Knights of the Round Table

Arthur, the Once and Future King of Britain.

Almost finished with this project now, just a pair of giants to go.

A warrior from the Otherworld, the land of faerie. Choosing to appear as an undead apparition equipped with arms from the past, the Faerie Knight would be a testing martial challenge for questing knights.

The Green Knight appears at Arthur’s Court one winter, bearing an axe and a holly bough. He issues a challenge – he will allow one man to strike a blow against him with his axe, but with the condition that he receives the same blow in turn a year later. Gawain beheads the Green Knight, but this does not kill him, so a year later Gawain journeys to recieve the same blow in kind.

Two villains to battle the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Marhault and Sir Turquine.

Sir Marhault was a champion of King Anguish of Ireland, and is often portrayed as a fierce and formidable opponent in battle. In some versions of the story, Marhalt is sent by King Anguish to challenge the King of Cornwall to a duel over a dispute regarding tribute. In other versions Marhalt is sent to avenge the death of his brother, who was killed by Tristan, the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall.

Sir Turquine was a Knight who hated the Knights of the Round Table. He would challenge them at a river crossing to battle, and then throw them into his prison when he won. Shields from the defeated where hung on a tree to defy Arthur. The Once and Future King numbers his captives at 64, before Lancelot finally overcomes Turquine after a 2 hour duel.

Next up are some of the key ladies from Arthurian tales – Isolde, Queen Guenevere, Morgan le Fay and the Lady in the Lake. I’m most happy with how the veil worked out on the Lady of the Lake.

A couple of very quickly painted Arthurian relics, the Grail and Sword in the Stone, plus a Dwarven blacksmith. Useful as objective markers or scatter for games.

Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, is one of the French Arthurian Romances by de Troyes. It is a tale of knight errantry, with Yvain losing the love of his lady due to breaking a promise, and then undertaking numerous deeds to win back her favour.

Part of the tale has Yvain rescuing a lion from a dragon, after which the lion becomes his loyal companion, helping him defeat giants, knights and demons on his journey to win back his wife.

Cath Palug, or Palug’s Cat, was a monstrously sized cat that inhabited Anglesey and terrorised the area. Welsh myth has that Sir Kay hunted down the cat, although later stories have Arthur facing down the beast.

The figure is modelled as a lynx, so attempted to paint an appropriate fur colour and pattern.

A small retinue to accompany King Arthur – a squire, herald and bannerman.

Time for a villain to face all the Knights of the Round Table. Within the stories, Meleagant abducts Guinevere, necessitating a rescue by Lancelot, who eventually overcomes him despite various tricks to avoid direct confrontation.

Next up were another four Knights of the Round Table – Tristan, Kay, Galahad and Ywaine.

I cross referenced all the heraldry for the Knights with my copy of the Pendragon RPG, which is based on the established arms of the Knights from the stories.

I’ve slowly been working away on this project, and have just finished painting up a few knights.

First is Perceval, and the Orkney brothers, Gawain and Gareth.

With all the named characters and knights from the stories of the Round Table, the obvious starting point was just a bunch of bandits. I picked these first because I could ignore messing around with any heraldry, and get them turned around pretty quick to get the project going.

A little while ago, Daniel Mersey ran a Kickstarter for a set of Arthurian figures produced by Temple of the West. These figures are based on Arthur as a High Medieval King, with knights in plate armour – the Hollywood, Mallory version of the Round Table – rather than a semi-historic dark age Arthur in post-Roman Britain.

I have had a lot of fun playing the Pendragon RPG over the years, and these figures really appealed, so I backed the campaign. And as often happens, the KS is delivered successfully, but I fail to do anything with my new shiney toys.

This box has been sat on my shelf for about a year now, so it’s about time to try and get all the contents painted up. There’s about 30-40 figures in the box, ranging from the expected characters and named knights, to some villains, big cats and giants.