Rising from the Ashes like the Lady rising from the Lake

I started collecting Warhammer Fantasy miniatures in 1993 after finding White Dwarf 158 in my local newsagents. From then until the End times I was pretty much a GW Fanboy. When they started to release the End times books I became disillusioned with them as a company and so simply ignored everything they did! As far as I'm concerned none of that rubbish happened and my world remains as it was at the beginning of 8th Ed. Or at least it did until I started reading blogs online which hearkened back to a time when the Warhammer world was less developed  and I finally realised that I could just make everything up as I saw fit!

Since the closure of the Roundtable of Bretonnia forum I've been a bit lost with regards my hobby. I don't know why but my army journal acted as a kind of focus for my output and it spurred me on to get stuff done. With it's loss I also found my hobby mojo waning and I've struggled to get back into the swing of things (I've painted 8 High Elves in 12 months!! That's it nothing else) So in order to try ad get my focus back I've decided to start a blog!

The main focus of this blog will be to chart the progress of my Bretonnian army and their myriad adversaries and allies. I'll also post the odd Battle report as and when I manage to get some games in. It's likely to be very erratic to be honest but I'm going to try and get into some kind of rhythm and post regularly if I can.

So I suppose I should start with some pictures of my Bretonnians so far, to provide a starting point for this record.

So here we have the vast majority of the Grande Armee of the Marches de Cumbri. It's a mix of 5th and 6th Ed GW Bretonnians as well as some Black Tree Design Men of Averaign and some 100 years war figures. Still a lot of work to do! 

This is Charles Marchand, Lord Careluel, 4th Marquis de Cumbri, Defender of the Faith, Devoted of the Lady, Living Saint and saviour of Carcassonne. He's my General and is a Gamezone Knight Errant Hero.

This is Eleanor Marchand, Lady Caerluel, Marquessa De Cumbri, Prophetess of the Lady and wife to Charles Marchand. Eleanor was one of the first Bretonnians I painted when she was released back in the mid to late 90's. I haven't gotten around to repainting her yet but at some point I probably will.

This is the Lady Isabella Fitzgibbon a Damsel of the Lady of the Lake. Isabella is as old as Lady Caerluel having been painted now for 20 odd years.

These fine upstanding young fellows were my first unit of Knights. I got them in the old 5th Ed Hunting Party boxed set and painted them up straight away. They've now been dipped in dettol ready for their new paint schemes.

These chaps also came as part of the hunting Party set and were painted around the same time. at present they're still resplendent in their original colours but that will change in the near future.

My men at Arms next and these are some of my favourite minis in my Bretonnian Army. Unfortunately I never got around to buying a unit of Spearmen and I now can't afford to purchase the original minis. This unit has now been stripped and added to with some Black Tree Design Men of Averaign Halberdiers.

The last of my original units are these Squires, 8 in total and again they were part of the Hunting Party boxed set. Like the Mounted Squires/Yeomen these are still in their original paint scheme.

Finally we have Sir Tristan de Ireby my old General and one of my favourite Bretonnian figures. I was very proud of this paint job back in the day and if I'm honest I'm not sure I'll ever be able to bring myself to strip him even though the mini deserves better.

So that covers all of my original Bretonnians. My next post will cover the 5th Ed additions and the 6th Ed purchases I made.