Living by the Sword

Since it wasn't possible for me to attend this year's Tactica in Hamburg, I spontaneously visited the Spieltrieb Frankfurt Wargaming club yesterday to get some live impressions of their great "Feud of Kronberg" Impetus presentation.

Unfortunately some of my own Westerosi troops used this opportunity to betray me. The Wensington archers and the Arryn houseguard offered their services to the enemy general Kerstin and fought as sellswords alongside the guild companies of Frankfurt against their painter.

I had no camera with me, but took these photos with my mobile. I hope they can convey the great atmosphere of the terrain and the miniatures. Thanks for the great game!!!

The Hanau knights under my command, facing the treacherous Westerosi.

Kronberg infantery in the centre.

The glorious knights of Hanau attack the sellswords.

After crushing the Arryn guard, the Hanau knights turn and
attack the enemy from behind.

Some of the Spieltrieb's beautiful "disordered"-markers.

Nostalgia

Aren't they pretty? I found a picture of some of my old Bretonnian Knights. These guys belong to the very first miniatures I've ever painted. I'm still so proud of these. 

As you can see, I haven't painted anything new last weeks. Sorry for that, but life (or in this case the exams) came in the way...

Unfortunately there's only a small chance of change this month...

Ours is the Fury!

 I have finally painted my version of the Young Stag. I really love the Darksword Version of this character and had to use it although it is slightly taller than the other miniatures I used. The dying horse on the base is a 5th edition Bretonnian horse, the standart bearer is an English heavy cavalry man, sculpted by Ebob.

I tried to depict Robert in the heat of the battle. His horse has just been shot beneath him and is kicking in vain while the Usurper is now pushing on on foot. The rider on his right bears his personal standart, the black stag of house Baratheon.

Again, I used Tamyia Clear Red X-27 for the blood splatter. This stuff is really great. The mud on the horse legs was coated with gloss varnish to achieve a wet look. Actually this technique can't convince me yet... I might rework this at a later point.

Impetus Magneticus II

One of the main problems with Impetus bases is, that they are a bit bulky when carried around. They won't fit in any of the miniature cases I usually use for my single based miniatures.

Therefore I bought some metal-boxes from a certain Swedish furniture store, which are large enough to take even the longest flagpoles. Instead of using rubber foam to upholster the miniatures, I used Tankred's basing method, which he described at the German LotR forums, and bound some 5x2mm magnets to the bases.

As you can see, 4 of them are strong enough to hold a 12x6cm base with 10 metal miniatures in position, even in most adverse conditions.

As High as Honour!

Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie and Warden of the East, has rallied his banners to put an end to Targaryen tyranny! Here you can see the elite troops of the Eyrie, Jon Arryn's personal household guard, always accompanying their commander in the vanguard, led by their skilled captain Ser Vardis Egen, offspring of a noble house of the Vale.

These battle-hardened veterans carry the coat of arms of House Arryn. I found two descriptions of the arms: 

- "A sky-blue falcon soaring on a white moon, on sky-blue."

- "A white falcon volant and crescent moon on a blue field."

As you can see, I somehow merged these two descriptions and stuck to one of my preferred interpretations of House Arryn's colours as it can be found on the title of one of the German translations of ASoIaF: Das Lied von Eis und Feuer 8: Die dunkle Königin 

I like the depiction in the series as well, but the symbol used there is too far from heraldic correctness, even for my purpose.

Ser Egen carries his family's arms: A yellow sun, white crescent moon, and silver star on blue chief above white.

All the models used, are old Bretonnian Men at Arms, sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry.

Oak and Iron, Guard Me Well,...

... or else I'm dead and doomed to hell!

I painted the next Westerosi knight. Some might already have gotten it from the title or recognized the coat of arms (a green shooting star above an elm tree proper on sunset), others (even those who have read the books...) might still be guessing who could be meant. May I present:

Ser Duncan the Tall and his pert squire Egg, sometimes better known as Dunk the Lunk (thick as a castle wall) and, well... those of you who have read the Hedge Knight Novellas of GRRM will know what Egg stands for. I don't want to spoil those who haven't come accross Martin's Ice and Fire short-stories (or the Hedge Knight graphic novels) yet. 

Some thoughts on the model: Well, I don't know what Egg has done, but somehow he has managed to fall off Maester (the mule). Now, he's trying to catch up with him. 
Maester on the other hand doesn't care. He's heavily laden with a cask of Arbor Gold and the luggage of Dunk and Egg and quite satisfied being rid some of the weight.
We can't see the face of Ser Duncan cause of the helmet, but it's quite probable that there's a big grin. He just spurs his horse, hoping that Maester will follow him. Egg has kidded him the whole day, so that's what he earns...

The model used for Ser Duncan is a 5th edition Bretonnian knight, slightly converted. The horse is from Ebob. Way better than the GW ones. The mule Maester started his life being an Ebob pony. I did some minor conversions here as well. Egg is a Foundry model with a plasticcard-shield added.

