I received the first retinue of 12 mounted and 12 foot figures about a fortnight ago, and cleared some space to get cracking on them immediately. Due to them being used to represent not only our Club and WI, but the hobby itself at the Evesham Anniversary, I decided to make some extra special effort in getting them to look the business.
I started with the usual undercoat of black primer before doing the horses, I then used Colour Party 'Sand' as the first layer on the cloth (both for horses and riders). Next I used a 'Linen' from the same range to start building up the highlights. I reckon any off-white paint colour would do. Next I added some Vallejo white to the Linen (about 50/50) then finished with a touch of GW White. For the Blue I used similar layers starting with Vallejo Dark Blue, then Flat Blue and finally adding a Pastel Blue to create a highlight. The horses were inspired by Artmaster Studios excellent Youtube videos. Very easy to follow and provides some good hints and tips to get them looking effective.
The directives for the shields and Lances was that not all knights would be identical - only sharing their leader's basic colour scheme. In this instance it's the retinue of John de Beauchamp who was killed at Evesham supporting Simon de Montfort. From a painting perspective this means you can allow your imagination a bit of leeway, rather than painting the same shield design again and again.
The bases were done with Basetex, then painted with Vallejo Flat Brown and drybrushed by adding Cork Brown to 50% Flat Brown (a good hint from Artmaster Studios: don't mix those reddy browns with white paint as you'll get a pink colour. Instead add a lighter Brown shade).
Primed, and horses painted.
Lances and Livery.
Basetex sorted.
Finished item.
