Age of Arthur, Cornwell's Nimune and some more more knights

[Too Bo Coo]

“He was mounted on Llamrei, his mare, a great black beast with shaggy fetlocks and flat iron shoes tied to her hooves with leather straps. Arthur had a long, heavy spear named Rhongomyniad while his shield, Wynebgwrthucher, was made of willow boards covered with a skin of beaten silver that was polished until it dazzled. At his hip hung the knife called Carnwenhau and the famous sword Excalibur in its black scabbard that was cross-hatched with golden thread. I could not see his face at first for his head was enclosed in a helmet with broad cheek pieces that shadowed his features. The helmet, with its gash for eyes and dark hole for a mouth, was made of polished iron decorated with swirling patterns of silver and had a high plume of white goose feathers. There was something deathly about that pale helmet; it had a fearsome, skull-like appearance which suggested its wearer was one of the walking dead. His cloak, like his plume, was white. The cloak, which he was fastidious about keeping clean, hung from his shoulders to keep the sun off his long coat of scale armour. I had never seen scale armour before, though Hywel had told me of it, and seeing Arthur’s I was overwhelmed with a desire to possess such a coat myself. The armour was Roman and made from hundreds of iron plates, each no bigger than a thumbprint, sewn in overlapping rows on to a knee-length coat of leather. The plates were square at the top, where two holes were left for the sewing thread, and pointed at their base, and the scales overlapped in such a manner that a spear head would always encounter at least two layers of iron before striking the stout leather beneath. The stiff armour chinked when Arthur moved, and it was not just iron sounding for his smiths had added a row of golden plates around the neck and scattered silver scales among the polished iron so that the whole coat seemed to shimmer. It took hours of polishing each day to prevent the iron rusting, and after every battle a few plates would be missing and would need to be reforged. Few smiths could make such a coat, and very few men could afford to buy one, but Arthur had taken his from a Frankish chieftain he had killed in Armorica. Besides the helmet, cloak and scale coat, he wore leather boots, leather gloves and a leather belt from which Excalibur hung in its cross-hatched scabbard that was supposed to protect its wearer against all harm. To me, dazzled by his coming, he appeared as a white, shining God come to earth. I could not take my eyes from him.”

- The Winter King

Two versions of Arthur and a test knight from Arthur’s retinue.

[Vanth]

... and the famous sword Excalibur in its black scabbard that was cross-hatched with golden thread. ...

Actually that should have been Caledfwlch...

[Too Bo Coo]

Actually that should have been Caledfwlch...

Yeah not sure why Cornwall went with Excalibur but here we are..

[wmyers]

Not sure why he went with Gaelic when Latin would probably be far more appropriate.

[Vanth]

That is not gaelic, it's welsh and those are the names of the tools belonging to Arthur in the original tales

[Too Bo Coo]

None of this is reality the point of my thread. It’s interesting but perhaps can be debated elsewhere?

[Melnibonean]

None of this is reality the point of my thread. It’s interesting but perhaps can be debated elsewhere?

Well you didn't stipulate anything just dumped a bunch of text. So I guess people can make of it what they want.

[Silent Invader]

I didn’t see the opening post as a text dump, I read it as flavour that set the scene for the very nice minis that followed. 

[Blackwolf]

Nice work Too Bo Coo

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely figures 

[Belisarius]

I enjoyed your post and admired the figures of Arthur . Derfel preferred to fight on foot as he wasn’t a confident horseman . I’ve long thought that Cornwall’s Trilogy would make a great campaign. Download the maps onto graph paper , perhaps, and use the  Dux  Belloram rules . I’d love to see more of your figures for this period .

[Mr.J]

Lovely minis. Gripping Beast have a few packs that seem to take direct inspiration from these excellent novels.

[Ranthony]

Lovely painting on some very nice figures.

Those books are brilliant I reckon, the TV adaptation was exactly as I had imagined whilst reading.
The sign of a great descriptive storyteller.

[Too Bo Coo]

Thanks everyone! The text is Derfel’s description of Arthur in the Winter King. I assumed since I mentioned Cornwell most people would have realized the prose was not mine but what I used to guide my paint choice.

I have the GB minis, but many of them are a little ‘tired’, the Footsore minis have much more detail and interesting poses. I converted a bunch to make wolftails.

[Too Bo Coo]

My version of Derfel