Monday 19 March 2018

From Curt: Renaissance Duel Prize for IainW - The Knight of Gabbiano (10 Points)


Last year Iain and I had a Renaissance Duel to which he soundly trounced me. (What was I thinking? Well, obviously not much as I did the exact same thing this year...) As a prize I offered to paint him an Italian Wars figure. He graciously offered to send me one of his old skool knights that he was in the midst of stripping for repaint and I said I'd be happy to do one up for him. 

Well, it turned out I lied.


In my minds eye I thought Iain would send a gendarme all decked out in full plate and barding - lots of steel, so a fairly straightforward job, right? Nope. What I received instead was a fully caparisoned knight that would require hand painted heraldry emblazoned all over the horse barding. Iain, I silently cursed you when I opened that parcel. ;)

Nonetheless, I based up the b*gger and he sat on the paint desk staring at me this past year. In fact I petulantly ignored him until this week, when guilt finally took over and I set him in front of me so I could figure out what to do with him. Well, there was no way I was going to cop out and do a solid-colour job - he needed proper heraldry to get slaughtered in, so I put my thinking cap on. After a few hours of looking at various designs on the web I decided to take a break and get a drink. On my way to the kitchen I passed our wine rack and there he was, prancing on his charger, proud as a bishop on a bottle of Chianti.

Now I was off and running.

  
The one nice thing about this casting is that the detail is fairly soft and smooth, which made painting the pattern that much easier. Once I got my eye in, the pattern began to unfold quite easily and a few hours later the bulk of him was done.


The lance is white metal so did my best to straighten it. I'm usually not a bit fan of metal lances, but I do like the big flaring vamplate on this one.


After all my bellyaching I'm happy with how he turned out and am now quite sad to see him go. I'll have to give that pattern a go with one of my Steel Fist gendarmes in the future... 



There you go Iain, the Knight of Gabbiano. I hope you like him. As a request, I ask that you have a glass of Chianti to toast him into your collection. :)

Cheers!

Curt

29 comments:

  1. Impressive work Curt! I've always admired these kinds of caparisons on cavalry and used to dream of a Bretonnian army. I've never been brave enough to actually attempt anything like that so I definitely salute you for your work!

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    1. Thanks Samuli. Yes, I've always admired people who've done fully caparisoned armies. It's a tremendous amount of work to do it right.

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  2. Excellent work Curt! And alcohol inspired heraldry to boot :)

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    1. I think it's the only way to face these kind of challenges. :)

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  3. Fabulous work Curt, he looks great and I probably need no promting to drink red wine! Thank you very much, I'll just get on with priming the figure I'll be painting for Sidney ...!
    Best Iain

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    1. Delighted you like him Iain. Yes, I should start rummaging for a figure for Sidney as well... Something with a tall wig and big cuffs!

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  4. Outstanding... and now I am thirsty and its too early for wine.

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    1. Put yourself in a Mediterranean frame of mind and you'll find it's never too early. :)

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  5. Beautiful looking figure Curt!

    Christopher

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  6. Clansman, a great job and wonderful source of inspiration (probably a good thing you didn't have a bottle of Fat B*stard merlot in the rack!). Best wishes to the end of The Challenge. D

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    1. Haha! Yes, or there's also '19 Crimes' another very clever label (and quite tasty I might add):

      http://19crimes.com/

      C

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  7. Lucky Iain!!! Superb painting (I would expect nothing less) - now if you fancy painting some Gringo40s French Napoleonic personalites........

    I trust that bottle is now empty.

    Cheers,

    Richard C

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    1. Wrung dry. :)

      That Murat at Eylau is superb.

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  8. Excellent figure Curt - now you need a unit of these for your own army. I've been quite thankful none of my Gendarmes have the caparisoning. I have also pondered the Gabbiano label on the Kaniggit Keyanti (as it's know in our casa) as a potential livery source but never got up the Cajones to try it.

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    1. Thanks Pete. I'm sorely tempted to try a few of Oli's in full caparison. I'll need much loin girding (and a few full bottles) for that. :)

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  9. Turns out inspiration is in wine, after all! Very fine heraldry and a wonderful duel prize.

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    1. As if you had any question of this hypothesis. Pop me another bottle mate. ;)

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  10. A wonderful figure Curt! And definitely just the right source of inspiration. Next time I hit the proverbial wall, I‘ll make sure to pay my local wine and/ or beer shop a visit.

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    1. I think in your case Nick that you'd be well served painting Landsknechts with all the awesome beer you have at hand. :0)

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  11. A lovely prize and well worth the contest!

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  12. Fantastic! That's really good. Great inspiration and a good idea to add detail to something that lacks it. Lovely work. cheers

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