Leopold III of Habsburg 1386 & His Nobles

Leopoldus Dei Gracia

Dux Austrie Styrie Karunthie Carnuole
Dominus Marchie et Portus Naonis
Comes In Habsburg TyrolisFerretis et in Kyburg Marchie Burgowie Ac
Lantgravius Alsacie
Devise: "Virtuti nil invium"


Left:Johann von Ochsenstein, Leopolds Constable
Middle: Baron Ulrich von Aarburg, Bearer of Leopolds Banner
Right: Leopold III of Habsburg


Right and Foreground: Martin Malterer, Bearer of The Banner of The City Of Freiburg im Breisgau.


Above: Look up the "Heidelberger Liederhandschrift" (Codex Manesse) Plate 35 for this one.

Parthian General

Parthian Clibani

Parthians finished

Just finished the last stroke on a new DBA-Army: the Parthians II/37

Here's a teaser for the upcoming pictures:
Parthian Clibani, Essex Miniatures, 15mm.

Old Paint

This is one of the first Warhammer Knights I painted with more elborate heraldry. The blazon is made up. He's supposed to be the daddy of one of the Chevaliers Errants below. I like this Citadel Figure very much because it seemed to me to be one of the more historically correct models of the 90ies Warhammer Breton-range (apart from the "Morgenstern" in his hand). It spurred my search for other miniature-companies.

Old Paint

Some more WH-Knights.

Old Paint

Same story, means: ca. 30 Warhammer Knights in my collection, painting since 1994, no use in DBA 'cause too big. No use playing Warhammer due to lack of time and patience. So they end up on this blog as filler-ups...it's a shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. I have to tell my friend to cut some 60x50mm metal-bases. Then at least I can put two of these gargantuan knights on one kind-of-DBA-base.

Old Paint

More corny Warhammer Knights: a fantasy Jeanne d'Arc, a french king with a horde on his back.

Early Crusader Knights

Three more early Crusaders. Black Tree Design. Below is shown a bit of the inspiration for one of the above shields: an ivory bookcover from the Meuse-Region, Europe, 2nd half 8th century showing Christus Victor. As it looks very timeless byzantine it's just right for my Antiochian Crusader army.

Somewhere I heard the bellicose franks prefered warrior saints like St. Martin or St. George. In a similar way medieval frankish crusader knights fought as "milites christi" and worshiped Christ as their invincible hercules. And somewhere on my harddisk there is a picture of a 13th century illumination showing Christ on a charger leading a bunch of heavly armoured knights in his raised right hand an open book and between his lips the blade of a long dagger, a symbolic gesture emphasizing the superiority of the spoken word over ... hm...sometimes I'm not sure over what...over violence? Hm...but anyway, makes for a good banner-emblem for a lead army.

Christ bares his cross over his right shoulder like an axe.

Old Paint

Another refugee from the Evil Empire. I took the heraldry from one of the painted blazons on the facade of the townhall in Appenzell, Switzerland. Since I didn't do any research on it I call this guy the "Knight of Appenzell". Any ideas to whom this coat of arms may belong to?

Old Paint

This is a Fantasy-Knight I call Mordred without any particular reason. Its a morph: the horse and and the knight's body is from a WH-alternativ-company whose name I can't recall, the helmet, right arm and the skulls are WH.

Old Paint

A Knight of either Nidau or Neuchâtel or Fenis I painted in pre-DBA-times a couple of years ago. The model is one of a big lot of refugees from the Evil Empire. I'm working on a way to use these huge WH-Knights for DBA, maybe 2 knights on a magnetic 60x50mm base. The baron of Nidau was a powerful enemy to Berne with his houshold troops and 140 nobel knights from the Elsass and Swabia at the Battle of Laupen 1339. The Heraldry is not quite correct...about the inspiration designwise I only say "Codex Manesse". (Picture: Spiezer Schilling late 15th century, Battle of Laupen).

Crusader Knights with St. John Order Foot

Early Crusader Knights

Some Black-Tree-Design Normans I painted as Early Crusader Knights, maybe members of the Order of St. John. I think Black Tree Design produce the most beautiful horses. But they are huge. I got problems putting them on 60x40mm DBA bases.

The Sicilian Army 13th Century

Miniatures from: Crusader-Miniatures, Artizan, Black Tree. The Knights look a bit dated - Still them good ole Normans...BUT: I ordered the right models for this period from Mirliton...but that's another paint-job...will it ever end? By the way, these pictures make for great desktop-backdrops.

Old Paint

Here's Richard Lionheart behaving himself. The heraldry was taken from a seal of Eleanor of Aquitaine, his mother. According to some writings on the web Richard actually bore a red shield with two golden lions looking at each other standing on their hind paws.

Richard Lioncoeur et Philipp Auguste.

Classic Encounter

Merry Christmas!