Skip to main content

Irish Horse

Dia dhuit,

I have had some time to get used to convertimg with greenstuff. My pikemen are still a work in progress and as I continue to build up experience doing simple green stuff conversions I felt it was time to get stuck into some horse.


I got myself some New Line Design Pictish cavalry. I spent a fair amount of time searching for suitable miniatures with which to convert my Irish Horse. These are quite small, closer to 25mm, or more probably a true 28mm meaning they would do well as Irish Horse who rode sure footed Ponies rather than heavy boned war horses. The riders are quite generic in terms of attire. They have long hair, a cloak pinned with a celtic looking broach, short trousers and no shoes. The detail is actually very good, especially the facial features.


With that in mind I decided not to be very specific in terms of period with these. They are more of a representative amalgamation of 16th Century horse in Ireland than conflict specific.



I had a look at both contemporary illustrations of Irish horsemen as well as the Osprey illustrated imaginings to get a flavour of what they were like. Javelins are a must, regardless of period or status of the riders. Morions seem to be a possibility on some hirse in the later period under the O'Neills. Armour varies from none to mail. Overhand spears as well as swords for melee, and without saddles or sturrups. Depictions seem to show a cushion, of possibly a velvet type, at least in the Osprey illustration. I have reflected this in my conversion work. Shields seem to be of wicker, prwdominantly in the earlier period and later Target type shields.





I intend these to be generic Irish horse, of the light variety rather than the Noble slightly more armoured kind. I will most likely add those at a later date. The finished unit will consist of nine miniatures. I hope to add some swords and scians to some of them at a later date.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reinforcements

It has been a hectic Christmas and new year period. I did manage however aside from some fierce work/family multi tasking to get in some Ale drinking and conversion work. I have however been unfaithful to my 16th century project and cheated on them with some late war Germans. It has become more than a fling though, and I am well on the way putting together an entire Heer division with plenty of Fallshirmjager, SS and Volks Grenadier units mixed in too! Hobby infidelity aside, here are my latest conversion additions for my Irish. Most of the shot are Perry, some really very nice sculpts, with the exception of the guy in the back with the blue jacket who is a Eureka Portuguese Colonial conversion. All the pikemen are Eureka conversions. The painted one has had a Leine added with greenstuff.

Isles Gallowglass

Hello all, I received some Isles Gallowglass and command a few months back. I finally got around to painting the fitst group. At the time of ordering one set of Gallowglass as well as the second command set were unavailable on the site which was a shame. I will order them in the future im sure. I am really fond of these and they were a joy to paint. They are slighter than the Perry Gallowglass, although not overly so. Their dress and armament is I think of an earlier period than mid to late 16th Century, however should be fine for earlier 16th Century force compositions( my plan is to build both a Gaelic and Tudor force capable of fielding Nine Years war forces as well as the fifty odd years or so before hand). I got along with these  a few of the Antediluvian Highland bowmen which I will be using as Redshanks with bows, even if they have swords and axes slung across their backs....

The Lads assemble!

Dia dhuit all. I have made slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Here is the entire force to date. Please excuse the coffee table/leather couch backdrop. I am moving into a new house and I have not put together my gaming room and table yet. Pike, with shot behind them, with Gallowglass at the back. Left and right front is Kern with darts, and one bowman(5 more to be added). Back rigjt is the small unit of Bonnachts with two handed weapons. Command and banner as well as more pike and gunners is in the works. I hope you like my efforts.