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Well, well, well, look what Blockade finally finished.
One full units of Knights of the Realm. I even had time to paint up their movement tray and base it as well.
Introducing Ser Alejan's Lances
Ser Alejan's Lances are some of Lord Leinad's most loyal followers, having traced their roots to the core group of men who followed him to the Border Princes. Surprisingly, Ser Alejan's men are all actually knights, having been knighted by the Baron or another local lord. Ser Alejan wears more purple than his men to indicate his high standing with the lord. Know for his rash charges in his youth, Ser Alejan has listened to the baron of late and been careful to shepherd the men under his command, saving their blood curdling charge for the most worthy of opponents.
The rest are spoilered for your benefit.
Spoiler:
Ser Alejan himself.
The rest of his command - the Knight with the Hunting Falcon has a horn hidden on the bird side - totally a musician. He is also the most junior member of the unit, hence why his helm is entirely silver and not the gold of his peers.
The remaining three knights.
So for those of you keeping track, here's the unit count so far.
Finished Ser Alejan's Knights of the Realm
Captain Clipen's Bombard
Scioparto's Longfeather Bowmen
In Progress Braganzino's Ballistas - Status - roughly 40% done (still on base layers, but must be done by end of March)
Not Started The Duke/Baron on Royal Pegasus
3 Pegasus Knights
Knights of the Realm Unit #2
Foot Knights
Men at Arms Unit #1
Men at Arms #2 / Yeomen Guard
Two Prophetesses
Trebuchet
10 Mounted Squires
Keep on building! I'll get a new family shot once I finish the crossbowmen/ballistas.
April's goal: Castle Walls, Yeomen and a Prophetess
Ser Alejan's Knights of the Realm
Captain Clipen's Bombard
Scioparto's Longfeather Bowmen
Borganzino's Ballistas
All done! - 56 models (including the cannon itself)
Still a lot to go
The Duke/Baron on Royal Pegasus
3 Pegasus Knights
Knights of the Realm Unit #2
Foot Knights
Men at Arms Unit #1
Men at Arms #2 / Yeomen Guard
Two Prophetesses
Trebuchet
10 Mounted Squires
But anyways, photos!
A mixture of the old Dogs of War Braganza's Besiegers combined with some 3D printed Bretonnian Crossbowmen from Highland Minis. Love the combination, definitely looks like they put their more heavily armored boys in the front row and their reloaders/weaker reserves in the back.
But wait, a story!
Borganzino's Ballistas - founded and led by the enigmatic Bartholomew Borganzino, the Ballistas are a rarity in the border princes - heavily armored crossbow infantry. Specializing in siege warfare, his men are not just crossbowmen, but siege engineers. Equally adept at digging trenches as they are at assembling mantlets, Borganzino invests in his men and their equipment. Dead men pull no paychecks, and he charges a premium for his mens' unique skillset.
Rest of the Mercenary photos spoilered for your benefit.
Spoiler:
More Knight photos since that's the second unit completed this month.
Some more army shots so far. Slightly different but spoilered since they all look similar.
Spoiler:
Next up is probably something to cleanse the palette a bit. Honestly might jump to a Black Templar vehicle or something else. Still need to work on the Brets and finish them up! Can't do another giant block of infantry for a bit, and I've got two blocks of Bret Men At arms staring at me from the shelf.
Great work and a terrific army shot! The mantlets with the sigil striping on them was a great unifying touch. The color scheme rocks, individually (you've painted them up well) and especially en masse. Rock on!
"He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to a single touch; to win- or lose- it all."
Montrose Toast
2025/04/07 02:31:00
Subject: What do Black Templars and Bretonnians have in common?
@meercat - thanks! The stripes were all freehand, and it's about the most freehand I do. but after a few practice ones, I definitely think it went better. The way I'm using paint colors is that the more purple a unit has, it's either more mercenary or the person is more powerful. So the units like the bowmen that are blue and cream are, well, poor and definitely NOT powerful. But there's tiny amounts of purple in accent colors everywhere.
