Hail my lords and ladies!

I've decided to start a painting diary of my Brettonian army, which has been in the works for quite sometime now, hoping that it will help me get it completed within my lifetime.

I like my armies to based on a theme or some sort of fluff and reading through the Brett army book I was taken with the background for the Dukedom of Mousillon, a corrupted and degenerate realm of knights, and its colour scheme - black and yellow. I didn't want an 'evil' Brettonian army so I decided that my Lord (Sir Roland) came from the border region of Mousillon and therefore his family wasn't tainted by the corrupting influence of the capital. He sees his mission in life is to restore the virtue and honour of Mousillon and gain the respect of the other Brettonian Dukedoms. His zealous nature demands that his army is composed of the most honourable knights and his peasants are expected to be above the common rabble found in a Brettonian army ie I don't want my peasants to look all dirty and degenerate but to look a 'cut-above-the-rest' so I planned to make them look as 'clean' as possible.

So with the fluff behind my army sorted I started my army by converting and painting Sir Roland. Originally he had the Questing Vow and so I used a Questing Knight body with a KotR head and some GS additions to complete him.




The next unit I painted was some Peasant Bowmen who I use as skirmishers since I picked up some old bowmen which I use in 2 units behind defensive stakes.



Then came my first Damsel - Damsel Elaine. I couldn't stand the horse she came with so I used a KotR horse with a Peg head which I think looks a lot better. I'm thinking of painting the neck of the horse so it looks like the rest of the caprison as I'm not entirely happy with the transition between the caprison and horse's head. Overall I'm really pleased with the way this model turned out.



My next model to paint up was my BSB. This took me ages to complete because of the chequered caprison which I wanted to look as exact as possible - I ended up measuring and drawing the pattern on the model before painting so the squares would be as equal as possible. Once again this model turned out very well although I don't think I could do it again because of the level of concentration and time it needed.



OK it's dinnertime so I'll put up the rest of my pics later....

They look awesome, the BSB ... WOW

question tho, how are you going to paint your core knights? are they going to continue on with the black/yellow, or have there own heraldry?

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Shane

Looks awesome Damon. I still remember your Beastmen vividly, and these are even better so kudos.


I cant wait to see the rest of the army.

Cheers
Trent

Wow, lovely stuff! You're a brave man for doing yellow but it's come out a treat so well done. Look forward to seeing more of this army

Thanks for the comments guys. It's nice to know that my hard work is appreciated.

Trent your WE diary is what drove me to start this diary. I'm amazed at your productivity and standard of work My BoC army was certainly a labour of love and winning Best Painted at Orktoberfest in '04 has been the highlight of my Warhammer 'career' but I must say I sure got tired of painting brown fur

Mikecro - yellow certainly is a hard colour to work with, especially when it's the army's main colour but I think the effort is worth it. I love the bright golden yellow in conjunction with the black.

In answer to your question Shane my KotR and Errant Knights will have the same yellow and black colour scheme. My rationale is that they all come from the same family or area that Sir Roland has gathered his army. Here are some pics of my partially completed KotR unit - 6 done and 2 to finish...



Growing tired of painting knights I moved onto a Grail Relique. I just love this model and the idea behind it. It also performs very well on the battlefield. As you can see I still have a couple of Battle Pilgrims that need their basing finished and I want to get 3 more so I have 3 full ranks of Pilgrims.



With the release of WHFB 7th Ed I decided to change my Lord since the change in great weapon rules meant that it wasn't such a useful set-up anymore. This required a new model so I used a Grail Knight body and KotR head with some GS additions to make a similar model to my first Lord. I'm not totally happy with the freehand work on the caprison and may redo it at a later stage.



After a very long break in painting I recently took up the brushes and painted a Trebuchet which I had purchased thinking I would enter it in the Golden Demon but I really don't think I have the patience to achieve the award winning level required so I just got stuck into it and painted the damn thing. It turned out really well even though it was a pain - I painted it unassembled so I could get at all the bits and then put it together. I finished the crew the other day but still need to do the basing.





So that's it so far!

I've just started on my first unit of Men at Arms which is still at a very basic stage. When I have more done I'll post some WIP shots in the next day or so.

Right, time to get painting!!

Cheers,
Damon

Damon lovely mate just lovely


No excuses finish your army so you can get on to mine next

Cheers
Hills

Very nice indeed!

It's not often I comment on painting diaries, guess I'm just lazy, but your's has prompted me to change that.

Beautiful work, really great stuff, and as others have said terrific efforts with the yellow.
I commend you on the progress so far and will keep an eye on this diary with keen interest. I've always wanted to do a Brettonian army, but have stalled 'cos I didn't think I could do it justice, nor have the time.

Please keep us updated with regular progress.

cheers,
Tony

Looks awesome... The standard of armies seems to be continuously going up... I can't with to see it finished and en masse, the bruight yellow will look stunning against the dull contrast colours.

