To Westeros with Captain Blood! 14 October, another hill tribesman (p66)

[Mason]

Nice work by Little Jim, those Northern types look great.
As do your Barnsley Tullys, of course.
 



I have to ask: Where are those buildings from...?

[moonshado]

I was also wondering about the buildings. One in particular, the one that looks a bit like a North American wood indian's lodge made of slate. I've never seen anything quite like it before.  Who makes it and what is it originally meant to be?

[Captain Blood]

The timber framed houses are by Grand Manner - the masters made by Tony (Dampfpanzerwagen). I keep meaning to get some more - lovely resin pieces.

The slate building is the 'oratory' by Fogou Models. Chris, the designer and proprietor, is also here on LAF. Again, very nice resin model 

[Mason]

The timber framed houses are by Grand Manner - the masters made by Tony (Dampfpanzerwagen). I keep meaning to get some more - lovely resin pieces.

Thanks, Richard.
They are very nice.
Good to know.
 

The slate building is the 'oratory' by Fogou Models. Chris, the designer and proprietor, is also here on LAF. Again, very nice resin model 

I have several Fogou models and can second that opinion.
Highly recommended.
 

[Captain Blood]

My gaming adventures last week prompted me to fill in some gaps in my Game of Thrones project collection – so I don’t have to use ringers from other genres in future games… So I've been busy building new characters...

These concoctions are kit-bashed from a wide variety of plastic sets – principally the Perry WOTR Foot Knights and HYW French and English sets. But with parts from the Fireforge Foot Sergeants set (their best and most versatile box, IMHO) and Teutonic knights; the Frostgrave Barbarians and Soldiers sets; the Gripping Beast Saxon Thegns set, and the Perry WOTR Mounted Men at Arms, and one or two other sets. Plus one or two GW components!

First, three more Bolton household knights…



I've now figured out the design / style guide that I've been unconsciously following for each house…

The Boltons use generally scruffy bodies (the various Frostgrave bodies serve well for these - although because these three are knights, I’ve also used a couple of Perry Foot Knight bodies to give a decent amount of armour, and an armoured HYW French body). The Boltons always wear furry capes, because they’re from the North, where it's cold, right?
They rarely have shields – mainly because painting the Flayed Man of Dreadfort is a complete pain in the arse. However, they do always have either surcoats or cloaks, so that I can get plenty of their defining ‘Bolton Pink’ livery onto them… Their helmets / heads are always slightly antiquated or somewhat barbaric looking – because the Boltons are backward and not nice people. In this case, a Gripping Beast Saxon head, and  two Frostgrave Barbarian heads…



Next, two more Stark household knights, and one more Stark man-at-arms.
Like the Boltons, the Starks always have fur capes (The North!) but unlike the Boltons, painting the Stark direwolf sigil is quite easy, so I like to make sure my Starks have got shields or surcoats to paint it on.
 
For knights in all factions, I usually use armoured bodies and arms from the WOTR / HYW / assorted FF Knights sets.
Lesser men-at-arms generally use swaddled Frostgrave bodies (esp. in the North), or HYW or WOTR unarmoured bodies. Or Fireforge infantry bodies wearing padded or no armour. The Starks have a high proportion of axe armed infantry. Because they’re Northern, down to earth and a bit rough and ready.





Next a Lannister knight and man-at-arms.
You can see these design principles in action here. Lesser armoured man at arms; knightly looking knight.

For the Lannisters, knights always have sinister closed or visored helmets. Lannister men-at-arms always wear open faced, clichéd men-at-arms bog-standard helmets. Most Lannisters have big shields and surcoats, because painting lion sigils is fun.
All Lannisters always wear cloaks - because that’s just the kind of snooty sorts they are…





And finally, a new departure – some Tullys. (Because I can’t keep borrowing Jimbbbly’s!)

As it happens, I have a good number of WOTR Yorkists in Murrey-and-blue, who double very nicely as Tullys.
But unfortunately, too many of them are sporting ‘Sunne-in-splendour’ livery badges, which (in my borderline OCD world) renders them unusable as Tullys.
Also, I don’t want all my Tullys looking like they’ve stepped straight from 1475. I want a slightly fanciful mix of styles, as for all the rest of my GoT collection…

So I figured that by making a few specific Tullys and integrating these with my Yorkists (the 20 or so sans Sunne-in-splendour badges) I can build a whole new faction quickly. I think I only need to make about a dozen figures. Here are the first four…



My take on Ser Brynden Tully, ‘the Blackfish’ has a GW Flagellant head, and a HYW infantry body with rolled down leggings. This is because in my take on the story, the Blackfish is a disreputable old renegade.

The spear and buckler man will actually serve as the Tully standard bearer, with a streaming narrow banner. 

The longbowman is, well, just another longbowman – I’m short one Yorkist archer in the right livery for the Tullys, so here he is.

And finally, a Tully infantryman – I’ve decided I’m going to give most of my Tully infantry pavise sized shields, so that I can go to town on the sigil. And just to differentiate them a bit… My Tullys are going to have open faced helmets, because they are open, friendly kind of people…



Now I just need to paint them!

[Mason]

Nice work, sir.
I like the explanation of your 'House' theory, it all makes perfect sense to me.
 



I still find these kitbashes much better than the renditions of the various Houses in the impending game.
This way you can add as much 'fantasy' and 'uniform' as you like, all to your own taste and vision.
Of course, it also helps if you can point a brush the way can.....
 

[Romark]

More nice creations,also enjoyed the reasoning behind the conversions too Richard.
Funny how a game can stimulate,rekindle,interest in a collection don't you think 
Cheers
Keith

[Duke Donald]

Another set of fantastic conversions. I particularly like the Blackfish. He perfectly my image of him.

I agree with Mason that your take on the different houses is far superior to the incoming official minis line.

[Elk101]

I, rather boringly,  agree with the others. There's no real need for an official range when you have created a blueprint for GoT / ASoIaF right here. You make me want to try my own,  though it would be a bad idea when I'm trying to get rid of stuff. The fact remains that this is inspirational stuff.

[Romark]

You make me want to try my own,  though it would be a bad idea when I'm trying to get rid of stuff. The fact remains that this is inspirational stuff.

My thoughts too 

[Ogrob]

Nice to see such a burst of creativity! I especially like the Blackfish and the middle Bolton.

You make me want to try my own,  though it would be a bad idea when I'm trying to get rid of stuff. The fact remains that this is inspirational stuff.

It is almost unbelievable how many sprues one can want for this sort of thing. Fortunately for myself, GoT and Frostgrave are my only ongoing collections.

[Mason]

My thoughts too 

I have toyed with the idea myself but I have enough things to 'finish' that I have started already.
So many ideas, so little time......

(Although, I should finally be slapping some paint on some resin buildings that I picked up on the Bazaar some years ago from Captain Blood very soon....).

[Coenus Scaldingus]

Fantastic update. The lack of uniformity is what really seals the deal for me, it adds so much realism to this collection. My particular historical OCD sense probably means I'll never mix and match bits from such a disparate selection of miniature ranges, but the recurrent themes mean they do somehow work, every time.

[Too Bo Coo]

I have toyed with the idea myself but I have enough things to 'finish' that I have started already.
So many ideas, so little time......

(Although, I should finally be slapping some paint on some resin buildings that I picked up on the Bazaar some years ago from Captain Blood very soon....).

Ditto....

[Sangennaru]

Lovely new additions to your collection, and splendid AAR pics!

Interesting about the grand manner houses. they look like rather old masters, are they? It's too bad that there rare VERY FEW companies willing to cast new whole buildings at the moment.