Good day to you fine people - and hello to my 2 readers, you in Gloucestershire and you in my mum's house.
Well some time ago now - I started painting the "Knights of the Rune Table". Followers of the once and future Dwarf King, the Dux Bellendum - Arfa Pantdragon.
The Knights - led by their champion Ser Lotsoflance, continue their quest for the Holy Ale, a magical vessel full of ale - that bestows on anyone that drinks from it - the gift of everlasting ale!
More of the knights later - but I originally planned for a fairly standard banner, perhaps even a purchased decal if I couldn't be bothered to do my usual and print my own.
I have no idea why I tried to attempt to paint the most intricate piece of freehand since my (not disrespectful if you think about it) Warmaster Trump banner broke Facebook, and made the (supposedly adult) Oldhammer group weep in the foetal position - like a hardcore male conservative asked to observe a prefered pronoun. But yes...I free-handed this 3 inch square banner (2 sided).
I wanted to pay some form of tribute to one of my Holy Trinity of GW artists - John Blanche. And what better of his classic pieces to try to replicate at this scale for a band of Dwarf Knights - than John's seminal piece - The Knight Panther.
I figured that - for whatever Oldhammer reason - an ancient Knight Panther was for some reason sacred to the Knights of the Rune Table. That even as a human, he or she was some kind of ancestral influence on their clan. And since none of them had ever gazed upon the Holy Ale before - the Knight was a more likely subject for their holy banner.
I usually do my banners on the foil tubes of tomato paste or chilli paste or whatever. But I knew I was going to fail several times before I was happy...and so I was prepared to fail many times. So I cut a template, drew out 5 or 6 double-sided banners onto copy paper and got the paints out...I was lucky. After 2 rejected attempts - the third I was happy with.
So I folded it Stuck it together around some brass rod (my dad makes me buy imported stuff from America) and attached it into a hole drilled into a knight's hand. The attached a banner top from my bitz box - which has been massively increased my good friend Darkblade.
So the banner seems to have come out OK.
Well.
I hadn't really looked at the first Knights of the Rune Table (x8) since I speed painted them during lockdown.
For those that know me - it was a very dark time for me, as it was for many others. Mrs Street got stranded in Africa and the Foreign Office didn't care; I was isolated from my very few freinds; I was pretty seriously ill; I was isolated from my family; family members died and I couldn't attend a funeral while the British Government had Champagne parties in the Downing Street garden. Things many of us experienced.
I guess I did these seven in 2020 - it seems a lifetime ago now. In a short lockdown break when four people could meet I was invited to a game. I think a few friends "norf ov 'ere" saw my plight and wanted to check I was OK. So I rushed these out.
Looking at them now...they need more than a little touch up, they need new shields and a fairly extensive repaint - in order to be ready for Night of the Living Lead.
NotLL will more than likely be the very last Oldhammer thing that will ever take place at the old Foundry venue that we know and love in East Stoke. The Godfathers of Oldhammer (and some newbees like me for some reason) - will ride to their doom, to meet such an end...as will be worth a song.
Fell deeds awake. Now for Wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn.
For the last time then.
