“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!”

The eight knights have now been completed to the level I want to get to and within the monthly time constraints. Each mount and rider has been deliberately painted with different livery to highlight that they have come together from different royal households to complete a quest for the beasts that are troubling the land. You will note that Tristan the Troubadour has been replaced by the original knight errant musician. This is not because I didn’t like the mini or was struggling to see how Jules will join in, but rather that Tristan had an accident on the way to the painting table which means he needs some intensive care to fix the broken bones! Hopefully he and Jules will join the quest on a 50mm square scenic base together… you guessed it – found in my bottomless bag of holding!

Again, I’ve used washes to tone down the brightness of the knights mounts and armour, although trying to ensure the front rank contained appropriate unique detailing such as checkerboard designs, fleur de lays emblems, etc. The bases which were originally white were washed twice with Nuln Oil. This was also applied to an undercoated white movement tray. On the movement tray, specific moulded details were highlighted and once dry all models were lightly brushed at the base level with Forgeworld Weathering Light Rust powder, again to dull the pristine finish of the knights and to suggest some degree of dust on their travels. Static grass tufts were dotted through the bases to bring the unit together.

Returning to the tale of the Jabberwock, I think for the month of May, it would be apt to provide some more beasties for these knights… maybe it will also be time for the ‘beast master’ to make their presence felt?

I real splurge of effort this afternoon and Belladonna is finished – well enough to go back into the unit ranks until I sort out bases and weathering.

I used a fine pen for detailing on the checkered pattern and black fleur-de-lys transfers touched up with White Scar for the emblem.

The painting of Belladonna continues with highlighting barding with 50/50 Screaming Pink/White mix followed by a further wash of Carroburg Crimson red wash just to tone down and blend the highlights. Next will be a checkerboard pattern to add a bit more interest before choosing appropriate transfers.

Digging deeper into the bottomless bag of holding, I have found a badly painted Pegasus, a Bretonnian General – who can ride the Pegasus, a Grail Relique and Baron Odo. I think my other half would love it if I simply flogged these on eBay, but as I’ve said before I’m not a dealer aiming to make a fast buck out of collectors, so all of these will have to join the painting queue.

I’m enjoying how this project is evolving from the original Jabberwocky story, the inclusion of some Paladins to fight the Jabberwocky, Jubjub Bird and Bandersnatch through to creating a whole knightly questing army to fight the beasts! Don’t worry… more beasts will return and I’ve got a beast master in mind…

As a little distraction, as so many knights can be a tad overwhelming, I did kit-bash and paint a one-off 40K space marine to start an Inquisitor Kill Team – a sergeant from the ‘Black Dragons’ who have mutated horn like growths from their forearms. (Note to self – need to finish base to create a jungle?)

However, back to the Jabberwocky project…

The painting of Belladonna continues with highlighting barding with 50/50 Screaming Pink/White mix followed by a further wash of Carroburg Crimson red wash just to tone down and blend the highlights. Next will be a checkerboard pattern to add a bit more interest before choosing appropriate transfers.

I decided to start with Belladonna and began by painting the horse tabard with Screaming Pink followed by a wash of Corruna Red. I added flesh tones to the rider and started to bring through a light blue semi-transparent dress on the rider. Painting stopped at that point because of a discovery I found in my bottomless bag of holding!

And the discovery was a load more Bretonnian knights in a shoe box plus an unopened box of knights, a number  of loose mounted characters in various states of painting and a unit of dogs of war mounted Arabian knights…

I’m sure there are some men at arms, bowmen and some other characters further down in my bottomless bag of holding! It’s enough for an Army on Parade. I seem to recall getting them with the intention of building a Knights of Albion force, but when GW destroyed the Old World and Bretonnians disappeared from their website, I moved on to my beloved 40K tanks. Anyhow… what shall I do with this lot?

The painting has continued on a nice sunny day outside. This stage takes me from flesh tones for both riders and horses, further washes, touching up splashes, hair, a bit of gold bling and transfers.

Just a note on transfers. The Bretonnian transfers are cut to size to fit the shields, unlike some other transfers that need closer cutting. They take about 30 seconds to wetten enough for the transfer to slide off its backing paper. I used a pointed sculpting tool to move the transfer and a fine brush with a drop of water to ensure the transfer positioned in the right place. I dabbed the excess water with an absorbent tissue and after 10 minutes painted a single layer of ‘ardcoat over each transfer and left to dry.

Next, I will move on to the characters in the front row and try to pack in more intricate designs than the support cast. Once they are completed, I will return to fine detail eyes, teeth, etc. and base all miniatures at the same time to ensure consistency before weathering the questing entourage.

Taking a look at the mounted unit and I’ve decided to paint the back row in parallel, moving from one horse and rider to the next, allowing the paint to dry and therefore attempting to get a consistency in tone and process for the four horsemen.

The horses need to be prepared for their blazens to adorn the barding. So, I’ve selected appropriate base colours to take the transfers. This means that the lighter base paints white and yellow can take black or white emblems, whilst the black base colour will take the white emblems.

The harnesses and other leather work were all painted with the same brown for consistency. At this stage, I’m not too worried about the rough and ready painting as in later stages I will tone down the brightness with washes and will highlight and pick out details before moving onto weathering the models.

All models were left to dry for around an hour before washes were introduced to the barding – yellow wash over cream, dark blue wash over the blue (teal), brown wash over yellow base and red wash over red base colour. Armour was washed with the blue wash.

Next up will be flesh tones for both riders and horses and highlights for barding.

A fairly productive Sunday evening and we have eight mounted troops reglued (Superglue) to bases and riders to horses and lances, shields and standard all reattached.

I want to start with different colours for each horse and rider and although they may initially look quite bold and clean, as I progress I will tone them down through washes, highlights and a bit of weathering.

La Repanse and her bodyguard are part-painted already I think with Drachenhof Nightshade washes? So they will remain that colour. Tristan will be the black knight and I’m undecided about Lucrezzia Belladonna yet – possibly purple and/or pink. The back row cream, light blue, yellow, red.

I will look for some transfers in my bottomless bag of holding for the back row guys in due course.

The painting and this part of the project is well and truly underway…