Since all heroes in Impetus are regarded as being mounted (most heroes in Westeros are knights, so this is ok for me...), I decided to base most of my cavalry models on half-width bases. Gaining some interchangability, it will be a nice way to to show the unsteady allegiances of the Westerosi nobility.

I promise there will be more mounted knights on the bases to come... Not less than three miniatures of which at least two are knights seems to be the way to go for me.

Some Photoshop-voodoo. Sorry guys, but I had to practice...

WIP: Ours is the Fury!

I couldn't wait working on the general of my Impetus army, Robert Baratheon, Lord of the Stormlands, known as "The Usurper". Base-model is the "Count of Vendome" of the Perry Agincourt range. I sanded off all the heraldry, resculpted the livery and added his famous warhammer and antlers.

I'm still uncertain about the antlers. These are just taken from a 5th Edition Bretonnian knight and don't have the "aggressive" look I aimed at.

Hear Me Roar!

Inspired by these great Stark bannermen made by Frank Becker, I am hooked on the whole Ice and Fire topic and have given some thoughts to ASoIaF-themed Impetus dioramas.

My first intension was to paint parts of the Stormlands army of Robert Baratheon during his rebellion against the Targaryens. Meanwhile I will go for a rather all-purpose "army" consisting of some major houses which will be able to cover most battles from the Blackfire Rebellion to the War of the Usurper.

 After sorting my lead-chamber for fitting miniatures I found my old 5th. Ed. Bretonnians which will make great Westerosi knights. I painted one of them as a test-miniature, since most of my miniatures will consist of the Perry "Agincourt to Orleans" range but are still in the mail.

The miniature pictures a member of House Lannister. As I said, my army will consist of contingents of every great house, mixed with heroes of the Blackfire Rebellion and the War of the Usurper. This lord suits as Damon or Tywin Lannister and might be used in both periods. He is accompanied by a squire who carries a great wooden chest with unknown content. According to his posture and the fact that his master is a Lannister it's probably gold...

The miniature is based on 1,5mm plasticcard with the measurements 6x8cm which relates to Impetus Fantasticus hero basing. The paper pennant is adopted from Tankred's Feud of Kronberg cavalry.
The reason for using armour styles around 1400 is to be found in this letter from GRRM himself, which can be found in the "So Spake Martin" section of westeros.org. I actually will try to stay closer to the 15th century as the author himself did, but thats my personal preference.

Last but not least: The famous words of House Lannister, embroidered on the lord's crest.

Ghosts of the Past

No, it is not the Ghost of Chrismas Past, but some pictures of Elves (and a Bretonnian) I found on my hard drive. As promised, I have searched for a pic of my old High Elves army. What I found, were some well hidden treasures that bear witness to the progress I made in painting and sculpting over the years. Enjoy!

Picture No#1 shows the first miniature I ever painted. It's a Bretonnian archer from the 5th edition Warhammer starter box. Looks quite decent and it probably took me ages to paint it...^^ Unfortunately I can't tell you when exactly I did it. Has to be sometime 1998ish.


Next are the High Elven captains I told you of. Do you recognise the guy from the drawing?
Back then I used Milliput Super Fine White, an utility knife and a needle for my conversions. Didn't know there were better things to use. Although I would do some changes nowadays, I still like them. Crimson plumes and High Elves definitively fall into place.
The picture is taken in 2004 but I'm quite sure they are older. Late 2002 - early 2003...


Next one is an Êlnaith, an Elven Knight which was converted from an archer and a Rider of Rohan. It was the last miniature I did for my elven army and I never finished the whole squad I originally planned. As you can see, the sculpting and painting is already much smoother than that of the captains. Nonetheless I wouldn't use my old technique for painting white anymore.^^
The miniature was converted and painted in Summer 2004.


After a longer break I sculpted this female Elven archer in January 2006. I did it after I had some great days on the Kauzenburg convention, a gathering of users of the tabletop-hdr.de forums. I had some great chat with Ebob there and he encouraged me to do some more sculpting, and so I did.
This miniature was supposed to be the first official "FINiature". A company called "Noha Studios" was about to cast it, but unfortunately the miniature broke during the moulding. Nevertheless they managed to make 2 copies of it. One has been painted and was gifted to Ebob, the other one is still with me, but slightly damaged, due to the ruined mould...


Last Elf I did, was this banner bearer. He was made as a trophy for the winner of Kölns Klamm 2006 (Cologne's Deep), a tournament of the LotR Strategy Battle Game. Although I'm not quite confident with the paint job (the highlighting on the banner is much to strong), I think the sculpt itself was pretty good... I really should have made a copy.



Hope you liked this nostalgic trip to the past although I don't know how someone could benefit from these wooly thoughts. Perhaps I just got carried away...