Mercian Knights on the Conquest Trail

He wasn’t going to start a new gaming project he said, He was avoiding Fantasy games He said!

Then He watched @warzans 100 Kingdoms video and that was it!

So my box of Goodies from OTT store turned up Wednesday having ordered Monday( pretty amazing given the big patch of wetstuff in the way).

So after a morning out Friday I started building figures. Not helped by  my amazing ability to build things back to front upside down etc, I built the 1st 6 men at arms . Now I can’t say I  was Initially overly impressed . 1stly when looking at the other In the 100 Kingdoms   they look a bit out of place  most of the other units have a Renaissance feel but these look at best middle Medieval  I know its fantasy but they looked out of place  I suppose you could argue they are provincial troops, using inherited old kit.

( Note having painted the 1st 6 I think its the Sheilds that make them look odd, they are very thick, which isn’t carried over to the Knights Sheilds)

Also a couple of other niggles  no sword scabbards, and some of the moulding was very 10 years ago. Strangely the Crossbowmen  and Knight in same box seem much better.

Having started with the men at arms, I carried on building, 6 mercenary crossbowmen, and one Knight.

Why only one Knight?

A glimmerings of a theme entered my head, rather than do all the men at arms as  a single sheild design and unit/theme, I would do them as little 6 man groups ,  a retinue of men at arms brought by each of the household Knight as part of the Levy raised by the Noble Lord. Each group  would have the livery of their parent Knight.

This would follow the historical model for Musters and a long time a go at a wargames club far far away,  it had also been the model our little group had developed a in  series of participation games.  Based on medieval skirmishs using a little set of rules called Retinue.

Over the years they grew from small skirmishs to castle seiges with hundreds of figures. Our little group gave ourselves the name ‘Knights Mercian’, which flowed over the years through numerous period genres (particularly Battletech).

The figures have long gone, but were a mixture of Citadel historical ( before GW completely switched to 40k and fantasy) and Essex minatures  ( do you remember these Gerry?)

Although there were sheild designs for the figures at the time, they were all hand painted. This Time all the knights will be based on 40k Imperial Knights as I have a fair few decals for those.

So I started on the 1st 6 Men at Arms, I had decided to do the 1st Knight as primarily White, so the odd bits of cloth on these figures were going to be white as well.

Anyway I started by initially putting texture on the bases, using GW texture paint   the particular colour didnt matter, as once it dried I was going to stick the figure on the base and blast it all with Corax White.

I then washed the figures in GW contrast Apothecary white, more to help pick out detail for block painting than anything.

Then it was a bit trial and error  with various contrasts used on the cloth bits, skeleton horde on the padded leather areas and Agaros Dunes on belts. Wychwood was used on gloves and boots. I then used a GW steel on armour, sheild edges excetera. It was a bit of a aluminium silver and left the armour looking a bit toy soldier armourish. So the whole figure got washed in the bad painters truly friend GW Agrax Earthshade, Army Painter Strong tone would work  but can be a bit patchy so add flow improver to stop this happening. I was going to avoid the white cloth areas but went sod it, their real soldiers not tarted lords so it would be bloody amazing if their white tabard would be even remotely white.

I must admit I thought they looked crap at this point, left them overnight  not quite sure how I was going to pull it back.

Anyway next day bright and early I started on the rescue, I dry brushed lightly the white clot area with Corax white contrast base, which took the worst of the stain off  but left it looking nicely stained  but not mud bath.

I then worked on faces and yes I put eyes on them, then picked out the odd bits of face showing behind helms with Army painter Claw 4x a pale cream which looks clsest to flesh ( well mine) of my paints.

This was the point they stopped looking yuk  as they seemed to gain life, then it was mostly tidying up and playing with various metal shade on armour.

I used GW Retributer armour  on buckle clasps , badges on armour and the sheild rivets to break up the armour, then used Contrast Gryph Charger Grey on base tops.

I found some appropriate House Hawksword decals left over from GW Imperial Knights and finished base surrounds in GW mechanus standard grey.

I intend to break up bases with various clumps and patches of static grass.