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It's becoming a running theme, but here we are at the end of another month and I have scraped in some more progress. I managed to get the Knights of the Realm and a Damsel finished off as I had planned. So without much preamble here are some very colourful pictures.......



I have done as planned and these guys have heraldic colours like the Knight Errant and in addition they have symbols to designate them as having won their spurs. I even managed to match helmets to transfers and not have any double ups. I was pretty pleased when I realized I can do that.



The command group, the Banner will be the colour and heraldry of my Lord (especially as he has a two handed axe to boot). I have used the dirty brown to unify the army as much as possible as it is a very different and obvious colour compared to the vibrancy of the heraldry.



Here is the gem of the update though. The Damsel. My wife kept pushing me to do a better job as I was ready to call it quits much earlier in the piece. She kind of reminds me of my wife actually, really long blond hair, nice hips and a low cut dress......ahem.....



The back view. I am really happy with how her hat has turned out, I haven't actually mixed paint's together much since I started this project and it surprised me how easy it was to get a good effect by just adding white paint to each layer.



Here is the unit with the Damsel tucked safely inside. Unfortunately she really does blend in and that means I will forget she is even there during games :-(



Another group shot, shows the damsel off a little better. I still have the movement tray to do for these guys, but it is underway and should only take an hour or so to finish.

So that is the results for June, I achieved what I set out to do which is encouraging, but just like every month I wish I had managed more. But I am starting to realize that the Bretonnians are the complete opposite of the Tyranids I was complaining about the lack of individuality, these guys have to almost be painted one at a time which really eats into my model count. But I think they are looking pretty good for the effort.

Next up will be the first of three units of Questing Knights and hopefully one of the three remaining characters, I have the Army Standard Bearer, a general beat stick Paladin and of course the Lord of the army. Will see which one takes my fancy once the Questing Knights are up and running. Will need to do some converting work to try and mix up the mono-pose metals, but I have that many spare bits and pieces from generous benefactors that it shouldn't be too much of a hurry, someone has already done a stack of quality head swaps that look great. (And I don't mean me, the generous fellow that sold 18 questing knights to me had already started breaking the poses up and I am going to benefit from his work).

Thanks for reading, comments welcomed.

Awesome stuff! I always liked the strong individually of bretonian armies and you're doing the tradition proud.

That lot are looking fantastic. Nice and vibrant. Great work.

Awesome work on the Knights and the damsel. Really striking.

EDC

Thanks guys. The questing knights will lack a fair bit of the vibrancy as I am planning on them having given up their colours in the quest for the Grail. But will have retained their own heraldry. So it will be the full cycle of errant with colour but know symbol, realm with colour and symbol and questing with no colour but symbols.

Just have to figure out how to pull it off and not be too same same.

Those Bretons are looking amazing, especially as a unit. The Damsel looks great as well. I really like the tones of her dress.

Unfortunately the Damsel is a pretty plain model compared to the Knights. Which has got to be unusual for characters not to stand out among the rank and file.

I have dragged out what will be my first unit of Questing Knights and finished off the conversion work to try and make them a little less the same. Have decided (well my wife did) that I should do the army general to go along with them.

I am probably as surprised as the rest of you, but its the middle of the month and I have some painting progress to show off. Must have been something added to the water. But I will never complain about getting bitten by the productivity bug and without further waffle, here is my first unit of Questing Knights.


As you can see, I have kept the cloth of the Knights and horses fairly drab, but then the shields on both the Knights and Horses have the spot colours of their heraldry. I know I spoke about no colour. But I don't think I could have made it work. But I am pretty happy with the results and they are very different from the Knights of the Realm and Errant. There are three conversions from the base Knights in this group. I think they fit in quite well.

But what is a unit of Questing Knights without someone to lead them? No worries, here is the man of the hour Questing Lord Jacques the Vain. Self styled Grail finder and pompous twit, the poor fool doesn't realize his own pride is keeping him from the grail. But gee he can swing a mean axe.....


I intentionally used black and white as they are colours that don't appear anywhere else in the army, hopefully making him stand out a little from the rest of the Knights. You may have noticed his axe heraldry has now appeared on the Knights of the Realm and Questing Knight banners. Only fitting for one so self absorbed.


When I managed to get this model I just knew he had to be the leader of it and the fact you get a black axe symbol was far too fitting to pass up. Pretty sure I have ripped off the same colour scheme from the army book though. I did load his horse up with a few odds and sods to make him look as overloaded as the rest of his Questing Knights.


Here they are all together. Very happy with the unit as a whole. Having so much metal in them though makes for a pretty damn heavy unit and that banner is just silly in size and weight.


With so much tiny detail on these I am finding myself longing for the simplicity of the Tyranids. Seems I am never going to be happy. Ah first world problems eh......


I will do the next two Questing Knight units like this, but the base colour of the robes will be slightly different to make them a little easier to tell apart.


I am not sure any of my previous armies had units that were as interesting as these guys from all angles.

