Bretonnian Standard Bearer for OZ GD 2006

Trying to get this model finished in time was really tough, and involved lots of late nights and plenty of antisocial behaviour. More explanation below the picture.

The model has quite a lot of conversion involved. I started with a Bretonnian Pegasus Knight and turned it into a horse. This involved 3 main areas of work - the wing-stumps, the back hooves and the feathers. The wings fit really nicely into a muscular area which needed to be entirely removed and then re-shaped. The back hooves started off bent back in a flying position, and needed to be resculpted to look as though they were on the ground. The most time consuming part turned out to be removing and resculpting plenty of the areas of flowing hair, because the original model has feathers in amongst it.

I completely removed the upstanding mane, opting instead to sculpt a lighter, shorter caparison over the existing cloth. This let me dodge the rather boring-seeming task of re-making the mane, and offer another surface for more detail. I made little fleur-de-lys and shields to go on the edges of the fabric.

Fabric was my main area of interest on this model. I found a few different textile patterns online - Google Images is an incredibly handy quick reference for painting - and chose one to adapt to the blueish caparison. I used a deep blue glaze over the pattern to mute and shade it - it adds a nice bit of depth as well.

I forget quite why I decided to fade a pinkish shade to light green, but I couldn't get the colour mix out of my head so on it had to go. I think it's unusual but suits the model. The pattern on the edge is courtesy of Google again - "medieval borders" I believe were the terms that kicked it up on the first page. I really liked the shapes, and thought it would adapt well to the various areas.

The banner - "french tapestry". Nothing if not direct :). The image was painted up from a dark base, in layers from background to foreground. The fabric involved innumerable layers glazed over each other to try and get the right effect, and then yet more glazing to try and tint it to the shade I wanted. It was all looking a little warm, so the pinkish areas got plenty of glazes of a cooler tone.

The rocks on his base are formed from white Milliput, left to harden and then beaten enthusiastically with a hammer. Hey. It's not often in this hobby I get to do something a bit violent and imprecise, so I'll take the opportunity with good cheer :).

More pictures. You can just see the knight's eyes in a couple of them: