Burgundian Men at Arms - WIP. Destriers

Just an interim posting of horseflesh, largely to prove that I'm making (slightly glacial) progress with the next Burgundian contingent of men at arms. Frankly I seem to have lost my way a bit with these - partly as I've had few periods of spare time to get into detailed paintings sessions, which is why I recently dipped (no pun intended) into some faster painted figures, just to feel that I was being productive. I also don't really like painting horses - for some reason the Perry plastic horses always seem to need more attention on them than I think I can probably get away with. However I'm happy with using Foundry's Deep Brown Leather triad on horses for the first time, despite the pots I got being a very thin consistency of paint (...so many thanks Stuart!).

So the plan is for all of the unarmoured horses here to have riders done and for them to be based into the next Ordonnance company of men at arms. All of these have had some conversion work done on them - as seen in previous posts and inspired by /lifted from guys on the the Lead Adventurers Forum who are doing great things with the Perry plastics. Most of them are front and rear halves cut and rejoined to produce new positions - plenty of filling and smoothing of gaps. I've also removed the moulded tack that crosses the horses rump, as I find this fiddly to paint convincingly.

I've also painted the first barded horse with the Burgundian devices added, as fully gilded armour. This would have been very expensive work to have had done and so such horse armour will be reserved for the Burgundian duke and close relatives only. I'm unsure on these gold tones. I've used Vallejo Old Gold, washed with GW black and brown, then highlighted with GW Shining Gold - largely as these are the golds that I have to hand. The pictures are all a little dark, but I'm not sure this is the gilded finish I want - I should research a better mix of tones. I also need to smooth the joints of the putty much better than I have done when I attach the moulded cross and flints devices, although they looked OK at the time, painting shows up too many imperfections. It's all a process of trial and error.