johnnybach
Major General
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2010
- Messages
- 13,663
I'm starting off a new thread with some knights drawn from a less than usual source. It's called the Codex Manesse - and rather than trying to explain what this almost miraculously preserved collection of parchments ( over 600 years old) is - maybe 5 minutes reading of the attached link - might best explain it.
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/allg/benutzung/bereiche/handschriften/codexmanesse.html
And if you scoot to thebottom of the page - there you will find Codex manesse - digitized - which - if clicked - will give access to ALL of the wonderfully illustrated medieval pages. And - lurking within those pages - you will find illustrations of some Medieval Knights and their colourful heraldry.
One such illustration (page 11 - if you got that far ) is going to provide me with my opening subject - this time. He's Hertzog Heinrich von Breslau ( Herzog is a hereditary title - broadly meaning Duke, in English). And to save you looking - here he is:^&grin
In order to make him up - I've gone back to using a re-cast of one of Selwyn-Smith's figures, from back in the 1950's. Mine was adapted slightly - in order to better represent Heinrich - though I fancied making him up to appear as if he was in a joust. In the picture you can see his Great-Helm and Lance being carried for him - and even a man with a hammer (blacksmith?) to provide running repairs to his armour. One word of warning about such illustrations, however. They were done by several different hands - and at least SOME of the heraldry is suspect. If the illustrator wasn't sure - they sometimes made things up. So.....if I change things very slightly myself, I'm only going along with the precedent set by the original artists, and usually for a good reason.
Anyway, enough of the chat - let's get on with the first figure.
My first attempt, was to see if these old eyes could actually manage the heraldry for Heinrich - and this is what he looked like - after an undercoat of cream, was overpainted with sage-green in the diamond pattern. I actually drew on the pattern with red-brown paint first - and painted in the green when it had dried. Then I tried my hand at the eagles. Well - no Rembrandt - but okay in this scale (54mm) for what is to become a Glossy Toy Soldier (eventually).
My next pic shows the pieces for several modifications I wanted to make:
Ignore the well developed painted figure for now - and see the basic casting on the left. I have gluede the two halves together - and removed any flash and filled in minor holes and defect and generall cleaned up the casting by filing and sanding. I also removed his head - as I wanted one with a helmet I can remove - which you can also see in front of him(below)
Note also the arm with dagged sleeves - holding a banner ( which comes with this casting ). I wanted the arm - but not the banner - so removed the banner. I also wanted my figure to hold the reins with his LEFT hand ( i.e. the one holding the banner) - and a Lance in his right hand. This meant adapting both arms with dagged sleeves ( which I wanted to retain - because they look so good) and change positioning of the left lower arm (to now hold reins ) and replace his lower right arm with a suitable arm to hold a lance. So.............some cutting off lower arms and repositioning and/or replacement required. You can see the new Shield holding left arm now fitted to the partially painted figure - and the re-modelled Lnce arm in front of the figure. I always fit arms AFTER the heraldry is painted on the body of the Knight - as getting a brush around them - can be quite tricky. Easier to paint the heraldry first - then fit the bits.
Note also - the sword in scabbard fitted before the arm goes on. This is an addition - as no sword appears in the original illustration - though a Knight without a sword?????? I don't think so. Note also that I have coloured the turn-backs and inner lining of the Caparison differently to the picture. The original pale colour just looked anaemic when I first tried it - so I chose a stronger colour instead (red-brown). In fact - very similar to the Blacksmith's horse - which provided a stylistically nice counterpoint colour in the original picture. So...........a few small stylistic changes .
Here's a pic of the other side, by the way - just for a look at the heraldic ornamentation on his other side - which I think is fairly representative of the original pic - though I think the original colour now represented by cream MIGHT have been gold, at one time ( the pics are old - and have deteriorated over time). To counter this - I have overlaid borders of gold around each panel - but it retains the overall look and feel of the original picture quite well, I think.
I had to (unusually) varnish each piece of heraldry as I went along, this time - as I found that it was so fiddley, my hands kept smudging the eagles as I handled the piece. So I painted the body first - dried - applied thin coat varnish - dried - then did each half side and repeated the process. No smudges that way - so worked out okay - just VERY fiddley - and took longer.
