Mounted crossbowmen

Here's a unit of mounted crossbowmen, the first of several I have in the painting queue. These could be used to represent Burgundians, Germans, Swiss, Flemish, and more.

The role of crossbow-armed horsemen in the late middle ages is one that is often discussed, the main question being did they actually shoot their crossbows from horseback? Perhaps they did - it's certainly possible to do so, though whether it was tactically useful is another question. Perhaps they dismounted to shoot, as an early form of dragoon. Either way, I imagine they would have seen most action at the small-scale level of warfare - scouting missions, skirmishes, raids, etc, rather than large pitched battles.

Three of the five models in this unit are metal Perry sculpts, from the 'Italian mounted crossbowmen' set (one of whom has had a headswap). These are designed to go on the plastic Perry horses, but I put them on the metal horses that come with the Wars Of The Roses 'Scurrers' instead. These horses are really nice sculpts, but smaller than the plastics (which were originally designed for the Mounted Men At Arms box set), and I think a good fit for light cavalry. To complete the horse-swap I had to sculpt the rear parts of the saddles myself, as the plastics and metals are designed slightly differently. 

The fourth figure is a plastic mostly made from the Light Cavalry box - he also needed a new saddle sculpted.

The fifth figure is a more complex conversion, being from the old Wargames Foundry WOTR range. These figures (sculpted by the Perry twins way back in the 80s I believe) are a bit of a mixed bag, but some are very nice, the only problem being they are tiny compared to the modern range. Luckily in the case of the cavalry figures this can be 'easily' remedied by giving them new legs, as the photo below should demonstrate. The metal rider is Foundry, and all plastic parts plus the horse are Perry. He now fits in with the others just fine.