Took a bit longer than expected due to an unforseen trip abroad which delayed both the building of figures and taking pictures of them, but here we go: a full set of assembled plastic cavalry from GB's latest offering. As planned prior to purchase, 4 are built as actual dark age figures, 4 as late antiquity and the final 4 as incredibly generic ones that could expand either of the previous groups for when I need 6 or 8 for that period.
Overall, I was rather happy with the set. Although the different arm joins (compared to earlier sets) require an extra cut for arms to be interchanged, this is obviously minimal effort, and having used many bits from other sets my bitsbox has now grown with a bucketload of new weapons and useful heads, as well as some snazzy draco standards (it really is a rather nicely detailed one). The riders are an interesting situation. On the one hand, they allow for much more dynamic poses than you'll find in other sets, which fits light cavalry in particular very well. On the other hand, they do force you to use such extreme poses, and with only 3 bodies in the set, this simultaneously limits variation (a supposed strength of multipart plastics over monopose metals). However, for this little group plenty of different outcomes were achieved using various weapons, different angles of attack and changing the direction the heads were looking in. If getting a second set, I foresee some much more elaborate converting and sculpting, but the upside is that these were very easy builds; mostly transplanting some hands.
Anyway, I assume you want pictures now. Worth noting there are a few gaps left to fill (hair/neck mainly) and the riders are stuck on with putty rather than glue for now, as I didn't have enough bases for all horses...
Group 1: Dark Age. Meant to represent some sort of Hiberno-Norse figures, useable as mercenaries for various factions in the area.
Viking head, DA warrior javelin and shield
Viking head, DA warrior javelin and shield
Viking head, axe and shield
Rather like how this one turned out. Viking head and shield, Arab cavalry javelin
Group 2: Classical. With a variation of more Roman and 'barbarian' bits, these could either be foederati under Roman(ised) leaders, or full-time barbarians with looted Roman equipment. What can I say, I like them to be flexible...
Head from Late Roman infantry
Head and standard from Late Roman infantry
Another one I really like. Simple hand swap (spear for sword), all bits from the actual plastic cavalry set.
Plume from a Warlord Games Caesarian Roman.
Group 3: Random hairy barbarians.
Entirely from the set.
Dark Age head and javelin.
Dark Age head.
And finally, another one of my favourites. Dark Age head and horn, Viking shield with javelins.