Raising a Bretonnian Army (Pic Heavy)

[Rabbitz]

I have started this thread in the hope that it will keep me motivated to complete my newest army. Bretonnians.

The idea is to have this army ready for next years tournaments.  I plan to build a force of 2500 points which can cover 2250 and 1000 point games and still have a small amount of extras to vary the army through time.

I plan to log the build of this army from the beginning through to its completion.
I must admit that I have no idea how Bretonnians play, what are must have's and what are must avoid items and will accept all comments and critiques.

So without further ado I present my Bretonnian Army.

(Sorry for the dodgy blurry pictures)





Ok so the more astute of you will be thinking to yourselves “Thats not a Bretonnian army, thats a Khorne Daemon army.” 

Correct it is a Daemon army.

Now I said I would start at the beginning so here goes.


At the moment the army I use is a Skaven horde, features elsewhere in these forums.  I play my Skaven very defensively.  Now dont get me wrong I love my Skaven but I have to admit, although I like the way they are painted, they do not really stand out.  They are a mass sea of brown.   
So what to do?   I wanted my next army to be as far opposite my Skaven as could possibly be.

So out I went and brought a mono Khorne Daemon army.  Small, Offencive with no shooting or magic.  Surely the Army would be perfect for me.
Well no it wasn't.   I played it twice, once at 2250 points and once at 1500 points and found it to be rather boring to play with and against.  Of course I mean no offence to all those Daemon players out there.  It was just not what I was after.  In addition it seemes like I had replaced my mass brown sea with a red sea, all be a smaller one.

Anyway at Gauntlet 2009 I played against a Bretonnian army and had one of the best games ever.  Part due to my opponent being one of the most sporting I have had the pleasure of playing.

So I started to look around at the various Bretonnian figures available. 

Anyway to cut a long story short I came across someone who wanted rid of their Bretonnian army and was after an army to replace it.

Next thing I know I have swapped my Daemon Army for this






It looked ideal and we were both happy.  I offered to finish painting the Daemon army as I knew it would help him get a fully painted army on the table.


Now some of the Bretonnian figures were painted.   Not badly, just not by me.   
Now I dont really like entering Tournaments with unpainted figures or even figures painted by someone else.  It just seems a little rude to me that when a part of your score is comprised of painting and you haven't tried to do it yourself.

So the Painted figures ranged from this



Through this







to this.




So I set about the repainting of them.

First I had to reposition all the lances.  I wanted all my lances to be raised up.  Basically for three reasons.
1)It would help tie the army together
2)It makes it easier to rank them up
3)It will fit in better with my planned display base

Next up was to remove the moulded grass that connects the horses feet to the ground.
The riders needed removing and old glue had to be scrapped away.
Mould line were then removed removed.   

Next up a light undercoat of Black.  I find Black is far more forgiving then white when it comes to undercoating.  I figured that to paint the yellows and whites I would be after I could just build  them up in layes over the black.

So anyway I painted this chap as figure one.   Basically a test piece to see where I was going with the colours.






Now some of the original second hand figures were painted with green cloth.  I dont much like green cloth and historically green was not overly popular until later medieval times... but I digress.



So figure one down I had to decide on a limited pallet.  With all the knights destined to have their own heraldry I didn't want the army to collapse into a riot of colour.
In the end I decided I would go with four colours and two metals.

Black
Red
Blue
Purple

White
Yellow

Anyway shortly after Knight one I decided on doing this chap.






Followed by this one





And then this one.





So I now have four Knights down and am working on the horse for the next few.


At the moment I have no idea what my army will consist of, but know that I will need Knight in a plenty.  I also want to include a couple of blocks of Men at Arms, possibly with spears.

I also plan to scratch build a Trebuchet so that its actually in scale.... but thats another days work.





















So by my reckoning to keep painting them so as to keep duplicates of colours to a minimum I still have left to do

Blue and Black
Blue and Purple (mmm that could look gross)
Red and Yellow
Red and Purple (again that could look gross)
Purple and yellow
Black and White
White and Yellow (mmm maybe not)

Have I missed any?

So this group looks like this

[Rabbitz]

My first standard bearer.  Obviously the flag and pole have not been done yet.  At the moment I am toying with the idea of completely removing the Standard and adding a scratch built one. 



Musician, the idea is to have the tapastrys hanging from the instruments in the colours / heraldry of the Lord .   Not convinced yet though, so any ideas / advice most welcome.  I plan to add alot more detail to it rather then just plain red and blue but like i say at the moment im not sure on it.



This group shot


The Army as it stands so far.


Men at Arms Unit #1   I still need to do the Banner and of course base them.  I intend to do all the bases in one go after everything is painted.





Next on the painting table are a couple of Damsels (converted) and a unit of Longbowmen.

All C&C welcome.

Cheers


*EDIT*

A quick picture of the rear of the Men at Arms because i realised the shields cover most of the models

[Rabbitz]

My first Character.
Ok so the idea behind this Character is its to represent a 'Scroll Caddy' I wanted the Damsel to remain feminine whilst the horse reflected a more masculine image.  I imagined that the damsels would not often ride out to war and the horse should reflect that its part of my Lords retinue.  Hence the colouring on the barding is to the colour scheme of my yet unassembled lord.  (all be it a simplified version of what I have planned)

I still need to paint the script on the numerous parchments.  I have not done this kind of work before so if anyone can point me in the direction of some good advice then it would be most welcome.

