Welcome to the Round Table of Bretonnia!

Notes about converting the miniatures

I carried out some minor conversions on all but the Beastman Minotaur, as described below, to adapt the miniatures as necessary for the particular roles that they would play in the diorama.

Princess Bellefleur

The conversion work on Princess Bellefleur consisted of two modifications. The first was to remove the head from the Dynamic Tiriel figure. I did this by first clipping most of the head away with a pair of cutters and then filing the ‘stump’ flat with a needle file, so that the Great Helm would sit at a very slight angle on the miniature’s shoulders. Next, I drilled a small hole into the top of the miniature’s body and a corresponding hole into the base of the Great Helm, then pinned and super-glued the helm to the body.

The second modification was to add a ‘spaulder’ to the miniature’s right shoulder, to match the one on the left shoulder. This was necessary because the miniature is made in two pieces, the main figure itself and a separate piece consisting of the right arm, hands and sword. I assume that, due to difficulties in the casting process or to make assembly easier, the right shoulder lacks its protective section of amour. I sculpted the spaulder onto the shoulder with a tiny amount of Green Stuff, which also conveniently filled a minute gap between the base of the helmet, the pony tail and the right shoulder.

Men at Arms

The two spearmen from Mirliton are supplied with separate spears, but these are quite thick and therefore look ‘out of scale’. Consequently, I replaced the original spears with the polearms from Thunderbolt Mountain, and super-glued these into place. 

Standard Bearer

The banner staff of the Bretonnian Standard Bearer was also very thick and looked more like the trunk of a small tree, so I removed it with cutters, drilled a small hole through the section left clasped in the figure’s hand and inserted a length of thinner hardened brass wire through the hole, then super-glued it in place. For the banner itself, I used a piece of lead foil (removed from the neck of an empty wine bottle), and cut it to shape with a very sharp craft knife. I wrapped the tabs of the lead foil banner around the wire staff and fixed them in place with tiny drops of super-glue. I’d cut the fleur de lys top from the old banner staff and after drilling a small hole into the base of the fleur de lys, I super-glued it onto the top end of the wire staff. For the techniques, tools and materials used to convert the standard bearer’s banner staff, refer to the article Techniques for Modifying Bretonnian Miniatures

Man at Arms casualty

The man at arms casualty only required a small modification to produce the result I wanted. After cutting the spear away from the plastic Beastman gor’s hand, I took the section that carried the spearhead and, using a very sharp craft knife, I cut across the tip of the spear blade to produce a flat edge that could be super-glued into one of the folds of the man at arms’ gambeson. I chose to place the spear at an angle to the casualty’s prone position, so that the spear thrust would appear to have been from slightly behind and to the casualty’s right side. As an extra touch, I placed a sword near him on the ground to make it appear that he had dropped it at the moment he was speared in the back.

Beastman casualty

Finally, the Beatsman gor required three minor modifications to achieve the desired result. The effect I wanted was for the gor to look as though it had had time to dispatch the man at arms with the spear, before Princess Bellefleur had then removed the gor’s head and part of its left arm with one mighty stroke of her sword. I also wanted the gor’s severed left arm to appear as though the Beastman was trying to raise the shield in a vain attempt to ward off the fatal sword blow.

The first modification was to take one of the separate heads that are provided in the Beastman boxed set, and apply some direct but momentary heat to the head so that the braided hair would appear to be hanging downwards when the head was lying on its side. Next I placed an old craft knife blade into a handle and then heated the blade up in a naked flame and immediately applied the side of the blade very briefly to the base of the neck (of the Beastman head), so that it would melt the plastic just enough to make the edge of the neck splay outwards and to make the surface slightly roughened. This action would make the base of the head look more like it had been severed from the gor’s body.

The second modification was to take a small amount of Green Stuff and sculpt the ‘stump’ of the severed neck onto the gor’s body. The recess molded into the plastic of the gor’s shoulders formed the perfect location for the stump.

And for the third and final modification, I glued the left arm to the gor’s body in a raised position, so that it would appear the gor had lifted the shield up to protect itself from the sword blow. Once the arm was firmly glued in place, I heated up the old craft knife blade again in a naked flame and then sliced through the bicep of the left arm, leaving a stump attached to the gor’s body. The heat from the blade melted the plastic of both sections of the arm just enough to splay the edges and roughen the surfaces so, like the head, the effect produced would look like the result of a fearsome sword cut. All in all, these modifications looked very realistic and incredibly grisly.