Maciek's Dwarfs - Bretonnian allies - mounted squires (175 points)

Rank & File month 3

For April, I present you a squadron of allied Bretonnian light cavalry. 

These mounted squires are the scouts and bodyguard of the Bretonnian sorcerers that joins the dwarfs of Karak Varg on their campaign against the green skins.

The colour inspiration came from the Maciejowski Bible, a primary source for mid-13th century fashion and military equipment. The folios (which, by the way, seem like a chronicle of incessant violence) depict a lot of de-saturated primary colours - blues, greens and reds turning to oranges, so that is the palette I went for.

Folio 23, Saul is victorious, sourced from the Morgan Library

Five of the models are mounted squires awesomely sculpted by the Perry brothers, with characterful faces, strong historical inspiration and attention to detail - it was an absolute pleasure to paint them. 

For this month I dabbled with two painting techniques which I have not used before. For riders I tried monochrome underpainting. I did not quite work for me. For the effects to be visible it required the use of translucent glazes so that the shading beneath shows through. But it also meant that colours looked a bit blotchy and were more de-saturated than I wished. To get the effects I wanted, I had to anyway resort to more classic layering, but that covered all the monochrome shading beneath. Not sure I am sold on this technique - happy to hear from the other painters if underpainting works for you and if there are important points to keep in mind, that I may have missed.

For the horses, I tried a bit of wet blending (the 'blonde' horse). It does produce very smooth transitions, but I will have to push the contrast further. Definitely a method to develop and has the advantage of being rather quick - the whole colour (horse) can be done in a single pass. Painting the horses was more time consuming than I expected (even more than skeletal horses last year) so I'll be happy to be back to dwarfs in May.

The coat of arms on the banner is "Nałęcz", which essentially depicts a white kerchief that seemed fitting for a Bretonnian sorceress. It should fit well with my existing 13th century feudal force.

 

One thing I did not finish are the heraldic shields. The red plain shield on the Harlequin rider is a temporary proxy. I will be painting them and upgrading the riders next month.

Accounting: 5 mounted squires with spears, bows and light armour (100) + standard and musician (40) + commoner champion (35) = 175 points 

Speaking of next month I have yet to decide whether to go for the last regiment or do a cannon and "leftovers" to complete the units completed so far (more longbeards, crossbow standard and shields). Thanks for looking and see you next month!