I've never kept an army journal before, but it strikes me as well worth doing.

To begin, allow me to state a few things.

In primus, I am by no means a top-rate painter. I never shall be - my eyesight is only getting worse with time and I've never has a surplus of talent, but I work with what I have.

In secundus, I have never fielded an unpainted model and I have no intention to start now. I certainly do not intend to rush painting my Bretonnians, though. I have full painted High Elves and Sisters of Battle eager to take the field for me.

In tertius, I don't base my minis. I just plain don't like the way it looks - I've had all the conversations you can imagine on the subject, so while I welcome almost all criticism, 'base your minis' is a wasted sentiment.


Now, on to the army.

To kick off I ordered three boxes of Knights from Wayland and a Damsel blister from ebay. I'm going to pick up Repanse de Lyonesse as a BSB sooner or later.

Wayland apparently don't actually ship things anymore, they just take your money and sit on it, but my Damsels arrived at the end of last week and are now painted up.

I have to say, it looks like the moulds for this figure have seen better days. There were a large number of manufacturing defects and general wonkiness which I tidies up as much as possible, but I was quite surprised. As a Sisters of Battle player I'm well versed in GW's ninties-era metals and expected higher quality.


The painting turned out thusly:



As you can see, I chose to paint each in a fairly uniform colour, red for one, blue for the other. I think this will actually help them stand out amid a sea of multi-hued Knights.

I am going for a fairly dark feel for the whole army. There will be all the colours of the rainbow here and there, but all of them darker-hued - it'll be a nice change from my bright, light High Elves.

I'm rather happy with how the crystal on blue-girl's staff turned out. Could have been better of course but could have been much, much worse. Her hair leaves a lot to be desired, though.

I'm bad at painting horses - I already knew that - but I'm sure that won't be a problem with this army...

Red-girl's bust turned out splendidly. Which is a good thing because goodness me, hasn't she got a lot of it?

In tertius, I don't base my minis. I just plain don't like the way it looks - I've had all the conversations you can imagine on the subject, so while I welcome almost all criticism, 'base your minis' is a wasted sentiment.

Your comment on basing intrigued me. I find basing a real chore - probably the part I hate most about modelling. I thought my bases were minimalist, but yours take that to a new level

I have never found basing to be particularly onerous, on those ocasions that I have done it. I merely don't like the way it looks. If you do, then do it. If you also do not, then don't let people bully you into doing it just because it is expected.

Sir Jules Estelle wrote:
I have never found basing to be particularly onerous, on those ocasions that I have done it. I merely don't like the way it looks. If you do, then do it. If you also do not, then don't let people bully you into doing it just because it is expected.

Mate, nobody bullies me

If you don't base your minis, they'll try. It's about the worst crime there is, apparantly. Though odly, playing with unpainted minis for years on end is just peachy. Funny old world.

Loving the work here Sir Jules Estelle,
I'm not just saying that or I wouldn't have commented. I love the bold blocks of colour which seems to be your natural style. That's pretty impressive because I'm colour blind You're right it is folly to rush your models so lets see more and more of yours please. Somtimes high detailed painting gets lost on the battle field where as a strong personal style of painting truely stands out. Great job

Thank you sir.

I fear I won't be posting any more until Wayland actually sends me my order (eight days and counting...), but I appreciate your compliment!

Love the Damsels Sir Jules.

Particularly like the redhead, she has the whole Celtic warrior thing going for her!

I am the last person to be offering painting advice, particularly at your standard, but have you thought about giving her hair a 'wash'. Just started the same figure myself and have been pondering her colour scheme. The level of detail is impressive and the only way I can think of bringing out the depth is by washing and some light drybrushing, (highlighting is out of the question for me I'm afraid!)

Be proud as punch if my paint job is anywhere near as good as yours though.

Also been waiting for a looong time from the same supplier, suddenly 'awaiting stock' after my order, suppose what I must expect for discounted goods!
Does mean I am reliving the whole 'waiting with excitement for the postman' thing that I thought I had left behind years ago though.

Anyway, keep up the good work...finding I need the 'push' that looking at others work is giving me to actually put paint on the model.....no way am I walking into the local gaming group with unpainted models I'm afraid!

May the lady continue to bestow her blessing upon you!

Oldgit wrote:
Love the Damsels Sir Jules.

Particularly like the redhead, she has the whole Celtic warrior thing going for her!

Thanks! that's exactly what I was shooting for.

Oldgit wrote:
I am the last person to be offering painting advice, particularly at your standard, but have you thought about giving her hair a 'wash'. Just started the same figure myself and have been pondering her colour scheme. The level of detail is impressive and the only way I can think of bringing out the depth is by washing and some light drybrushing, (highlighting is out of the question for me I'm afraid!)

I drybrushed white all over her hair so that it only lightened the highlights, then painted orange all over so the white underneath lightened the high points, but not the low. Then I washed it with sepia. I wasn't willing to try any wash darker than sepia for fear of turning her into a brunette, but apparently it's too subtle a wash.

