Repanse de Lyonesse, Damoiselle de Guerre - part 3.

 

It is the Bretonnian year 1,017 (Imperial Calendar year 2,007). The lands of Bretonnia are ravaged by foul Chaos invaders and with King Louis the Brave dead, the Knights of Bretonnia, whilst valiantly defending the peasant populace under their protection are being thrown back at every turn.

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With banner flying high behind her, glittering sword and armour, and bright blue shield, Rapanse rode with head held high, filled with the power of the Lady of the Lake. 

Her horse kicked up clods of mud from the churned roadway as she followed the tracks leading away from the hidden tomb she'd visited.

Peasant refugee's, first few and slowly gathering in numbers as she rode Northwards parted before her and bowed as she passed. None could believe their eyes as they saw a young girl riding towards the invaders, clad in shining armour and determined look set upon her face.

Children cheered as she passed, men and women shied their gaze away from her passing, however looking upon the banner seemed to lift all spirits as she passed through.

As time passed, she began to hear the noises of battle ahead and the numbers of peasant refugee's dwindled. Discarded belongings scattered the sides of the road, some casualties and unfortunates who had succumbed to their wounds of the battle ahead lay where they had fallen trying to flee.

Steeling herself as the sounds grew in volume, she rounded the corner under a stand of trees and was shocked by her first sight of open battle.

Everywhere she looked Bretonnian warriors struggled to hold back a tide of frothing Beastmen. Men at Arms pushed with their shields and were battered backwards by the raging clubbing of the blood mad Gor warriors.

A unit of archers followed the commands of their Villein and knocked and loosed arrows to bellowed command's, elsewhere other archers fought tooth and nail with their knives as they had ran out of arrows to fire.

The last few gallant knights were preparing a charge and trying to turn their horses back into the fray.

After her shocked moment of hesitation, she heard the Lady's voice whisper to her and spurred her horse forwards.

"Rid my land of these foul foes. For they do offend me with their presence".

With banner whip-cracking in the rush of wind, she charged past the knights with a shouted cry.

"FOR BRETONNIA AND FOR THE LADY".

The Knights quickly brought their horses under control and gathered into a lance formation about her, filling up ranks of each flank charging in behind Rapanse.

Though there were only seven knights left, including Rapanse, they fought like the heroes of old. The power of the Lady and Giles le Breton filled each warrior and they hacked and slaughtered their way through the press of half-beastial foes.

A shaman threw a crackling black ball of energy at them, which was deflected upwards into the banner and absorbed, the banner glowing brighter, ever brighter.

Rapanse wheeled her horse and made for the creature. Rearing up and flailing it's front hooves, her horse kicked the foul thing into the floor and stamped down, ending it's life and breaking the resolve of the warherd which turned to flee.

When all was secure, the knights gathered around and were shocked and humbled to find that they had been led by a young girl. One who not only was obviously blessed by the lady, but one who willing rode into combat to defend her homeland.

Each one knelt before Rapanse and pledged their oath of service to her and to the lady, to see the invaders repelled and to ride with Rapanse to see it done.

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Part three of this series about Rapanse de Lyonesse focussed upon the next section of painting.

When last we left our heroine, she had her base coats applied but was looking a little flat and lacking in detail.

This time around I've re-layered the Macragge Blue which is the main base colour, leaving the darker shaded areas under the detailing.

The red got a layer of Mephiston Red on the same principal, likewise the yellow with Iyanden Darksun*.

The white I wasn't happy with at all so it got a fresh base layer of Grey Seer from the pot.

Highlighting started with the blue which was Calgar Blue (kind of on an Ultramarines kick here), and the red got highlights using Evil Sunz Scarlet, in order for them to be bold enough to stand out. My pot of Dorn Yellow* had dried up, but I don't think that the Darksun really needs the extra highlight, if I'd have used contract yellow, then it would have definitely.

As you can see, layering on the heraldry on the surcoats of her horse has really added to the miniature, and keeping with the limited scheme of blue and red with spots of yellow and white draws your eye to the details sculpted onto her.

At this point I hit her with a spray coat of Matt Varnish to protect the paintwork I'd gotten into place, and so that the next step could be to brighten up her armour and bring the sheen back after the shading step earlier. This also had the added bonus of taking the sheen off of her lance and making it look like weathered wood.

I do think her face is going to need some work after looking at this close up though. That'll be in the next and final post in this small series when I get her finished.

*****

I had mentioned that Bretonnia wasn't always the shining chivalrous kingdom it is remembered as, well when originally introduced into the setting, Bretonnia was quite similar in atmosphere and depth to the Empire. Its ruling class were uncaring, the least caring being the King himself, while corruption in every form was everywhere, the nobility (themselves sordidly decadent) were willfully blind to it, preferring to hide their fear and corruption behind extravagance. 

In this version the kingdom is rules by an absolute monarchy and is around 1,500 years old since its founding. Mostly considered a backwater compared to Karl Franz's much older Empire, the kingdom surpassed it's neighbour at some point and was considered a beacon of modernity and progressiveness.

However the previous three rulers (up to the settings current timeline in 4th edition), had let corruption and degradation set into the kingdom and the cities had become scenes of squalor.

Mud and slowly decaying buildings marked a stark contrast to the calm, rolling fields of the countryside outside.

A Bretonnian knight from WFRPG, looking very Empire-esque with those ruffles on his clothes and that 'stache.

Bureaucrats embezzled money which was raised to repair buildings and roads. The nobility were often thrillseekers and unwittingly would be members of chaos cults, and they would willfully turn a blind eye to this to indulge in extravagant balls and banquets.

This is a world away from when the kingdom was retconned into the high fantasy, Arthurian inspired knightly theme it took on in 5th edition onwards.

This is often the most fondly remembered version of the Bretonnian kingdom, and many still lament GW making the range go out of production (I get it from a marketing/IP perspective, as you can't copyright Arthurian Knights). 

I've waffled on enough for now, in the final post as I mentioned I'll have finished Rapanse off, and I'll showcase her properly.

Until next time, have nice day...

*It's strange how some paints dry up and some don't. Iyanden Darksun is an old pot of paint, from when GW made the foundation paints range I believe (I think it's been renamed to Averland Sunset now).

Whereas Dorn Yellow is a newest edition layer paint and that's the one which has dried up fast.

Hell, I have a very old pot of Dark Angels Green which is still good, and is in one of the clear hexagon pots which they used to use about twenty years ago!