Hi all!
I have more or less finished painting these eight Ottoman janissaries. 30mm figures from Thomas Urbaniak of Zinnfiguren Stralsund. Painted with acrylic (basecoat only) and oil paints. I will mount them on mahogany bases, and might paint embroidery on some of the leather satchels, as you see on the original behind them.
The banner is freehand, and gave me a bit of grief. I based it on the speculative standard (more likely a unit tattoo) of the 45th Bölük as shown in Chris Flaherty’s book “18th Century Turkish and Other European Janissary”.
The script is presented back to front in the book, and very embarrassingly, I did not realise this until I had blocking in the outline! I have to thank my dear friend Camille for correcting me before it really was too late. I used India ink to block the script in, not realising that its waterproof properties do not apply to tin (I know, it seems obvious now that I say it)… Anyway, after varnishing the letters, I was able to apply oil paint without difficulty.
I have many more janissaries to paint, but I’m a very slow painter this was already a big unit for me… the next group of figures on the workbench will be 18th century Assyrians, when time permits.
When I continue with janissaries, I will post updates in this thread.
Best Regards,
Bani
