A Song of Ice and Fire in 25mm

[sukhe_bator]

My first trial shots on the new camera were mostly o o focus. However, this one just about passed muster. w.i.p. of the Celtic cavalry which will evolve into Dothraki bloodriders. The distinctive arakhs have been carved out of plasticard. I plan to add greenstuff saddle blankets, bags of loot etc, as well as the painted leather vests and braided hair, possibly adding rope bundles etc. from the frostgrave soldiery...

I do wonder how they sheathed these ferocious weapons. The nearest historical equivalent I can find is the Abyssinian shotel
http://www.magix-photos.com/mpwhd02/10/833/858B4BB052D011E2B2526DCFBF2ADF87.jpg

[Sangennaru]

Oh, that's an impressive modding! I really like the dynamism of the resulting models!

BTW, to increase the depht of focus of your camera simply reduce the diaphagm: i'm sure you've enough light in your lab for a good photo even with a f11.
I generally like the unfocused effect, but keeping all the minis in a single line and all in focus. In this case reducing the aperture (increasing the f value) does the trick.

Cheers
Jack

[sukhe_bator]

Ta, and thanks for the advice, Sangennaru! I am woefully out of practice with a decent camera and have forgotten most of the basics

[Charlie_]

Oh wow, that's very effective! I think they will look great if you sculpt some little vests for them.

[sukhe_bator]

The archers use arms from the Warlord Numidian infantry box. In the books the Dothraki are superb Parthian-esque horse archers par excellence. It is a relatively simple matter to crop the arms with a craft knife and substitute them. I tried to select horse models without straight celtic swords but had to use a couple to make up the half dozen. They can always be captured weapons I guess. The chap in the centre with the open L hand will be a standard bearer. There is a good metal casting of a celtic epona horse standard with horse tails which will do rather nicely...

[sukhe_bator]

Well, in between frenzied packing in preparation for the builders, I finally managed an hour or so respite to do some R&D on my Westeros forces...
In doing so I stumbled across so more ASOIAF banner references in A Dance with Dragons PtI and PtII that will force me to revise some of my previous endeavours.
Charlie, DG and Cp'n Blood in particular please note...

Northern Houses assembling at Barrow Hall for the wedding of Ramsey Bolton to 'Arya' Stark...
"Banners flew from its square towers, flapping in the wid: the flayed man of the Dreadfort, the battle axe of Cerwyn, Tallhart's pines, the merman of Manderly, Old Lord Locke's crossed keys, the Umber Giant and the stony hand of Flint, the Hornwood moose. For the Stouts, chevrony russet and gold, for Slate a grey field within a double tressure white. Four horseheads proclaimed the four Ryswells of the Rills - one grey, one black, one gold, one brown. The jape was that the Ryswells could not even agree upon the colour of their arms. Above them streamed the stag and lion of the boy who sat upon the Iron Throne a thousand leagues away". (ADWD,:1, p.503)

"Lord Bolton led him toward the keep, where the banners were those of the late Lord Dustin. His showed a spiked crown above crossed longaxes, hers [Lady Dustin] quartered those same arms with Rodrik Ryswell's golden horsehead." (ADWD,:1)

"The arms of House Poole were a blue plate on white, framed by a grey tressure." (ADWD,:1, p.574)

"He was an old Tallhart man, three trees sewn on his ragged surcoat."(ADWD,:2, p.80)

Jaime at the siege of Raventree by the Brackens...
"The tent was brown, like the standard flapping from its centre pole, where the red stallion of House Bracken reared upon its gold escutcheon."(ADWD,:2, p.114)

"Lord Jonos [Bracken] shrugged into a brown woolen tunic with the red stallion of bracken embroidered on the front." (ADWD,:2, p.117)

So here finally is the Wiki source for the brown surround for the Bracken sigil. A heater shield would have presumably a brown bordure with the red stallion rampant on a gold/yellow field. Banners would have a brown field with the red stallion rampant within a gold/yellow escutcheon.

Looks like I'm going to have to rework my Brackens and Ryswells 

I am still waiting to find a reference to the field colour of the Tarly arms being green. However given the huntsman motif a green field would be traditional.

Meanwhile, the Fossoways, Stokeworth, Rykker, Rosby and Leygoods are slowly taking shape...





 

[Captain Blood]

Thank you SB - great primary references!

Always slightly sceptical about GRRM's heraldry mind you... The moose is  a bit of a giveaway that the author is American, and not really sticking to real world heraldic principles and motifs! 

[sukhe_bator]

I hear you Cp'n.
These plainly US references are sometimes jarring, and perhaps there is a little bit too much whimsy in Martin's heraldic usage sometimes. However there is medieval precedent with visual puns on names etc. so perhaps we shouldn't judge him too harshly.
Modellers also beware the Wiki does not know a proper heraldic chevron when it sees it. I've just checked out House Stout and the image is of a chevron inverted

[Hammers]

Thank you SB - great primary references!

Always slightly sceptical about GRRM's heraldry mind you... The moose is  a bit of a giveaway that the author is American, and not really sticking to real world heraldic principles and motifs!  

You know, we do have moose in our neck of the woods.



Arms of the Duchy of Gästrikland, for example. Élan gule sur argent pelted with snowballs azur.

[Captain Blood]

I take it all back (although I'm betting that's a modern interpretation, not true medieval heraldry...) 

[Hammers]

I take it all back (although I'm betting that's a modern interpretation, not true medieval heraldry...) 

True that. The arms were granted 1560.

[Ogrob]

Dates back to 1560 apparently, but an early version on wiki looks a lot more like a deer than a moose.

[Hammers]

The CoA of Lapland is pretty cool:



The arms were granted 1601.

[LordOdo]

You know, we do have moose in our neck of the woods.

Arms of the Duchy of Gästrikland, for example. Élan gule sur argent pelted with snowballs azur.

Jämtland as well apparently:

[LordOdo]

Actually it seems it's pretty common in (northern) Europe:
(BTW sorry for spoiling your thread, I can delete this post if you'd like me to)

Some examples, there are more https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Moose_in_heraldry

Latvia:


Lithuania:


Poland:


Russia:


Finland:


They're not all that old/medieval, but it's not a rarity at all it seems.