So there you have it. My first of three Questing Knight units (with the Army General) done and its only the middle of the month. Should be able to get a good head start on the next unit and hope maybe to be through the Bretonnians by the end of August.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Nice work. I really can't tell which ones are the conversions.

Tbh, I am not a huge fan of the grey. But they look good as a unit, and I understand your reasoning for it. I think once the entire army is together it will look better.

Keep up the good work mate

They look fantastic sir, just the right balance on the colour if you ask me. Great work.

Great work on these guys. The heraldry looks really effective and going for a unified colour on the caparisons unifies them as a unit at the same time.

I have a big soft spot for Brets, they were the first fully painted army I ever managed to do in about 1998. I love seeing all the individual heraldry on the Knights, the black on the Questing Knight leader looks suitably menacing.and fair play on painting all of their various details. The scrolls, candles etc etc on their saddle bags can get tiresome very quickly. I love the Knights of the Realm too, the various colour combinations are very striking. Good luck with finishing the army this month.

Thanks. Not sure how I will go finishing them this month. Wife is doing her archaeological thing in Israel this time so I have been left home alone.

Interesting switch as normally I am the one travelling with works thought I would get heaps of progress done with her out of the way. But have been in a funk and am struggling to open the paint pots.

But I have started the 2nd unit so that is something.

My good mate who is starting a space wolf army is finally at a happy point to have a small game this weekend. Any thoughts on who I should take of my armies to the slaughter?

Very, very little progress on the painting front unfortunately. My funk has now been compounded with being violently ill. Not a good look when you are supposed to pick your wife up from the airport. Can't remember the last time I got hit so hard.

Did manage a small 750 point game against my mates budding space wolves. My Orks were victorious in the end. He has a lot to learn and played perhaps to aggressively and I got really lucky with his vindicator not doing much. Oh and my saves from my Big Meks force field was insane.

Nice work on the Questing Knights, all the heraldry looks awesome.

EDC

Thanks. I am into week 2 of being sick off work which has unfortunately killed all progress. Have only managed to drag my sorry ass out of bed to go to the doctor so far.

But things are looking slightly up. Have managed food for the first time in weeks and feel almost human.

Only almost human, you'll have to do better than that, the Inquisition have a zero tolerance policy on mutants.

Jokes aside hope you feel better soon.

EDC

Hi all, I have returned from the sweet embrace of Papa Nurgle and even managed to get some painting done.


Here is the second of three units of Questing Knights. The frustrating thing of getting sick was that the horses were largely done in the first week of the month. But I wasn't up to finishing the Knights until the last couple of days.


This unit has a few more conversions than the previous one. But I feel they fit in quite well. Except maybe the guy on the left with the overly large axe. But I figure as these guys are questing all over the place the odd different weapon isn't out of place.


There are a few headswaps as well to try and change the unit up. I do apologize for the terrible photos. I really shouldn't take photos at night.


And here is the Battle Standard Bearer. I have a little story going in my head about this guy that he is actually the most noble and honorable in the whole army and therefore the most likely to find the grail. Hence he guards the army standard. I also intentionally used purple on his robes which only appears in one other place in the army. The Damsel. Maybe some funny business between the two? Or could she be guiding him and only him to the grail?


I also intentionally used white on his cloak and the standard to really separate him from the army's general in his black as I feel the two are completed opposed to each other in attitude and efforts.


Here we see the unit together on there movement tray. Hopefully they are different from the first unit, I kept the same technique of dull robes and the shields carry the colors and heraldry. But this time I used grey instead of the mustard brown of the first unit.


Not the greatest of photos this time around folks. But with only one unit left stay tuned as once they are done it can only mean one thing. Full army shot.

Thanks for reading.

Your Brettonnians continue to impress, they look great individually but look amazing when grouped together in their lance's. Cannot wait for the full army shot.

Another great looking unit of Knights.

Thanks guys. Good to see around the traps Az. I have assembled the final unit adding the conversions where needed and now to undercoat them. I have unfortunately also started to undercoat the next Primarch for my brother so hope to not get too distracted by him.

The Brets continue to look great, you're putting together a great force here!

Which Primarch is next?

Vulkan is next. Trying to figure out how to do the black skin salamanders are famous for and not lose the detail of his face.

My suggestion would be a very light grey drybrush, only brushing downwards and focusing on the upper edges, followed by a heavy black wash. That should pick out the details with minimal layers, you can then add another highlight or two as needed.

Mmmm good idea Para, the wash would help knock any areas too stark back a notch.

I have managed a fair bit of progress on things since I last posted. First of all, I have managed to sneak the rebasing of my Iron Hands in. Ever since GW released the larger bases for the Space Marines I had intended to use them and since I only had completed one Space Marine army I figured it wouldn't be too much work.

I had a look around for different techniques of how to do it and settled on trimming the rim off the bases and gluing them down onto the new base. This does add a little extra height to the finished result. But I don't think its easily detectable.


So this is how one of the squads started.


Here you can see the squad with the edges of the old bases snipped off and glued to the new larger bases.


Here is a comparison between the squad on the larger bases with a squad on the old 25mm ones. So much bigger.