Top work.

Awesome contrast of colours, very neat painting. Beautiful army standard

thats awesome dude, keep up the good work

blood nut

Picks tongue up off the floor, demands you show up to the club when I'm there so I can give these guys a game!

Work on my M@A unit is progressing (slowly) and I'm hoping to have it well on the way by the weekend for some pics...



Clint I reckon you'll be waiting a very very long time before I'd ever get round to painting an army for you at the rate I'm going!



Chunky I'm up for a game and hopefully I'll be at this week's Club day if I don't get flooded in with all this rain!

Cheers,
Damon

Your freehand is to die for

Do you have any hints on how you execute it?

I'm getting a headache even just thinking about that...

EXCELLENT work... I think by the time you have this finished that we'd be hard pushed to see as nice a bret army anywhere...

I agree with you in regards to your damsel... I think she would benefit from continuing the green "barding" up the horses neck...

Well Chop CHop What army do you feel like painting Next ill pay for it but you have to paint it and you get to borrow it for what ever torny you wish

Excellent stuff again

The only thing I think could be improved are the bases which seem a little bit uninspiring. Maybe add in a few rocks or clumps of tall grass to break it up a bit more?

this is truely inspirational, that paint work is fantastic.

well done and many kudos

Thank you all for the positive comments and I'm glad people are finding my army inspirational.



The three things I feel are most important when doing freehand work is:

1. A set of good brushes - I have several sized brushes that I only use for freehand work so that the tips stay nice and sharp
2. Good lighting
3. Don't be afraid to do it again if you don't like the results - I often start with very watery paint to 'rough in' the design work then progress to more opaque paint when I'm happy with the look. The watery paint is so that I can paint over it without any tell-tale signs of the paint underneath.

The other factors which effect freehand work that I have little control over is a steady hand and good eyesight, which for me is slowly deteriorating as the years pass.



Mikecro this is something I have been considering as well - great minds think alike I was looking at Trents basing for his WE and thinking that it really added to the overall look of his army and it is the thing that my army lacks. TBH I don't get into basing and it obviously shows.
I think I'll go to my local hobby store on the weekend and pick up some various terrain material to try and make my bases a bit more interesting.

Cheers,
Damon

What great looking brets! Love the colour scheme - same as my family's coat of arms colours. Why did you chose the yellow and black? I would agree with you that the bases could be made a little more interesting, but that is such a minor thing. Look forward to seeing more of this army over months to come.

Cheers
Ed

Thanks Banebeast_D I'll give the watered down outline a go; I've been working down the wrong path by the looks of things.

Played against these bad boys today - there aren't many of them yet, but they do look even better in person. I'll be amazed if this army doesn't pickup a best painted when its done.

looking fantastic damon cant wait to see them in the tournament field around 2025 when there completed
I really like the yellow and black. Nice and original.

wanna catch up for a game some time in the week? if so send me a pm.

Cheers
Emmett

Chunky - thanks for the great game, I throughly enjoyed it (especially since I won ) I hope the ol' stunties do you proud down at Dogcon!

Emmo - I've been working all week so I haven't had time for any gaming. Where were you on Sunday?

Anyway, here's a bit of an update on what I've been doing over the last week. :

Basing
Last weekend I went to my local hobby store and bought some extra basing material - some clump foliage and some long grass. I've added it to my Lord, BSB, Damsel and Relique's bases and I'm pretty pleased with the result, it certainly makes them a bit more interesting. I'm finding that there's a bit of an art to applying the various material - less is more - just a touch here and there on each base seems to me to produce the best result.

Painting
I've been working on a Men at Arms unit (24) and it's progressing slowly since I usually get about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs painting time a day. I'd painted all the flesh the other night and then looked at what I had done the next day in daylight and boy-oh-boy did they look terrible! So I broke out the ol' magnifying glasses and spent a couple of hours fixing what I had done.[note to self: Paint detail in good light!!]
Basically I've fully painted all the unit's flesh, boots, bandages/undercloth and undercoated all the yellow areas. Last night I started on the next yellow hue - I got three models done in about 2 hrs - the transparency of the GW Golden Yellow paint means I have to put several coats to get good coverage, hence the painting time.
I sure wish I could paint faster but I just don't seem to be able to. I estimate it will be another week to a week and a half before I get the unit finished.

I'll post up some WIP pics later today...

Cheers,
Damon

OK, so here's a pic of the extra basing I've done and a WIP shot of my Men at Arms unit.



I'm planning on finishing one of the models tonight so I can get an idea of what they will look like completed. I'm not sure about the yellow base colour as the shade so I want to see how it looks on a finished model.

Cheers,
Damon

Yeah the basing looks great Damon. I am a massive fan.

And when the Men at Arms are done also, your army will be almost finished! Sort of.

Good luck!

