Bretonnian standard bearer - revisited!

More shameless copy and pasting from my Facebook page because it's late and I can't be arsed to rewrite everything. There are two posts cobbled together here so let's get into it:

PART ONE

Anybody remember this chap?

I must have painted him a couple of years ago as part of my Bretonnian foot knight command but I never got around to painting the banner. I hate painting banners as I find it awkward in comparison to painting figures. Anyway, having decided to move onto getting some more fantasy stuff painted I thought I'd better try and finish this off and fill that empty slot in my unit.

Just base coats at the moment but thought I'd show how I've got a nice clean edge to the quarters. I use Scotch Magic Tape to mask the area. It's easy to tear by hand and isn't horribly sticky which means it's great for masking. I made sure to press the tape down hard along the edge to be painted to avoid it bleeding under. Got to make sure the painted areas are good and dry though as they can still lift off when removing the tape. It makes the process quite slow going and only once did I have to retouch a small area that peeled after not following my own advice. Make sure the paint isn't too watery to also help reduce the chance of it bleeding through but don't apply it too thickly either or you'll leave a ridge when the tape comes off.

I'll shape the banner before I highlight it. It's a piece of sheet metal (tomato puree tube) and the paint copes perfectly well with the flexing. Then I'll have to print off some decals for the lions and go through all that rigmarole. This might all get done fairly quickly or it could take a while, I've no idea but I am going to get it finished this time.

PART TWO

I'm slowly progressing with my Bretonnian foot knight standard bearer. I needed a little decoration to pop on the end of the flag pole so I decided to replicate the fleur-de-lis that I used on another Bretonnian standard.

This is the green stuff press mould that I made a few years ago. The original part was cut from a 5th edition Bretonnian standard. I used a mix of green stuff and Milliput white in the mould. A little cooking oil stops the putty sticking.

Once dry pop it out of the mould and clean up the flash. It's not a bad reproduction. If I'd used just Milliput I could have filed the edges a bit sharper but it'll look fine once painted up.

There's a quick snap of a little of the painting I've been doing on the flag too. Unfortunately the highlighting and shading that should give some added shape to the flag is completely washed out in the photo. But it's evidence that I've not dumped it in favour of doing something easier again. Still need to work on the front of the flag before printing off some lion rampant decals.

Malifaux gals and a little more bretonnian progress

I've almost finished the Malifaux hired swords set. Just one more to finish off then the bases need completing. These have turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I'd first expected. With the detail being on the smaller side they demand a little more concentration. It's also a set of models that I found needed a bit more work to make the paint jobs 'pop' as they say. It's not that they're bad models, I just found myself putting in a little more effort to make the most of them. Just a quick pic for now.

 Clearly I still need to get to grips with the new camera. Anyway, I've also pretty much finished that second Bretonnian crossbowman. Again it's just the base that needs tootling up and then he's done.

I've made a start on a third one but haven't got far. Bit of a dull photo then I guess. I need to glaze the flesh (dot the eyes too) and add some washes and additional highlights to the mail coif before moving onto the other parts of the model. There's a chance I might have all five of these crossbowmen done over the coming weeks. Famous last words though.

After the crossbowmen I'll need to sort out the warband leader, a spare mounted knight that I want to convert slightly, After much scouring of Ebay I've got several copies of one knight so I thought I'd use one of those and try replacing the helmet and weapon. To that end I picked up some of that Oyumaru stuff that everyone seems to be using to press mould the parts I need. I've only had a quick play with the stuff so will have to sit down and get the hang of using it properly. I also need to figure out what I'm doing with the horse's base. With my infantry all on round slottas, cavalry will just look a bit shit on rectangular bases. Suitably sized round bases though would end up being too wide so I'd like to use oval bases instead. Unfortunately non one makes chamfered edged oval bases. Plenty of straight cut MDF bases but nothing that will match the slottas. I might have a go at making something using one of the MDF ovals and then mould it using the Oyumara. Could work, but could be a massive pain in the arse. We'll see.

Nearly done...

I'm still enjoying doing these old Bretonnians, in part due to them being relatively simple models and not taking too much time to complete. I think I'll prep the remaining two models I have from this 'unit' (5 models is hardly a unit) and get them done as and when. Looking at some of my other Bretonnian models I might move onto some crossbowmen next although I do have a Foundry monk prepped and there are some Black Tree Designs hundred years war swordsmen that might fit in well. Decisions, decisions....

Bretonnian swordsman WIP

Just squeezed in a little time on this piece again and finished off the padded coat and did the face to put a bit of life into the model. His massive chin gave him a bit of a moon face so he got a 5 o-clock shadow to break up the surface area. Turned him into a right mean looking swine. Not the best photo as my lamp has washed out a lot of the depth from the face but hey ho...