And the finished squad. I am really happy with one, how quickly I managed to get them all rebased and how much bigger they look straight away and to boot they still fit into the foam trays I made which is a massive bonus.

Now, I need some advise as far as the latest Primarch is going. So all those great painters out there please give me your thoughts on this......


It's early days, but I am super happy with the green of the armour and the inside of the cloak, I think I have managed a pretty decent leather look for the skinned side of the salamander skin cloak. However......


Although I really like the cloak and think the outside is good. But, is the contrast between the armour and the cloak not enough? Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

So, I would like to post some more stuff, but would prefer to not end up with a super post, so if someone could find it in their heart to post a quick little reply to stop the automatic appended post I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.

All looking great.

Love the rebasing, looks good, looks effective and looks quick and easy. Don't sweat the extra height, SM are supposed to be a bit taller.

Great job on green armour, personally on the cloak I think I would go for a contrasting colour, or maybe black. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks to Camkierhi for the page break ;-) definitely thinking of throwing dark green or black wash onto the outside of the cloak. Would like to keep it green, but a darker version.

But on to the main event. I have managed to finish the final unit of my Questing Knights and the last Paladin. And here they are:


Again, the same method has been used, drab (in this case a darker brown) robes with the heraldry hopefully standing out. The Paladin (like the other heroes has kept the pink/purple to tie them in with each other).


Definitely let the individual details slip a little bit, but not as badly as I have with previous armies. Fortunately my process was pretty solid so I could fly on auto pilot for most of them.


I am pretty happy with this guy. Had to transplant the castle on the horses head, as the head it was on is far too small to fit the horse body I used. But it was a fairly simple swap.


Yes that is a Space Marine power sword. He is supposed to be Questing with a great weapon so I needed an over the top huge sword and the space marines weren't using it at the time.


So there you have the last of my 24 Questing Knights. There are a few conversions in there to keep things different and make up a few numbers. But I think among the official models they blend in.

So of course, the really exciting thing about this particular unit is that they complete the army. So I am now 10 armies down and here are the members of the "Vain" Quest for the Grail:


It is a pretty small army, but most of my Warhammer ones are, I seem to like the elite forces. But I think in true Bretonnian fashion they look the part. I also think it is pretty easy to tell the Errant, Realm and Questing Knights apart.


Probably the formation I would use in games, a giant wedge to tear through a line in the enemy and hopefully just keep riding.


The core of the army, a unit of Knights of the Realm and a larger unit of Knight Errant. The Damsel will often be hidden among the Knights of the Realm and hopefully she can boost their effectiveness. Maybe.


What I hope will be the heavy hitters of the army. 24 desperate loonie knights with giant swords. Here's to hoping they can make a dent. As you can see by the holes in the units I as always like to distribute the characters among the regulars to try to have a bit of coverage everywhere.


The leader of this rabble. Lord Jacques the Vain. Not well loved and his own arrogance is what keeps him from the Grail. But he is charismatic and forceful. I am really happy by his look. Definitely the boss and stands out well in his all black.


And the other characters who I hope will hold everything together, Army Standard, Damsel and combat Paladin. I know magic could be a bit weak with these guys, but hey thats what the blessing of the lady is for. Right?

So there you have my 10th army. Very different to the Tyranids that I did previously where everything was the mind bending same. BUt these guys were all different. No two models were the same to some degree which takes its toll. But they are done and I am really happy with them. Really feel I am getting some good painting techniques down pat and am pretty refreshed to launch into the next army.

Speaking of the next army I am back to 40k and will be doing an Alpha Legion army. My next post will detail the army list as is tradition and I am all ears for ideas on the paint scheme. I am torn between trying to sort out a metallic blue green or a dark blue green with a green highlight/trim and silver trim. So any thoughts would be most welcome.

WOW! I've literally just finished reading this journey having started looking at it 3 weeks ago, and having read every single post, i have to admit you are crazy! You have great ambition and you make me jealous with the amount I've not painted and you have. Comparing your older armies to your newer armies, you really enforce the point that practice really does make perfect and you are my inspiration when it comes to that. I will be following this from now on, and I wish I could paint like you do! The fact that a lot of your models are conversions shows your dedication and I love the creativity. Also the fact that you're using other people's used models from Ebay, means that you really have a nice mix of vintage models in some of your armies, and you put some fresh life into something else doesn't use anymore. Perhaps, one day I will try a project with your approach, although perhaps not on the same scale!
Awesome stuff - keep up the good work, it will be brilliant when you finally complete all these armies!
Best of luck.

Thanks DaemonColin, I appreciate the words. It has come a long way since I started it and I have a little momentum up. I am in the process of assembling the Alpha Legion and think I need to perhaps pick a squad and start the paint as I am getting a little distracted by all these models sitting in front of me.

Will throw up the Alpha Legion list in the near future and if anyone has some ideas on a paint scheme I am all ears. Really not sure what to do with them. Am thinking of trying a silver undercoat with a couple of blue and green washes over the top. Or make up a metallic green with a blue wash over it.