I am finding that painting a colourful army is loads of fun.   My Skaven army, that although I am told is nicely painted, contrasts drastically with this one.   I am hopeful that all those little extras that are easily overlooked in my mass of brown Skaven will shine through with the Bretonnians.

Anyway enough jibbering and onto the pictures.










10 Longbowmen Ready for action.

These were pretty quick to do.  Having been painting brown for ages I have amassed what must be the worlds largest collection of different browns (well it feels that way)

So mostly Natural colours of browns and un-dyed linen for these guys.   Tried to keep the same feel as with the men at Arms and also tried to link them with the Lords Heraldry without using too much red and yellow.



next Character on the painting Block was this little chappie.

I present  The Lord of My Humble Bretonnian Force








and now with a splash of paint.







Sorry for the rushed photos.

[Rabbitz]

Group shot of the latest 4 knights



The knights as a whole



And finally the army as it looks so far (still plenty more to do)





and a slightly better picture showing the new size



Do you think I should colour the background behind the griffin?   at the moment its painted a very slight off white.   The other side of the banner is an exact replica of this side.   

For the Motto of this standard I was going to use the same Motto which is around the trim of my Lords Horses barding.  Its my old army motto.

'Everywhere, where right and glory lead'  or in Latin   Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducu*t.

(the * should be an n but the filter on here reads it as a rude word so wont allow it.)

[Rabbitz]

Sorry for the multiple posts.  Too many pictures im afraid   
If the Mods want me to remove them then thats cool I can do that.



Ok so I have my normal units banners done.  They are all like the one above but with different images.  There is A Lion, A Griffin, A Cockatrice for my Knights of the Realm and for my Pegasus knights a Pegasus.

The peasantry will have the Fleur de lye in Black on a much smaller squarer banner to suit their lowly status.

But what about the Grail knights ?  I was thinking of changing the little fleur de lys in the red and yellow sections to small grail images and having a Grail as the main image.   will that look too samey?   

And the BSB?  I have no idea what to do here.   I want to keep with the Red and Yellow theme as its my Lords Colours, but other then that I have no idea what to do to make the flag different from the rest to depict it as the Army flag whilst keeping with the theme. 
This really has me stumped at the moment so would appreciate any input.

Cheers all.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Wow, they are stunning mate.

So bright, so colourful and so damned neat!

You are unbelievable! 

[Thantsants]

Beautiful stuff! I'll second Rob's comments on the colours - very vibrant! I can imagine its a delicate balance of having individual heraldry for the nobility, whilst trying for a coherent colour scheme for the army as a whole - great job!

Now you just need massed ranks of miserable peasant levies shuffling forward with makeshift weapons, in their miserable brown rags... 

[Ray Rivers]

Those Knights are absolutely fantastic!   

Thanks Rabbitz, you just made my day!   

I've always wanted to try something similar but the heraldry is just too daunting for me to even try.  Yours are spectacular indeed. 

Well Done!   

[phreedh]

Oh the neatness! Very, very nice!

[Lowtardog]

Absolutely beautiful painting and a cracking development thread, I must say why didnt you just pick up the figures on e-bay etc and keep your Khonre army? as that was a beauty too

I love the Heraldry work on the kniggits very well done and thought out use oc contrasting colours.

Now on the figures, I havent played WFB for year but these are rather nice all except the mounted bugler with the closed helm, how does he blow his horn!!!!

[Mad Doc Morris]

Gorgeous stuff! 
Being a Bretonnian player myself, I can imagine the pain painting such a colourful army. But it's absolutely worth the effort! Vibrant colours and clean painting, that's the way to go. Forget all those streamlined "crusading" armies in uniforms; knights have to be flamboyant. That being said, I don't like the 6th edition models too much, still stick to their 4th and 5th ed incarnations. But you've done these here so well, I forgot about it - for a second.
Top notch, keep 'em coming!

[Rabbitz]

Thanks all,

I am seriously considering redoing the mono Khorne army at some point.

Now on the figures, I havent played WFB for year but these are rather nice all except the mounted bugler with the closed helm, how does he blow his horn!!!!

Yeah I know but the non helmeted heads all look like members of a shampoo commercial with their flowing locks, but I totally agree that the helmeted head just doesn't go.

[Operator5]

Very impressive. Never played WHFB and never plan to, but you picked one of the two armies that would tempt me.

[DFlynSqrl]

Wow.  I really like what you've done with the Brettonians so far.  That will be a great looking army on the tabletop.  By the way, when you're looking for different colors combo's, you can always look at sports teams' uniforms for ideas.

[Dewbakuk]

Fantastic work. You've managed to paint all that individual heraldry but it still manages to look cohesive, I'm impressed. The purple and red scheme I don't think works however. If you want to use those colours together to fit the palet then I'd suggest making one of them a darker shade. The black and white one looks like a referee