Sorted...

Originally, I had planned to start painting on a new figure today... But a hectic week at work, a busy friday and saturday, as well as bout of cold/sinusitis that will neither go away, nor fully manifest, has left me knackered and under the weather.

Over the past months, due to my constantly taking things out of boxes, adding items and rifling for bits, my stash of miniatures for the Dungeoneering/Fantasy skirmish had become a sprawling mess. Originally a neat stack of two storage boxes, it had become a mountain of semi-filled storage boxes, loose sprues, blisters and miniatures, liberally sprinkled with bases and bits. I had trouble finding my way in it.
So instead, I took some time to re-arrange and repack my stash, and while doing so, sort out the retinues for the Knights I am converting. I had also recently received some extra Bretonnian minis, including some troop types I previously lacked (halberdiers and squires, matching foot and mounted figures) that could immediately be processed.

Knight number one:

He now has a retinue of a Halberd-wielding Sergeant-at-arms*, two spearmen, two halberdiers, a bannerman, a drummer and five archers. Most likely he will be the Lord (Baron/Earl) of the area or otherwise highest ranking local Knight. Hence the slightly expanded retinue. (I try to keep in mind the concept of a Lance as a fighting unit, or Lances Fournies, with my retinues. I however have larger numbers of men on foot, to account for the needs of scenarios where I'll be depicting a towns militia or stronghold garrison... Also, as of yet, I'm lacking crossbowmen.)

*:Note that I'm not using Sergeant-at-Arms in the historical sense of a non-knighted armoured cavalryman (Aka same gear as a knight, but none of the perks of nobility). I use it to refer to the leader of a Knights footmen, effectively the head of the garrison in absence of the knight.

The second knight:

His retinue consists of his squire, his Sergeant-at-arms, two spearmen, two billmen, a bannerman and five archers.

Then there is the first oddity:

 A sorceress, and her protection detail. She is escorted by a bannerbearer, two spearmen, four archers and an archer-Sergeant. A squire serves as her chaperone. I'm still unsure how she fits into the greater whole, if she were in the employ/under the protection of a local lord, the escort would be in his colours (leading to me "needing" to expand the group to include both extra footmen, as well as the lord himself). If the escort is in her employ, are they mercenaries (which would mean making the group look like irregulars, something I'd rather not do. I'd prefer the sorceress and her escort as a more clean-cut crew) or are they her household troops? If so, how did she become head of a household, and how does she combine the demands of magic with the demands of running a household and protecting her demesne? Questions that will need to be answered before I start painting this particular group.

And then there is the final group:

A local "Hood"lum and his mates, together with their woodland outlaw archers.... ;)
This group will be painted in either greens and browns or otherwise in faded, worn colours, I'm still deciding to go Hollywood or historical brigands with them. Maybe I'll convert the archers to look less clean-cut and orderly as well, if I can find suitable bits.

This left me with a single billman, who will be added to the retinue of my already painted knight. (Which means I'll have to mix the colours to match, something I hadn't counted on...)

With this sorted (heh..), the retinues were neatly bagged and labeled and I set about repacking the sprawling mess of other miniatures. The retinues and the remains of my Bretonnians went into one box, along with stuff I was planning to work on in the short term or otherwise wanted to keep apart from the larger mass of minis (Like my Mordheim miniatures). Everything else went into the larger storage box. A lot neater than before!

Result: Two knights, a sorceress and some local ruffians are now provided with a fitting entourage and my supply of dungeoneering/fantasy minis is again accessible and orderly. Fairly good for an off-day... :)

In other news, 2015 seems to be the Year of the Dungeon outside of my own hobby world as well...
Darkest Dungeons has been released for PC, other platforms to follow, the 25th anniversary edition of Heroquest seems to actually become reality and now Privateer Press has announced a dungeoneering boardgame for their Iron Kingdoms setting for this fall. Colour me a happy (if soon to be poorer...) man!