Wednesday 25 March 2020

What I painted yesterday.

The first University of Edinburgh art history course I took when I retired was on Medieval Manuscripts. It was fascinating with an excellent lecturer’s input and good discussion from fellow students. One area I found particularly fascinating was that concerned with those bizarre small drawings in manuscripts, what are known as marginalia.
Strange pictures of snails fighting men, weird beasts and of course rabbits! Rabbits with bows,swords and much,much more. Here are a couple of examples

Then came the Kickstarter and how could I resist? The world of marginalia made into lead wargames figures. The sculptor did great research and made rabbits based on manuscript illustrations. For example the rabbit on a lion,the rabbit on a greyhound holding a snail as if hawking and a rabbit attacking a monk. I backed the Kickstarter and in time beautiful figures arrived. They had been put on the back burner until yesterday. So I decided to spend the afternoon enjoyably painting and ended up with a 24 point army for Dragon Rampant not to mention some scary rabbits! Here they are-





20 comments:

  1. Love the rabbits and quirky Medieval manuscripts .

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    1. Well worth reading into as it is a fascinating subject. There is much online including complete manuscripts to flick through, the wonders of technology.

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  2. Lovely pictures (what kind of mushrooms were the mediaeval artists eating?) and wonderful figures too! The bases are little works of art!

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    1. The bases are those patches of model vegetation with a sticky underneath. I find them most effective.

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  3. Hare Hare (sic)

    Delightfully sick and twisted, very appropriate for DR.

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    1. Hare you are them. DR gives an enjoyable game with more than a nod to old school gaming experiences.

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  4. Those figures are great! You did a fine job! I have a set I painted for my daughter's Kings of War Elven army.

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    1. What a lovely thing to do, she must have been delighted. Goodness knows what the elves must have made of these critters...

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  5. Brilliant! Well done Alan. A productive day! All the best. Phil

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  6. They look wonderful! Well done. Cheers, Karl

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    1. Thanks, I am rather pleased how they turned out.

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  7. Bizarre and utterly delightful! "Ah'm tellin' ye, tha' rabbit's dynamite!"

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    1. Plenty more bizarre stuff in the manuscript margins , worth a google...

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  8. Superb and just in time for Easter ...

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    1. Puts a different slant on an Easter egg hunt. I think they are to the Easter bunny what Krampus is to Father Christmas. Also time for a chorus of Run Rabbit Run Rabbit, Run, Run Run...

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  9. Excellent!
    I was tempted by that kickstarter, but in the end decided I probably wouldn't do much with the minis. You did a great job on them. Such wonderfully quirky figures (both in the historical manuscripts and in the finished models).

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    1. I signed up to the KS as I had some 28mm medievals just waiting for an opponent and because they were manuscripts come to life/lead. Thanks for your comment. They are just such lovely castings.

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