Two New Sets - Merovingian Franks and Conquistador Cavalry

Comments

Karl Floyd - December 15, 2022

I Love the conquistador cavalry, ace for loads of Historical wars of religion etc, and fantasy, would like them as soon as possible if you can.

Eric Williams - October 13, 2022

Beautiful!

The Franks will be an insta buy. I don’t think you need so many armoured figures though. Mostly unarmoured. From a historical perspective 1 armoured fellow per sprue would be too many… :)

Don Williams - October 7, 2022

Eagerly awaiting the release of the Franks. When can I place my order?

Luca - November 1, 2021

Quite surprised by conquistadores armoured(!) cavalry…. they didn’t bear such heavy cuirass in the new workd and even for Eurupe they does not seem to be appropriate… They looks more like fantasy knights to fight dragons… if that is the aim, maybe they are ok, otherwise….

Victor Mower - August 18, 2021

If at least one of the bodies is changed to 3/4-armoured this set might just work for English cavalry of the mid-16th century. It could cover fully-armoured gentlemen pensioners, dem-lancers, and border horse. A nice balance would be two bodies each per armour style. The set would still work just as well for conquistadors.

The last-mentioned weren’t exclusively mail-armoured; the Osprey book, ‘Henry Vlll’s Army’ features an illustration of a border horseman in a brigandine, but with mail sleeves (I can’t tell from the above image whether mail sleeves are depicted). In fact, full mail-armour seems to have been a late 16th century development.

Scott - July 27, 2021

The sets look great and looking forward to using both. The only concern is the leg length/size of the riders, because the rider looks cartoony on the horse. It might just be the angle, or maybe the horses should be bigger? Just my two cents.

Pierre Lerdou-Udoy - July 21, 2021

At this stage, with more cavalry projects, it becomes necessary to go and see what horses look like in real life…
Ears lying to the sides are a very bad sign. Either the horse has a physical defect (called “oreillard” in french, this horse would never had been accepted into a cavalry corps : too ugly), or it is scared or angry to the point of losing control. Very bad for the rider.
According to ancient and universal criteria : a horse must have ears erect on the head, mobile and attentive. Good ears are the mark of a communicative, intelligent and brave horse.
The criteria are the same in Vienna, Saumur, Sevilla, London, Ottawa, Warsaw or Moscow !

Anonymous - July 20, 2021

I franchi sono veramente bellissimi peccato non ci siano elmi con protezione oculare.Speriamo di vederli presto!!

Axel - July 18, 2021

The cavalry looks fine, especially with the armour being optional components.

Actually I will use them mainly without, as in the 1520ies and onward armoured horse were for the elite only – even most Gensdarmes did not use them anymore, and these riders clearly are not Gensdarmes.

As regards to the often demanded firearms (pistols) these were used on the battlefields of Europe starting around 1550, so no need to put them in for the historical set. As much of the armor already caters to the fantasy crowd, who will provide for a lot of buyers, you could consider 2-4 pistols and two right arms. No need to offer 5 options for 4 different spear variants for a total of 18 with 5 bodies – cull these down to two per variant for 8, and all will still be happy. Adding two or full helmets for the fully armoured bodies would probably be usefull, too.

The only think I would really appreciate is a head or two for lesser armored horse, perhaps covering only the head, and a leather brestplate. These would probably be more usefull with medium and light cavalry.

Overall these look like they will mix perfectly with the infantry set, and whoever needs mounted crossbow or arquebus can use these parts. I certainly look forward to do this.

On the Franks: Looks like a good set. Finally with a believable set of Franciscas.

John - July 17, 2021

Great work on the Conquistador cavalry guys. I also recommend at least holstered pistols so they can be used as mid to late c16 cavalry.