Tag Archives: bretonnian

Bretonnian Mounted Men at Arms / Brotherhood Villein Initiates

Once again I have no idea what the hell a Villein Initiate is but I am hoping that they are the same as my Bretonnian Mounted Men at Arms. This is a Kings of War Regiment. The figures are old 5th Edition/6th Edition Mounted Squires. I added a few standards and the odd head swap with plastic Men-at-Arms miniatures.

I got these figures years ago in an internet trade. I am pretty sure I paid $20 for the lot (plus postage) which was about one tenth the cost of the same figures new in New Zealand at the time.  I think the days of deals like that are long gone unfortunately.

 

Bretonnian Battle Standard Bearer – or some other thingie in Kings of War.

Now that I have got a couple of thousand points of Orcs ready for Kings of War I am moving on to my Bretonnians who will become Kingdoms of Men or Brotherhood or something.  Most of my stuff is pretty much good to go as it has not lived for ten years in a box but was actually shelved and looked after. I have to paint some Pegasus Knights and some more Grail Pilgrims to use as their Kings of War equivalents.

I did find this fan made list which I like for a direct Bretonnian Warhammer Fantasy to Kings of War crossover.  I will probably use it for friendly games at home but will use one of the more official armies (Basiliean or Brotherhood or whatever) if I ever go to a tournament.

kings_of_war_bretonnia

I am pretty sure that I got this miniature from the Bretonnian Army Box that was available for a while when the Bretonnians were revamped for 6th Edition back in 2004. He is the Limited Edition Bretonnian Army Standard Bearer.  It is another chronically unbalanced miniature. A plastic horse with a metal rider and a stonking great metal standard that shifts the centre of gravity of the model up so high that on anything other than a dead flat surface it keels over. To that end he fell over in my last game with him and toppled off the table and fell apart on hitting the floor. I had to do a bit of gluing and touching up but here he is – back in one piece.

I like to paint my Bretonnians with simple block colours. The heraldry on the barding is from a sheet of water slide decals I got off a guy in the States who knocked them out himself. I am not sure he operated any more but he was known as Imperial Forge.

GW/Front Rank Size comparison.

I was asked to do a post showing size comparison between Front Rank 100YW Archers and Games Workshop Bretonnians. I have no unpainted figures so cannot compare raw metal/plastic so have to show painted versions. On the whole I think they work together very well.  I can say that GW and Front Rank horses do not mix. GW horse – all plastic at 5th/6th Edition – are big. Front Rank riders can fit on GW horses (see this post showing Front Rank cavalry mounted on GW barded horses).

 

Bretonnian Grail Pilgrims

One of my favourite units in the Bretonnian army of Warhammer 6th through 8th editions (not that the unit changed in those revisions) are the Grail Pilgrims.   These guys lug a relic – in this case the deceased body of a dead Grail Knight and his steed about with them, and adorn themselves in relics of the dead knight – pieces of clothing, armour, surcoats and horse furniture.  Also, for some strange reason they often carry their kite and heater shields upside down.  They are the soccer fans/groupies of the fair land of Bretonnia. Just a shame the Orks already have a copyright on the  ‘Ere we go’ chant.

The sculpts for these were the best foot figures in the entire Bretonnian range that came out way back in 2004 – a range that never saw a new figure from that time until the end of the world.

One thing about them that stands out is that for guys straggling alongside outside for years on end, they are remarkably well fed. Most of them are packing some serious insulation against those cold nights in the Bretonnian Alps.

I have acquired another couple of dozen of these guys second hand so plan to expand this unit out to 40 figures for a Horde sized unit for Kings of War.

IMG_3953
The central figure here is an Empire figure I think, slightly modified.
IMG_3954
This is another Empire figure, with the addition of a plastic Bretonnian jester head from the Archer set.

IMG_3951 IMG_3952 IMG_3955 IMG_3956 IMG_3957 IMG_3958 IMG_3959 IMG_3960 IMG_3961 IMG_3962 IMG_3963 IMG_3964 IMG_3965 IMG_3966 IMG_3967 IMG_3968 IMG_3969

 

 

 

Bretonnian Holy Order Knights

I actually brought these guys almost completed from a chap in Auckland about seven or eight years ago off Trademe.  I finally got around to finishing them off.  I added all the shields and decals for them, replaced a number of broken lances and also replaced the standard bearer’s standard shaft with a metal rod. I am a little apprehensive about posting these because 90% of the work on these was done by another chap whose name I don’t know.  If you were the painter, please let me know and I will credit you!  Please enjoy anyway.

I had originally thought to use these guys as Grail Knights but have since got a set of the fantastic Gamezone Grail Knights so these have been relegated to a Bretonnian Holy Order – they count as Knights of the Realm.

Each knight has his personal heraldry on the rear quarters of his warhorse, and the Fleur de Lis device of the Bretonnian Lady of the Lake on his shield.

Order Knights 8

Order Knights 7

Order Knights 6

OK – How does this guy actually blow that trumpet while wearing a Great Helm? A magic trumpet perhaps? One of the mysteries of Warhammer 🙂

Order Knights 5

Order Knights 4

Order Knights 3

Order Knights 2

The original plastic pole cut off either side of the hand and at the base of the standard. The hand and standard pin drilled and a metal rod used to replace the staff. Much more sturdy.

Order Knights 1

More Bretonnian Knights of the Realm

Every now and then I get the urge to paint a few more knights or peasants for my Warhammer Fantasy Bretonnian army, even though I have very few games behind me using that system.  I try to stick to plain primary colours on my knights. So there are lots of Blues, reds and yellows. Every knight has his own heraldry – one of the things I enjoy most about doing this army is the heraldry.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The musician is a 5th Edition model. I really liked how this guy came out. One of my better ones,. You can see a similar figure further down the rank in a red and yellow livery.

