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| Mounted Arquebusiers |
This weekend I have finished my next troop of horsemen. They are 12 Italian mounted arquebusiers from The Assault Group. I have been waiting for some figures to suitably represent this type of combatant for ages so I was really pleased when they released these last year. I wanted a group that were all stationary and was not too keen on the figures they did firing from the saddle as I am unsure whether or not this is how these guys fought. I have always envisaged them more as early dragoons who would dismount to fight and then ride off. From an aesthetic point of view I didn't like the idea of some in the group firing off to the side either. It looks neater with them all in more passive poses on the standing horses.
I bought 2 packs of them standing ready and 2 packs of the mounted crossbowmen in the same pose. For the crossbowmen I bought extra arquebuses and then removed the quivers from the figures to turn them into arquebusiers. I tried turning one crossbow quiver into a pouch with green stuff but wasn't too keen on the result so I removed the rest. I also made quite a few head swaps as I wanted as much variation as possible. I used Perry Tudor heads and also a couple of heads from their plastic Wars of the Roses set. I am shocked that from the 36 Perry Tudor heads I bought I now have about 3 left, its safe to say that the set came in useful for this collection!
One strange thing about these figures is that although they are mounted none are wearing riding boots. In fact they are wearing footwear that looks extremely unsuitable for riding. I have left some in the original footwear but I have used green stuff to model riding boots on about half. Below is a photo of the riders before they were glued on the horses to show the head swaps and green stuff additions. To be honest the boots is just a minor gripe and I think they are great figures. I love folllowing what The Assault Group are releasing and I am very tempted by the 1540s figures they have on the way.
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| The Arquebusiers |
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| Mounted Arquebusier in riding boots |
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| Mounted Arquebusier in riding boots |
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| Mounted Arquebusiers |
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| Mounted Arquebusiers |
Your horses look great and fantastic job on those riding boots. That is a nice looking unit!
ReplyDeleteExcellent work.
ReplyDeleteVery nice looking unit Oli. They are nice figures, and I know what you mean about figures firing to the side.
ReplyDeleteThe Perry heads are very useful and have produced some great conversions. Good work.
Very fine looking troop!
ReplyDeleteGood work on these fellas Oli, they're a really nice looking unit and I like what you've done in mixing the poses and using selective conversions, the overall effect is good and coherent.
ReplyDeleteI suppose with these you can use them for French, Italian or Spanish armies with the addition of the relevant standard bearer.
Ditto on the firing from the saddle poses, they're nice figures but they don't really suit being based for a wargames unit though could be useful as little vignettes perhaps.
Stuart