfortable out in the country than in his castle and still wields his giant sword as a weapon of choice.

Knight Errant #03 & #04

My new resolution is to focus on the unit of Errant Knights first, rather than jumping from unit to unit randomly. So, today I'm showing you one with a fresh coat of paint (right) and one from 2008 (left) with some extra shades added to make him look more... contemporary and with proper shadings. Not much of a difference between them now, I guess. The new one was painted much faster though.

The new guy is yet another pleasant black-red-white kind of dude. Nothing too remarkable about him. The older one is a variation on a templar heraldry, but with some extra details and colors to make it more bretonnian.