Image

The knight in the second rank has a heraldry done with decals from a Space marines decal set. Waste not want not. Behind him I used a 5th Edition helmet on a 6th Ed body.  There are quite a few of these to be seen in my army.

Image

Image

Image

Bretonnian Questing Knights

As promised here are my completed Questing Knight units. As I have said in an earlier post, these guys are really nice models. As with all my Bretonnian Knights I have gone with strong plain primary colours for their heraldry.

Image

Ranked up in the Bretonnian Lance formation. I am still not convinced it looks like a lance head but does make easier construction of movement trays. Talking of which – mine have a 5mm separator between ranks to keep horses from knocking noses with tails.

Image

This knight is the 5th Edition Baron Odo d’Outremer.  Used as is without any modifications other than a 6th Ed charger.

Image

This is the one plastic knight I used in the two nine-man lances. He was modified only by the addition of a great sword arm from a 5th Ed Bretonnian Hero (that figure was wielding the sword two handed so I cut the hilt off after the right hand and drilled a bit of wire in to make an extended hilt).

Image

This is a Questing Knight wielding a two handed axe.

Image

Rear view of same. I made all the guff for his saddle from spares and bits. I have no idea where the spare lute came from.

Image

This knight is the 5th Edition Sir Tristan model. Questing Knights don’t carry lances so I made him into another banner bearer. Added a beard as well.  All that traveling – no time to shave.

Image

This Questing Knight miniature is one of the ones that came in single blister packs. Do you remember those days? I think he is Sir Brian the Blessed.  His gear includes a ham and a helmet full of potatoes.

Image

A rear view of another knight with a saddle load of gear cobbled together from bits.

Image

Yet one more. One thing I can say for the Bretonnian knight and peasant sprues, they sure had a lot of extras on them,

Image

Knights in full charge.

Image

Image

In this shot you can see the 5th Edition Repanse de Lyonesse. Her lance converted to a standard with a reliquary on top. I gave her more hair and made her a Ginger as well.

Image

Bretonnian Archers – Horde Style

I wanted to do a couple of large units of Bretonnian archers for my Warhammer Fantasy army. Each of these units is forty figures strong. They are made up of 5th and 6th edition Games Workshop plastics ans some of the old 5th Edition ‘Squires’ figures as well as Front Rank Hundred Years War English longbowmen. I think that all the models work really well together and I have mixed them on bases all over the shop.  I based the front twenty models four to a 40x40mm base.  I probably should have done another rank on strip bases and left the back rank alone on individual bases.  The movement trays incorporate the stakes and chains that come with the current edition archer sets.  This is a non-legal GW army for one of their stores or sponsored tournaments given all the heretical figures I have used – but then again, who cares?

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Bretonnian Questing Knights: WIP

I have been mucking around painting these guys on and off for the last ten years – since the 6th Edition Bretonnian release back in 2004. Kind of fun to do, but I am not sure what I will ever do with them.  These are some Bretonnian Questing Knights I am working on in between painting Napoleonics.  They are pretty much completed now and when I get back home I will post new pictures.

The Questing Knight models are the best of the Games Workshop sculpts for the Bretonnian range in my opinion. The idea of a knight riding to battle with a bureau on his warhorse tickles my fancy.  They are laden down with all sorts of baggage. Stupid, but kind of cool. For this lot I have made my own ‘baggage” for the most part. The sharp eyed will also notice an older 5th Edition model or two in there as well.

Image

Image

Image

Here are a few of the first lot of Questing Knights I finished some years ago now.

ImageImage

And the Battle Standard Bearer for this army. A Grail Knight Hero.

ImageImage

Bretonnian Henge

This terrain piece was another joint effort between one of my children and I for a school project. At the time my daughter was about eight and was doing a module on Stonehenge.  She wanted me to help her make a model that she could show off at school. They had just visited New Zealand’s own Stonehenge to see a replica henge and she was all inspired.  I think the chances of her and I cooperating on any projects like this now are pretty slim so this model is rather special to me.

Image

Once again we used insulation foam and a base of MDF.  Now we could have made an exact replica of the real Stonehenge, but I persuaded her that a representative ruined henge would be just as good – and I got a decent piece of table top terrain for Warhammer Fantasy battles.

The stone effect on the blocks was produced by the simple expedient of putting the foam onto the concrete path and standing on it.  Seemed to work. Of course, my daughter had to add her very own touch and while her brother was watching TV she sneaked up and snipped off a lock of his hair and used to to make some of the grass tufts we used. Needless to say, he was not happy.

Knights and a Bretonnian Damsel riding through the henge.

ImageThis Bretonnian henge has two large trilithons – visible in this shot.

Image

Bretonnian Knights Errant riding through the shrine to the Old Gods.

Image

A large fallen column lies broken.

Image

Another shot of same.

Image

An overhead shot showing the alter stone in the centre of the henge. Tracks wend their way amongst the ruins of the monument.

Image

The Damsel can draw power from the ancient magic of the stones. Well that is the theory. I haven’t played Warhammer for a while.Image

As a final note – the current state of the Bretonnian Henge is not good. It has fallen into even more ruin. A pesky possum got into the Woolshed and knocked it off the shelf it was stored on and it was somewhat damaged. Well, it was flattened really. All the bits are there so I will repair it. As to the fate of the possum…well possum fur goes for NZ$140 per kilogram at the moment.