Tuesday 10 February 2015

From DavidL - And for something completely different... (65 Points)

In between painting my Epic Orks, I took the time to bang out a small diorama.

This is a project for a tabletop role-playing game campaign I'm currently running, the Great Pendragon Campaign for the King Arthur Pendragon RPG. This is a massive adventure that takes players through the entire sweep of the Arthurian saga, from Uther's downfall to the final battle between Arthur and Mordred. Along the way, the campaign follows the timespan of the Middle Ages, such that Uther's reign is similar to the 11th century while at Camlann the troops are accoutered in a manner reminiscent of the War of the Roses.



As a visual aide, I've been making these little dioramas to show the players as different types of arms and armor appear. Likewise, outside of enchanted Britain, the world goes along much as it did in our own 6th century, and whenever that element intrudes into the mythic timeline, I'll include a bit of it in the diorama.



Right now, we're in the "Conquest Phase", which takes its cues from Malory's and Geoffrey of Monmouth's descriptions of young Arthur's wars against the "Roman Empire" and the Irish. To reflect this age of war, this diorama features only military men (I usually try and include some civilians and ladies in the set pieces). I crafted a base divided into three parts, an homage to medieval maps that showed continental divisions with narrow little waterways.



On the "Britain" portion, we have Arthur's men, sporting their "early-13th-century" (the point where the campaign is currently at) arms and armor. Miniatures are primarily Curteys (as are the transfers), with the herald, er, heralding from Barony Miniatures.



On the "Ireland" portion, we have tribal Irish (from Crusader). This was my first go at painting plaid patterns, and I just had to muddle through as best I could.



And on the "continental" portion, we have late-Roman infantry (also from Crusader) ready to defend their crumbled empire.



A fun little project, and one that particularly emphasizes the at-times rather gonzo nature of the Great Pendragon Campaign - this is sort of the medievalist equivalent of mixing cavemen and dinosaurs! But that's what's in the literature, and we're having great fun with it. We've been playing for a year of real time and still have about nine months (and 40 game years!) left to complete...

With four mounted and five infantry pieces, this will tally up 65 points for my total.

13 comments:

  1. Love it. Great concept well executed. cheers

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  2. Smashing stuff, really nice to see such a well thought out design and great painting.

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  3. Looks ace and a fine justification for throwing such a motley collection of minis on the same base! I like the medieval map-inspired base.

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  4. Fantabulous vignette David. :)

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  5. Just brilliant, from concept to finish :-)

    Ian

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  6. This is absolutely brilliant. Well planned and well executed. A joy to behold!

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  7. Really nice and brilliant painting work. The vignette is fantastic!

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  8. Stunning work David. I love the heraldry and the use of the brook to separate the various factions/players.

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  9. What a cracking piece! If you put that kind of effort into your RPG it would be something wonderful to be a part of!

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  10. This is brilliant. The painting is ace but I love the logic behind the diorama. Awesome stuff!

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  11. Fantastic work. It is quite a stunning role plying aid.

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