Oldgit wrote:

Anyway, keep up the good work...finding I need the 'push' that looking at others work is giving me to actually put paint on the model.....

Strange. I make it a point to never read a painting forum on the same day that I actually intend to paint.

Nothing saps my will to paint quite like looking at some latter-day Michelangelo's masterpiece and knowing I couldn't match it if I lived to be a million. Not that I think my own work would have that effect on anyone.


Oldgit wrote:
no way am I walking into the local gaming group with unpainted models I'm afraid!

I salute you for it!

not got pics firing up here at work currently so will look in more detail later..

as for basing, well my 40k marines are "based" with a coat of flat black paint (to cover the grey primer), it looks nice and smart with the colours on the marines. My IG have some based and some just painted a concrete colour with a grey trim.

only time you should find an issue is when a tournament has "painted and based" models in the rules, if not playing in them it matters not a jot, a "plain" base may look out of place but will look equally out of place everywhere - while the most detailed base imaginable looks perfect on the right table, and out of place everywhere else.

unless going for awards you may as well please yourself, not found a convincing way of doing bases yet, hence the somewhat plain finish mine are (grit painted & drybrushed)

had a look, nicely done, and flat black looks tidy on them, nice and smart

My Lords and Ladies.

You know well that my forces currently number two. I don't doubt that these Damsel's magic will be indispensable when I take the battlefield.

However, I know well that if I am to face the manifold forces of evil in this world I will need more than magic. I will need knights both stout of heart and strong of arm!

Five such knights already have answered the call.



More will join them presently, but now seems an ideal moment to record my army's growth.

I regret I failed to take an individual photograph of the Standard Bearer, he is much as the others, and as you see him in the group shots, save that he is carrying an Elven shield.

Things I learned:

In primus, These knights are hugely fun to paint. Each one is like a new character.

In secundus, my freehand is still abyssmal, which is rather a handicap when it comes to creating charges. To compensate I have so far stuck with very simple designs.

In tertius, the Champion up there had better think himself damned lucky, because it will be a long old time before I summon the courage and patience to reproduce that check-pattern caprison. It took, I think, as long to paint that caprison as it did to paint any one of the other models in its entirety.

Very nicely painted. I like the checkered patern on the champion's barding a lot (well, that of his horse).

Sir Jules;

Thank you for posting your pics, very impressive, nice clean lines, smooth finish and bold colours. Not as easy to pull off as one might think (as I am finding out).

Particularly like all the individual little touches, the icon on the banner, the feathers on the Standard bearers helm, the flagellant head (how long has this poor guy been trying to win his spurs anyway!)
Also very much like the freehand, no matter how simple you may feel the designs are, they add character and visual impact to the unit.

I would also like to add my praise to Sir Mosby's for the checkered caprison.....very impressive, tried my hand at this so know how much effort, time and patience it took but would suggest it was well worth it Sir knight! ('Course, now I have to bloody well re-do mine!)

Look foreword to seeing your army grow...enjoyable and inspiring!

Thank you kindly, brothers.

I like that check pattern lots too, I'm happy with how it turned out. While I won't be trying it again for a while, it's given me the confidence to try some more experimental designs, perhaps chevrons.

The Fluer-de-Lys Icon is part of the banner, but I did add the scrolls dangling from it

For the most part, this unit is vanilla, but the next unit will be more custom, and the unit after that even moreso. Then I'll probably shuffle all the models around so all three units are equally weird. It'll help emphasize the idea that each knight is an individual who supplies his or her* own equipment.

The Flagelant head came from a previous project. A couple of years back my nephew wanted a custom Chaplain for his ultrasmurfs and I built one for him. I ordered a variety of bitz online for the project including a few 'crazy bastard' style heads.









The combi-plasmagun (Not the weapon I would have chosen, I confess, but the boy wanted him armed that way) is made from a plasma pistol and mastercraft boltgun, along with a Terminator arm, obviously. The Crozius top is a Space Marine winged skull, while the staff is part of the barrel from an Eldar Bright Lance, the left hand comes from a Marine arm from which I had previously removed the chainsword to make an eviscerator for my Sisters of Battle. The crozius is pinned together through the hand for strength.

I tried to get the pose and paintjob a wild-eyed crazy bastard feel - the sort of man who would charge anything and expect others to follow. The armour is supposed to be beaten up and ancient, even for a TDA suit, same with the parchment.



I still have most of those heads lying around and they are very likely to end up used for these Knights (let's face it, they will never get used for my High Elves or Sisters of Battle). These knights are KotR, though, so the old boy up there has won his spurs. One imagines he is the old moaner of the unit, who tells outlandish war stories and knows how to do everything better than young fellows nowadays.


*Yes, there will be female Knights in the army. Although only those without helms will be obviously so.