Gaelic Irish Cavalry

Some newly painted miniatures for the blog today, though you may have spotted some of these horsemen in the two recent 16th century Irish games I played with Stuart. This is my second attempt at Gaelic Irish cavalry, for some contemporary images and background see my first post here: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2018/02/irish-chieftan-and-noble-cavalry.html. The Gaelic septs and the Anglo-Irish both fielded Irish horsemen and being keen to play more games set in 16th century Ireland I wanted to paint up more. The problem is that no one makes great figures for these so I have had to get creative and, with the use of head swaps and green stuff, create suitable figures.

The cavalry are a mix of the Old Glory Wars of the Roses Irish cavalry and figures from Crusader Miniatures: https://www.crusaderminiatures.com/prod.php?prod=678. The Crusader Miniatures figures don't have stirrups and with their mail shirts and cloaks are a good base to start converting the 16th century figures from. Some I have left with the original heads and used green stuff to model on the unusual nasal pieces of the Irish helmets. For others I have used a variety of helmets from landsknecht, Spanish and galloglass figures which really help to give a 16th century feel. I have also used a couple of Perry Miniatures barbute helmets which have been made more "pointy" with green stuff to get the right look of the Irish style helmets. On most of the cloaks fringes have been added with green stuff to represent the Irish brats or mantles that they were so famed for. The shields are a mixture of targes from Time Line Miniatures and the Assault Group.

I have recently finished Katherine Simms incredibly detailed study on the Gaelic Irish of Ulster, "Gaelic Ulster in the Middle Ages: History, culture and society". This book has some interesting details on the culture of the Gaelic warriors. During the rare pitched battles the Gaelic septs fought between one another the horsemen might dismount and fight amongst the rest of the army but they predominantly fought in front of the main force or as a rearguard as the army retreated. They would escort cattle, women and children from the threat of enemy raids as well as protecting their own infantry as they returned from successful cattle raiding. As such this gave them a prominent role in Irish warfare as they were often the most exposed to the enemy and meant they were lauded in heroic terms by Gaelic poets. Interestingly by the 15th century many of the Irish nobles could read Irish sagas and romantic tales for themselves as well as translations of chivalric literature. 

Based on this I wanted to paint up these miniatures as suitably colourful and flamboyant warriors, emulating the Irish heroes of the poems and sagas. Some have helmet plumes whilst others have painted helms and targes. As with my original unit they are armed with a mixture of long spears or lances, wielded overarm, along with swords and javelins or darts. The resulting two dozen figures are shown below, riding under the banner of the O'More. The final couple of photos showing them arrayed with the original unit made of converted Redoubt Enterprises figures. 

28mm Irish horse for the 16th Century.

A view of the Irish horse from the side showing the targes.

Gaelic Irish horse.

The figure with the red fringed brat has a Foundry landsknecht head swap.

The second unit of Gaelic horse.

A view from the side.

28mm 16th Century Irish cavalry.

A view of the horsemen from behind.

All three units of Irish horse.

Another view of all the horse together.