Pauls Teutonic knight GB

[Paul]

[Paul]

So..I´ll kick off

I missed out the washing bit....because I don´t wash them...I´m far to lazy for that!!!

Firstly I have removed the raised emblems on the shields using a piece of old razorblade cut to a blade shape....I am too lazy to get into painting each tiny detail on the 1st 3 and I will use printed designs.
Same goes for the nags...the emblems have been cut away.

The nags are stuck on my bottle tops using Babybell wax and the bods have got a hot needle rammed up thier nether regions. If you do this, push the tip of the needle about 1/2 a cm in and as it cools, twist it back and forwards to make sure the plastic grips firmly to prevent the bod spinning as you paint it.
The whole lot are then base painted with cheap old hobby shop paint.
The other bods and nags are in for alterations..so won´t appear just yet.


The lance provided is basically nothing more than a toothpick so it´s gone into the "oh look, I remember putting that there a long while ago as a spare" box. It will be replaced by a 4.5 cm long piece of green florists wire, one end of which has been banged flat, cut with scissors and filed to make the lance head. I intend to do the same for the standard bearers...the flags provided are to small and the lances they are on are too short. The average length of a lance was 9-14 foot long or about 3- 4.5meters. The lance provided is about 6 - 7 feet / 2 - 2.5meters long.
It is stuck into a piece of cork for ease of painting. Pictured is the paint I have used for basing.

[Paul]

A bit more.
The two sergeants.
On one I have removed the shield completely...it was too much work to remove just the design and the other has had his shield re-leased so that it can be twisted slightly more in the direction he is looking in...looks a bit more natural IMHO
His standard has also gone and the other has had his sword removed. Both will get new lances.
To create the holes for them, I firstly use a pin to make a hole all the way through....

...and then make the holes bigger with a thicker sowing needle with a tapered point...

...which makes the holes big enough to take the florist wire. On one (righthand bod) the hole broke through the hand but because I always try to push the first pin through the hand a bit more towards the fingers (not centrally in the fist) it broke on the correct side (fingers) and is glueable (loctite 401) so the bod and the effort are saved

[Paul]

Another stage further.
After the nags have dried I check the surfaces where the emblems were cut away to see what they look like, if any remains of emblem can be seen, if the surface looks a bit uneven (sharp angles, lumps and bumps etc) and these bits are carefully sliced off, or in the case of big dips where I have cut too deep, filled with woodglue. The base being black helps in this. On shields this isn´t so important as they are getting covered with printed designs anyway.



Three more bods have had thier various weapons removed and replaced with lances.



And I forgot to say....the typical italeri ancients/medievals cross strapping on dagger sheaths has been cut away. They seem to like doing this even on axe heads, which makes the bods look like they are weilding stoneage weaponary !!!!

[musketier]

This is what made me so interested and excited about the group builds, the behind-the-scenes look at how some put the figures together,Paul you got some really good ideas and this should turn out really well

[dutchboyinohio]

Thanks for the detailed play-by-play Paul!! I agree with musketier that this is why we should have group-builds. I'm hoping to get some work done on mine this weekend. Will post some stuff if and when I do.....

[Paul]

I missed this...sorry. Here are some of the "tools" I use for alterations.
Big files for metal or when a lot of plastic has to be removed. The square one is good for filing lance heads.
Blades. The big one in the middle is from a craft knife and I use it for freeing the bods etc from the srues, particularily the ones on the bases. The other two are self made from razor blades. You can get a fine and flexible point on them..ideal for getting into very small corners. Also they give a little or you can slightly curve them to remove flash.
Two nail files..one fine the other not.


The nags have got a coat of light grey. I don´t worry too much about going over edges at this stage...I will simply paint back with black later.

[Paul]

The nags have got a bit further,
A very light grey second covering and then white highlights and finally a white drybrush

The saddle is painted with middle brown mixed with black. Highlighting and a watery silk gloss cover later.
The tail and legs of the nag have been given a darl brown drybrush.

[Paul]

The saddles have had a bit of highlighting and a coat of Acrylic clear silk. The pommels, backs of the saddles and the bits have been painted silver and the home made emblems stuck on with wood glue. The edges of the emblems need a bit more work...flattening with the tip of a pin and then touching up with paint.

[Paul]

A bit more.
Two of the nags have head thier necks twisted to give a bit more variety without getting into major surgeory.

from ground level. The one on the left is the OOB pose.