On to today's question - What do Black Templars and Bretonnians have in common? Well.. in this case... they're my monthly goals!
Character Goals (I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere)
Goal Keeping (with the Dakka Painter League abandoned project of the month + large project IC's Podcast goal)
This repulsor & dred have been sitting in the Black Templar project box for at least six months, likely longer, and it would be nice to clear them out. I've found that the basecoat does a lot of heavy lifting with my style of painting BTs. The tedious part is the highlighting. Tons and tons of edge highlight. With the dred I really want to do a bit more weathering using powders and some silver painting for scratches.
Here's the progress so far! Black all has a highlight layer, I'll mix some more of the incubi darkness with some brighter blue and do tighter highlighting on the extreme raised surfaces.
April is my absolutely busy month, so if I can get to the bretonnian characters, cool. If not I won't sweat it. Between school, work, graduate program things plus family obligations and I've got a perfect storm for something not getting done. if it's not perfect I won't be sweating it. Anything to clear the mountain of plastic waiting on the shelves of potential.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/04/07 02:35:26
Zambro wrote: Your Bret army pictures are coming along so nicely. They look amazing on the table.
I really enjoyed the little bit of backstory for the Borganzino's Ballistas.
Thanks! I'm really enjoying coming up with a backstory for each unit. I think when I finish the army I'll print up a little army roster w/ backstory for each one and make a tiny book.
Making good progress so far on the April goal. Should be able to finish the Dred by the end of the weekend.
Man, it really is nice to paint NOT a ton of infantry.
Redemptor dred finished. Or at least tabletop ready. I'll want to weather him up a bit after this but I'm happy so far. He meshes well with the rest of the army. But that was not the fully April goal. I wanted to clear out the Gladiator Valiant too.
Started with the black turret as I already had the colors out. Made some good progress on it and I'm calling it acceptably done. Will probably add a decal or two.
Turret on the hull. I REALLY don't want to highlight everything white, so I'm debating how much 'red' to make it. Should it be white primary, then red secondary, or the other way around?
Hopefully the tank will go fast (Way more metallic painted pieces than the dred, I started that but it's a lot of finicky work around the levitation pieces).
Task complete for the April Dakka Painting Challenge (and ICs challenge, for that matter, I'm double dipping). Lots of photos today, so prepare to SCROLL.
First up, the Redemptor Dreadnaught. Now with Decals and Tufts!
Second, the as yet not seen in progress Gladiator Valiant. I really like this vehicle. After painting this and a Repulsor, I much prefer this kit. I also think (maybe?) the developers/mini designers learned their lesson. Less weapons is more. This vehicle has just 4 weapons including a turret multimelta. I do not need a whole data sheet for weapons, just TWO different profiles to memorize. Much more reasonable.
Okay, now there are some cute little partner shots here that I will spoiler.
Spoiler:
But wait, there's more! I ALSO painted up this little Hasslefree female warrior. Why? I had her out, wanted to not paint just black, red, and white for a while and painted her up. A free extra painted mini for the year!
So, since I count tanks as 'ten minis' and dreds as '5 minis' that's 16 more minis in the completed pile for the year.
So here's the scorecard for ALL minis.
Painted this year: 72 mini 'points' (1 tank, 1 dred, 57 infantry/artillery)
Purchased: 19 minis so far (mostly IG sized)
Keep on painting! For the remainder of the month I'll be picking away at some Bretonnian characters who aren't officially part of a challenge but would also just CLEAR things out. I've got a lot of schoolwork and the like building up so that will likely impact me finishing anything else major.
I really like your use and implementation of the Black Templars colour scheme. It can be quite easy to get sucked into making everything black. You've done a good job of making both minis look interesting but still clearly what they are supposed to be.
Finished Forge World Elysian Army 
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Finished Ork Waaagh | 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
