There can be few more sight more evocative of the whole fantasy genre than a column of brightly coloured mounted knights thundering towards the enemy, lances at the ready and no army is better than providing these troops than the Bretonians. However one thing that many people find difficult is painting the required heraldry on the horse and knight himself. This article is intended to give some simple rules and idea that when followed enable the novice, or not so novice Bretonian general make his best troops look like the flowers of chivalry that they're supposed to be.
The bold patterns of Bretonian heraldry means that it should be very quick and easy to paint visually excellent units of Knights. With just a couple of colours you can create a distinctive paint scheme for each of you knights. Even if you don't apply any shading to these flat colours you will have a force that can be fielded in your battles and still looks good. And remember you can always go back an add extra shading at a later date.
You can also and extra details to your knight heraldry such as Fleur de Leys, Griffons and Dragons. These details are called devices and by far the best way produce them is to get a set of decals and then paint over the top of them. This gives a very professional look to you miniatures and unless someone looks very closely at them they'll never know that you 'cheated'
In 'real life' there are strict rules defining the use of
colours and pattens in heraldry but these are really to complex
for painting your knights. Instead I'll give you a few simplified
ground rules and show you some simple heraldic patterns and
devices. I've also simplified the language of heraldry to keep
the complexity down.
A Knights heraldic colours are shown on his shield, his surcoat and the caparison of his warhouse. This gives you several large areas on which to paint your personal heraldic designs.
I suggest that you use a limited set of strong colours to create the various pattens and devices worn by the Bretonian Knights and the ones that I think are the most suitable are as follows, White, Black, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple and Orange. Of these the first five are the most commen with the other three being used less frequently.
Metals and Colours
When you are painting heraldic devices, there's a special rule of
heraldry that defines what paints you use for the device and the
background. Yellow and White are used to represent gold and
silver and are called metals (note that you don't actually
use gold or silver paint!!) whilst the others are known as colours.
The rule is that a coloured device only goes on a metal
background and a metal device only goes on a coloured background
- metals never go on metals and colours never go on colours.
For example a white or yellow lion can go on any of the colours and a green dragon can go on either a yellow or white background. However a green dragon couldn't be placed on a red background as they are both colours.
Painting these patterns onto your knights is simplicity itself. Because they're large blocks of solid colour, a single coat of paint can be used though of couse you can apply extra washes and shading if you desire. However there are a few points bering in mind when painting your knights.
Start with the lighter colour as if you make a mistake its far easier to paint over a light colour with a darker colour than visa versa
Leave each colour to dry before you paint the next one otherwise you'll blend the two colours together at the edges. You want a nice clean, crisp division between the colours
If you are an inexperienced painter, keep to the simpler devices to start with: cresents, crosses etc. If your painting the more involved devices, remember that heraldic beasts are highly stylised. You are not going for realism here
With the more complicated devices you can leave them of the knight surcoat if you want. Either paint the surcoat in the background pattern of as just one of the background colours or metals.
As well as clearly identifying him on the battlefield, a Knight's heraldry also shows his lineage, connecting him with a long ling of noble ancestors and showing how he's related to other noble families. These relationships through descent and marriage are of prime importance to a proud nobility such as the Bretonians and they are often the basis of grand alliances brought together in times of war.
There are various ways that you can show a Knights noble family ties through his heraldry - here's a few simple options
Use the same colours and metals in different patterns
Use the same background but move the device to different positions or add different devices.
Use the same device but change its and the background colours
Combine two coats of arms to indicate close ties between two noble families through marriage. This can lead to some complicated designs so it is best done with simple patterns and devices