The same with the only horse pose for the sergeants. The one on the left OOB pose.

If the reins break whilst doing this...not to worry...just align the two broken sides and use a string of thick glue to re-join them (the glue bridges the gap between the tow parts)

[Paul]

Looking good so far Paul. I like the variation you put on the horses and the figures. But don't you use to heavy equipment for these little bods??

Oh and have you only replaced the weapons of those two sergeants and three other knights? In fact are you painting the whole set or just the nine poses?

Just the nine poses and all polearms will be replaced

how did you change the horses pose?

Sorry...I forgot to say...by using brute FORCE!!!
I didn´t use any hot water bath first to loosen the plastic , I just simply held the body of the nag in my left hand and bent the neck with my right. You have to bend it a bit further than you want it to end up, as the plastics memory kicks in and it bends back a bit. Also...don´t use a twisting action...the head can rip clean off. If there are any small tears in the plastic afterwards...just trim off any bits that stick out and fill the rips with green stuff or woodglue.
It´s just a minor change but it stops the greyhounds out of the slip look that most of them have.

[SamSagace]

Looking good so far Paul. I like the variation you put on the horses and the figures. But don't you use to heavy equipment for these little bods??

Oh and have you only replaced the weapons of those two sergeants and three other knights? In fact are you painting the whole set or just the nine poses?

... I like too the variation!!!! I'm thinking that only 4 poses for the horses (and not very good!! )is not enough...
I would like a horse resting pose for example, like in the set ITALERI "the Knights".
For the number's figs, yes, it's a good question!
I'm using only 9 different poses: I'm thinking that using all the set is not interesting! (or with conversions for the majority to have more poses!)
Perhaps, anyone can write on his personal post how many knights he want paint??

Thanks Paul, I think I will experiment I mean practice that technique on some other horses before I make an error on Italeri ones

for me it's possible to experiment this practise because I have a lot of them!
(if anybody needs some figs, perhaps I can give them one or more.... )

[Paul]

@Peter....no...the lances are maybe o.4mm whatever too thick (in comparison to a real scale lance) but the length...is as they should be...the thing provided would in reality be about 1.80m long...put it on the rider...put him on the horse...it reaches just a tiny bit in front of the nag....basically he would ride over his enemy before hitting it with the lance.
The selfmade lances also fit into the ring hands of most Italeri sized bods...in fact they are a bit thinner and have to be glued to stop them falling out.
@Randal, Pascal...I've painted this set twice already and I really do not want to do the whole set again.
Each pose ...yes, that's the idea behind this GB. No-one has to do the whole set..it is up to each GBer.

[Paul]

.... About length:
2 m > 2,80 cm
2,50 m > 3,40 cm

(an useful tool here: http://maquettegarden.free.fr/trucs/Con ... helle.html )

Thanks
That lances were about 9 - 14 feet long ....2.7 - 4.26 meters...that makes a 14 foot lance in1/72nd scale over 5 cms...mine are 4.5 cms..

[Paul]

The next three nags have got thier emblems.

[Paul]

All the nags with caparisons have been finished.



I´ve added a muddied effect using middle brown mixed with a bit of black.



This is all taking a bit longer because I have been working on this;
http://paulsbods.blogspot.com/2010/12/banana-plane.html

[musketier]

A bit longer to do? Paul I don't even have the first coat on mine yet But I like how yours are looking so far.

[Paul]

Thanks...looking at the mud I think it comes over a bit too much in the photos..I might tone it down a bit.

[Paul]

now that you mention it Paul yes i see the mud is a little 'uniform' in color and application, toning it down and splotching it up may be the key, wish I knew how to splotch but i just experiment and see where that takes me

Use the paint as it comes..put it on and then use a bit of water on the brush and sort of ....blend/wash it in...then use a lighter mix with more water and blend /wash that on..so that the higher areas end up lighter..ie; there is less mud.

[Paul]

The two sergeants nags today.
One I have painted brown (first dark brown then highlighted with middle brown) the other a grey (first dark grey, them lighter grey highlights)
The saddle cloths I am leaving black.

DAMM...I´ve just seen that there´s a bit of grey that need touching up behind the greys saddle cloth and the browns buckle is a bit to big to the right.!!!!! NO X-mas pudding for me till it´s finished