Free Companies of the Gilded Hand - 3

Slowly, but work on the Free Companies of the Gilded Hand is going ahead. Hopefully, I'll have enough models painted for the starting warband I'll take to a Skirmish campaign set in Warboss Kurgan's very own Harrowmark. This time around, I've been working on some close quarter fighters, the duellists and reckless thrill-seekers known as...

Fernando's Fancy Fencers

The plan for them was to replicate the look and feel of the classic Vespero's Vendetta.

Ufortunately, I had used almost all the left arms with daggers I had on other models. The other problem I faced was the lack of male heads with long, flowing hair in my bits box. The heads with feathered hats from the Freeguild Crossbowmen and Guard, however, screamed 'fancy-dressed rogue' as much as long hairs and I settled for them. The head from the Feeguild General also has a skull nested on the hat's brim, so I've managed to give a tribute to Vespero's Death Mask without having to go into more extensive conversion work.
To replace the daggers I thought that bucklers would be equally appreciated by professional duellists. Not to mention that, game-wise, they will avoid confusion between Freeguild Guards with Militia Weapons or Sword and Shield. I had plenty of bucklers from the Duardin Thunderers set, and they worked just perfectly on the Freeguild range. As you can see, I didn't remove the duardin runes from the bucklers. Well, there'll be an explanation for this once the Fancy Fencers are painted and given their bit of back story.

The bodies are from the Freeguild Crossbowmen command group, the only three bodies to come without the left arm in that kit, and the unarmoured ones from the Freeguild Guard. Since the original Vespero's Vendetta had no command group, I felt free to give them a piper rather than a drummer as stated in the Freeguild Guard warscroll. It makes much more sense for a bunch of wealthy young men seeking the best pleasures Venithya has to offer to ease their days with some merry tune than to march at the sound of drums, doesn't it?

The last thing left to do was to give them mantles. In the original models and rules, the mantles were used as shields, thus they were rather long and wrapped around the left arm. Since my Fancy Fencers have bucklers, there was no need for the mantles to be long, so I kept them short.
I've just realised this is the first time I took WIP pictures just before priming my models, showing that I base them during the building stages. I do this as I see bases as part of the models and prefer to paint them alongside the rest. The other thing is, I keep my bases very simple (just some sea sand and slate chips) and in neutral colours to match as many gaming tables as possible. Who knows, one day, if I decide to experiment with some more scenic bases I might try and paint the bases separately.