Annyway, I'm off and running with this one - with maybe a few more to go - as time permits. jb
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/allg/benutzung/bereiche/handschriften/codexmanesse.html
And if you scoot to thebottom of the page - there you will find Codex manesse - digitized - which - if clicked - will give access to ALL of the wonderfully illustrated medieval pages. And - lurking within those pages - you will find illustrations of some Medieval Knights and their colourful heraldry.
One such illustration (page 11 - if you got that far ) is going to provide me with my opening subject - this time. He's Hertzog Heinrich von Breslau ( Herzog is a hereditary title - broadly meaning Duke, in English). And to save you looking - here he is:^&grin
In order to make him up - I've gone back to using a re-cast of one of Selwyn-Smith's figures, from back in the 1950's. Mine was adapted slightly - in order to better represent Heinrich - though I fancied making him up to appear as if he was in a joust. In the picture you can see his Great-Helm and Lance being carried for him - and even a man with a hammer (blacksmith?) to provide running repairs to his armour. One word of warning about such illustrations, however. They were done by several different hands - and at least SOME of the heraldry is suspect. If the illustrator wasn't sure - they sometimes made things up. So.....if I change things very slightly myself, I'm only going along with the precedent set by the original artists, and usually for a good reason.
Anyway, enough of the chat - let's get on with the first figure.
My first attempt, was to see if these old eyes could actually manage the heraldry for Heinrich - and this is what he looked like - after an undercoat of cream, was overpainted with sage-green in the diamond pattern. I actually drew on the pattern with red-brown paint first - and painted in the green when it had dried. Then I tried my hand at the eagles. Well - no Rembrandt - but okay in this scale (54mm) for what is to become a Glossy Toy Soldier (eventually).
My next pic shows the pieces for several modifications I wanted to make:
Ignore the well developed painted figure for now - and see the basic casting on the left. I have gluede the two halves together - and removed any flash and filled in minor holes and defect and generall cleaned up the casting by filing and sanding. I also removed his head - as I wanted one with a helmet I can remove - which you can also see in front of him(below)
Note also the arm with dagged sleeves - holding a banner ( which comes with this casting ). I wanted the arm - but not the banner - so removed the banner. I also wanted my figure to hold the reins with his LEFT hand ( i.e. the one holding the banner) - and a Lance in his right hand. This meant adapting both arms with dagged sleeves ( which I wanted to retain - because they look so good) and change positioning of the left lower arm (to now hold reins ) and replace his lower right arm with a suitable arm to hold a lance. So.............some cutting off lower arms and repositioning and/or replacement required. You can see the new Shield holding left arm now fitted to the partially painted figure - and the re-modelled Lnce arm in front of the figure. I always fit arms AFTER the heraldry is painted on the body of the Knight - as getting a brush around them - can be quite tricky. Easier to paint the heraldry first - then fit the bits.
Note also - the sword in scabbard fitted before the arm goes on. This is an addition - as no sword appears in the original illustration - though a Knight without a sword?????? I don't think so. Note also that I have coloured the turn-backs and inner lining of the Caparison differently to the picture. The original pale colour just looked anaemic when I first tried it - so I chose a stronger colour instead (red-brown). In fact - very similar to the Blacksmith's horse - which provided a stylistically nice counterpoint colour in the original picture. So...........a few small stylistic changes .
Here's a pic of the other side, by the way - just for a look at the heraldic ornamentation on his other side - which I think is fairly representative of the original pic - though I think the original colour now represented by cream MIGHT have been gold, at one time ( the pics are old - and have deteriorated over time). To counter this - I have overlaid borders of gold around each panel - but it retains the overall look and feel of the original picture quite well, I think.
I had to (unusually) varnish each piece of heraldry as I went along, this time - as I found that it was so fiddley, my hands kept smudging the eagles as I handled the piece. So I painted the body first - dried - applied thin coat varnish - dried - then did each half side and repeated the process. No smudges that way - so worked out okay - just VERY fiddley - and took longer.
Annyway, I'm off and running with this one - with maybe a few more to go - as time permits. jb
jb
