A Handul Of Saracens/Fezians And Conversions From Red Indians
At last ACOTS I bought a box or two of Italeri Saracens from Bob. I needed some more to complete units. I have painted half of them and when completed they will be added to existing units.
I like my mounted units to be of at least twelve figures and tend to keep similar weapons in the same unit. I needed more mounted bow men so I have also made a couple of conversions from American Indians, one a while back and one a couple of days ago.
These figures will serve in my Medieval/Renaissance era Fezian army which is a vague combination of ancient Persia, medieval/Renaissance Turkey and various Islamic ruled countries such as Egypt and India. (Fezia also serves its role in more modern form for my Victorian-Edwardian era games. In that case a lot of AIP Egyptians, Arabs with firearms and various Zouave figures play their part).
Below are six Italeri Saracens I recently painted. Light purple is the main colour I use for my Fezian troops. I decided on fairly similar clothing for the cavalry unit but with some variation. 'Uniforms' tended to not be that uniform in this era. I am going to add some greenery to the bases. These figures will be going into two different units, one with bows and one without. The bowmen lack armour other than helmets.
The horses were given a spray of Games Workshop brown and then a black wash. The bases are cut from carboard spring binders I picked up from garage sales for between 50 cents and a dollar each.
Foreground left to right: Unpainted Saracen, BMS Indian with copious Green Stuff on a spare Italeri horse (I might have picked it up, for some reason without a rider, at an ACOTS swap meet. The last figure was a made in Hong Kong American Indian with added turban and sword from plastic toothpick. His horse was from a cheap medieval set.
The latest conversion differs from the last as he is more 'robey' and less 'mameluky' in attire. I also hinted at some chain mail hanging down from under the turban. (If the figures have helmets and not much other armour I class them as 'lights'. They get slightly better odds of survival than those with no armour.
I like the BMC Indian's pose as he is reaching for an arrow, unlike the other figures that are firing. He also has an axe added.
One other point about bow string. Generally where the figure has a bow string it is way thicker than scale but usually i leave it unless it is beginning to look like a plank of wood in which case I cut it off. I used to add bow strings from either human hair or very fine fuse wire but these days I usually just leave it. After all, at miniature scale the bow string would be hardly visible anyway.
I like my mounted units to be of at least twelve figures and tend to keep similar weapons in the same unit. I needed more mounted bow men so I have also made a couple of conversions from American Indians, one a while back and one a couple of days ago.
These figures will serve in my Medieval/Renaissance era Fezian army which is a vague combination of ancient Persia, medieval/Renaissance Turkey and various Islamic ruled countries such as Egypt and India. (Fezia also serves its role in more modern form for my Victorian-Edwardian era games. In that case a lot of AIP Egyptians, Arabs with firearms and various Zouave figures play their part).
Below are six Italeri Saracens I recently painted. Light purple is the main colour I use for my Fezian troops. I decided on fairly similar clothing for the cavalry unit but with some variation. 'Uniforms' tended to not be that uniform in this era. I am going to add some greenery to the bases. These figures will be going into two different units, one with bows and one without. The bowmen lack armour other than helmets.
One other point about bow string. Generally where the figure has a bow string it is way thicker than scale but usually i leave it unless it is beginning to look like a plank of wood in which case I cut it off. I used to add bow strings from either human hair or very fine fuse wire but these days I usually just leave it. After all, at miniature scale the bow string would be hardly visible anyway.
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