This article provides some techniques you can use to modify your GW Bretonnian miniatures to help make them unique and customised.

Background

My collection of GW Bretonnians comprises almost exclusively 5th edition miniatures, since I am not a fan of the 6th edition ones. However, I’d been collecting Bretonnians since well before the 6th edition was even hinted at. Therefore, having collected the full range of the 5th edition Bretonnians, I wanted to expand my army whilst trying to avoid duplicating the individual miniatures. So I begrudgingly started adding 6th edition Bretonnians.

I feel I should explain why I don’t like the 6th edition Bretonnians. It’s all the ‘fluff’! And by fluff, I mean all the shields, ribbons, straps and other paraphernalia that seem to cover every surface of the horses and figures in the range. Don’t get me wrong, I love the multi-part assembly options for all the plastic figures and horses. I love the fantastic level of moulded detailing of the plastic miniatures. I just hate all the fluff. Therefore, I remove all the unwanted detail, so that I can expand my Bretonnian army without losing its medieval theme (See “Alternative Miniatures to GW Bretonnians” to find out more background information about other miniatures I’ve used in my Bretonnian army).  

In addition to my wanting to maintain the medieval appearance of my Bretonnians, I like to modify my miniatures in small ways to introduce an element of customisation, and thereby make them unique. I accomplish this objective through simple methods, such as replacing the plastic banners and standards with my own home-made ones; replacing some of the weapons and helmets or heads with ones from accessory sets produced by other manufacturers of 28mm scale miniatures; and by using my own home-made water-slide decals to add the heraldic designs to my Bretonnians (See “Bretonnian heraldry – a more traditional approach” to find out more background information about my Bretonnian army’s heraldry). 

I therefore thought it might be helpful to share some of the techniques I use to modify my Bretonnians to accomplish their customisation. This article covers the following techniques:

So if any of these are of interest to you, then please read on.