In 1996 Games Workshop released 5th Edition Warhammer and with it they re-released the Bretonnian army. As a young University student at the time the government was good enough to provide me a loan to cover living costs. Like most people I decided that I could probably live on 2 minute noodles and cheap sausages whilst putting that loan to better use. In my case I cleverly invested that money in Warhammer and in 1996 that involved buying a Bretonnian army, which was possibly my first choice when I started warhammer but since they had no models I chose Wood Elves instead. It was then that I bought the Green Knight. At the time possibly warhammers most beautifully sculpted model. The fact it’s still hanging around as a fine cast is I think testament to this.
At any rate my flatmate at the time (Hans) cleaned the model and undercoated it in matt white citadel primer. It then sat in my “waiting to paint” pile for what turns out to be twenty years. Part of the reason for the long wait was the fact that I sold my bretonnians before I painted any. I kept the Green Knight because I liked it but I had little cause to paint it other than it’s artistic merit.
This is perhaps the real reason for taking so long to paint it. I really wanted to do a good paint job and never really felt confident I could do that. I like to try to replicate or approximate the GW paint schemes and there is a lot of free hand on the Green Knight. Free hand is not one of my strengths. This became evident when at the start of the year I gave it a go. It was ok but I felt it did not do the miniature justice. I restarted it several times but just couldn’t get the free hand right. Eventually in disgust I tossed the model back in the cupboard. Six months later I pulled it out again and decided that I need to finish it. If I couldn’t free hand it I’d just paint it green and move on.
This is the result. All in all I think it turned out quite well despite the lack of free hand. It is still one of my favourite models.
