More Fezian Frontier Regiment Completed

I finished painting another fifteen of these medieval Fezians today. I still need to coat them with PVA and then varnish them. That makes nineteen figures but I have an officer I forgot to undercoat so he will make twenty figures. One of the figures will also become a flag bearer and I might also make a musician.

 

I'm fairly happy with the conversions and paint scheme except I am starting to think the yellow cresents look a little like bananas! The shading from the tunic wash I was not happy with as it was a little too dark and pooled at the bottom of the creases so I re-did it with some purple paint added to the wash. The bananas...er...cresents were edged with purple mixed with black and then I put some more purple on the shields to edge up to a thinner line. The faces were painted with GW Ratskin Flesh and shaded with Reikland flesh wash. The eyes were painted first black and then the corners picked out with off white. The flesh colour was used again to edge up to the black around the eyes to reduce it to a thin line and to make sure the eyes were not too wide. I used a fine brush - something like five z. These fine brushes are good kept for this sort of detail but don't last long, even with careful washing. I replace them at least once a fortnight, sometimes more. At six dollars a brush that works out to be a significant expenditure each year. Once the brushes, of any size, lose their points they are relegated to painting bases, dry brushing and applying PVA. Then the next step is the suicide mission where they are used to apply Super Glue.( Some people cut off the  hairs and use them for grass on bases but I use sisal string, dolls hair or real hair for that).

Although the Fezians have a Muslim look they are not necessarily so - I'm playing with the idea of them being Moon worshippers. Historically Saracens, Ottomans and the like tended to have round shields. I am not sure if any shields sported cresents although they were on the flags. Also the cresents tended to face right rather than left but these blokes are not meant to be strictly historical. I am also working on a fictional flag to go with them.