You are a criminally good painter. I'm a particular fan of the browns, especially the Dark Flesh type ones, on the smock of the trebuchet crewman on the left. Dark Flesh is one colour I struggle with to highlight, it always comes out kind of pink (weird).

I must break you.

Finally I've got a photo of the progress (slow progress) on my Men at Arms unit:



Since taking this pic I've also finished the Standard Bearer. They're looking good so far but I think it's a shame that when they're done I'll have to cover up most of the front of each model with the large Bretonnian shield - except the Muso and Standard bearer. I still have 9 models to complete in the unit and then the shields and basing to do.

When I get this unit finished I plan to finish my KOTR unit (only 1 model to paint) and then start on a unit of 9 KE's. My KE's are slightly converted 5th Ed KOTR models (just a head swap) so they will look quite different to the other KOTR unit and should be easily identified on the battlefield even though they'll all have a black and yellow colour scheme.

Until next time....

Lovely just plain lovely

is this army ever gunner get completed damon

Wow! Subscribed.

Inspiring Brettonians. Yes I know this is an old thread.

Did the army every get finished? Any chance of a few more pics?

Happy Gaming,

Allan

Yes, Clinto this army will get finished!
The past year has been very busy and I lost my motivation to paint models or play WFB but my interest has been rekindled and at the moment I'm painting up some dragon ogres for my beast army - which will be spanking your TKs in a couple of weeks

Allan, I'm glad you like what you've seen so far. I'll post up some picks of the finshed M@A unit which turned out looking pretty good, if I do say so myself. I've also touched up the caprison on the damsel which has certainly improved it and I had started on the KE unit but they aren't at a stage worth posting pics yet.

So keep watching this space as I think I'll be getting back into the swing of things soon...

cheers,
Damon

Good stuff Damon! I look forward to seeing more Brettonian goodness

Any chance you are playing in the flames of war tournament on 4-5 July in Lismore?

Happy Gaming,

Allan

Wow. Looking fantastic.

Your a brave man to go for a yellow army with lots of freehand.

have to have a rematch before convic then damon see how rusty you really are

OK, as promised here's a pic of my damsel with some additions to the caprison on the neck which I think is a definite improvement:



and a couple of pics of the completed M@As unit:





It's a shame the shields are so big and hide all the painting work I've done but they turned out pretty good.

I didn't want to have to free-hand all the fleur-de-lys on the shields so I scanned one of the fleur-de-lys decals you get with M@As and made up an image with a whole of them. Then I printed this image on some blank decal paper I bought from Hobby-Co so I had a heap of identical fleur-de-lys to use across my army. This saved me a whole lot of time and met my need for perfect looking emblems on the all the shields.

Well, I hope to get back painting this army shortly so keep an eye out for more soon...

Cheers,
Damon

Wow your detail is amazing!

Great work on the Damsel!!!!!!

It is the first time I have seen the model painted so that it looks good.

Every other time I have hated the model. Well done!

Neatly done M@Arms as well.

Happy Gaming,

Allan

I've just started playing Brets but this army and the Gobotonnia army will put mine to shame! You're inspiring me NOT to paint.

well done damon they look lovely time for you to crack the rest out

This must be one of the most intricately painted armies I've seen! Your freehand is absolutely wonderful. Please paint more for us to marvel at!!

Havent heard from you since that TK beating you copped damo....You going to sit there all quiet like and let gelf brag about how your unfinished brets were bested by his undead horde?! OR are you gonig to finish this army and get back in the game!!! COMMON i'll catch up with you in the showers after the gym. BOOM BANG 0-0 FIRE POWER!

i don't remember bragging OOOO your in Jarryd land again.


c'mon Damo get them done so i can buy them off you.

Loving them so far.

You definitely need to get back to painting these guys soon.

D - Look...I know you like these new beats...however. Its been over 2 years since you started this blog and really...there is no progression. Whats goin oon man? I'll take them off you if you dont want em...you just have to finish them first

Jarryd I know this army is taking forever but I have got 3 KE models painted since I last posted here!

As you said the ol' beasts are my number 1 army and now with the new AB out as you know I've got a few figs to paint/convert to get it up to playing standard. So once I sort my beasts out which must be done before G'Con I will get back into the Bretts.

So no you can't have them

Very good I likey.
~Tu'shan

Mate this stuff looks phenominal. Love it. Moar piccies!!

Beautiful looking army, loving the freehand detailing and the colours scheme is great!

Just wanted to ask what colour undercoat you are using as i am about to start painting a bretonnian army, but i am torn between black and white. The colours of your models in the photos are nice and vibrant, so i wasnt sure what colour was used.

I am afraid black would make the army too dark. Would greatly appreciate your opinion!

would be great to understand your painting process as well,
e.g. for yellow and flesh colours on the troops, or the metallics how do you work it up from a black (i assume) undercoat!