Choosing the colours of House Arryn, Game of Thrones

A simple online search reveals a confusing range of colours being used to represent House Arryn, one of the lesser noble houses in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, more popularly known by the title of his first book Game of Thrones (GoT) in the HBO series. From dark blue to greyish blue to sky blue, I was spoilt for choice and that resulted in my miniature paint conversion project - of the noble houses in Westeros, the world of GoT- stalling for quite a while, until now.

Work-in-progress paint conversion of a Bretonnian warhorse into a House Arryn warhorse

Warhorse now awaits freehand painting of House Arryn heraldy designs

Based on what I could make out from some scenes in the HBO series, I have seen dark blue as well as greyish blue (with a hint of sky blue) being used. The former didn't appeal to me because it was too close to the blue used by House Tully (yet another noble house I plan to paint) while the latter seemed dull. So I settled for a blue that was more light-sky-blue with less greyish-blue undertones. 

Two promising colour schemes for House Arryn

I haven't completely abandoned the idea of using greyish blue in the overall colour scheme- for example on parts of the knight that sits atop the warhorse - but the final decision to go ahead rests on how the metallic greys of the knight's amour will look against the greyish blue hues.

House Arryn warhorse work-in-progress (front and back view)

To obtain the 'light-sky-blue-with-some-greyish-blues' colour scheme I had to use Reaper Master Series paints such as Blue Liner, Ashen Blue, Sky Blue and Ghost White mixed in various ratios.

Blue colour schme used for the House Arryn warhorse

Meanwhile, I added purer forms of sky blue into parts of the House Arryn warhorse (see below) in order to brighten up the whole miniature. The neutral browns of the warhorse's leather reins provide some contrast to the lighter blues. With so much brown already showing up via the leather reins, I then opted to paint the horse grey which in turn complemented the light blue colours as things came full circle. To add a bit of 'pop' to the overall colours, I glued on some bright green grass on the base. 

Purer sky blue colours were added to brighten up the overall look

Two main things remain undone; firstly painting the knight and House Arryn heraldry. Secondly, I foresee a tough challenge in getting the falcon on the knight's arm to look realistic and life-like.

Progress so far on the whole miniature, knight and warhorse of House Arryn

It feels great to finally get my Game of Thrones project underway again. To date, I have only finished knights for House Lannister, House Clegane and House Baratheon. Finishing the knight for House Arryn will make it four with another four nobles houses to choose from the eight-miniatures GW Warhammer Bretonnian Knights set that this project is based on.  Good times lie ahead for sure!