Poorly equipped ECW cavalry figure suggestions?

[soldieroftheline]

I'm staring an ECW project for Pikeman's Lament. I have Foundry, Perry and Warlord cavalry figures. They are all quite well equipped with armour, buff coat, pistols etc. I'd quite like some figures a bit less well off, or newly raised perhaps, without armour or buffcoat, perhaps just a sword and one pistol. I think that not everyone would have neccessarly had buff coat etc in the period, especially in some of the more local skirmishes which I feel PL represents. I'm not having much luck finding anything. I don't feel that just painting the buff coats as a cloth coat would look right although some of the figures will be ok with the sleeves painted as cloth rather than buff leather.

Reiver Castings do some unarmoured Swedish cavalry, does anyone know how they would fit in with what I have size wise?

I'm not averse to some headswaps if neccessary and I have spare Warlord plastic horses.

Any suggestions please?

[Paul Richardson]

Have you looked at the Perry Moss troopers in their ECW Scottish range? With hats instead of bonnets they might be what you're looking for. It's a long time since I looked at them but I thought that the Foundry ECW Scots cavalry were generally less well-equipped than their English ones. 

[Roo]

Seconded, that’s a good shout.  I intend to use Perry Scots with a few head swaps or added hats for my less well equipped Cornish campaign cavalry for both sides.

[v_lazy_dragon]

TAG do swedes in coats too
Some of the Bicorne cavalry are in doublets or coats/cassocks which might work.

Some border Reivers may have potential despite being ~50 years too early- TAG, Col Bills/D'Arlo and Thistle and Rose  might be worth looking at?

[westwaller]

Yeah I wondered about the The Assault Group range too. Besides the Swedish, The Thirty years war Germans might be worth a look too.
It's a bit of a wild card but I believe that the Empress ECW range was initially designed with compatibility with the warlord stuff in mind - it may be worth looking at their Calvary too? I don't own any of their Calvary though so I don't know if it matches up or not...

[Paul Richardson]

I suspect one issue you'll have with ECW / TYW figures is that they all come on horses with cast-on pistol holsters, apart from dragoons. You may therefore have to use riders from one pack and horses from another, which will obviously put up the cost. If you want poor emaciated horses, the Empress dragoon horses are the best I know.

[Sparrow]

Hi

Re the Empress range, it wasn’t designed to fit in with Warlord but it is, by chance, fairly close size wise (and can work with Assault Group to). There are, however, differences in sculpting style and (in particular compared with Warlord) casting quality 😉.

Looking at the actual packs within the range, nearly all the horses have pistol holders on both sides of the horse but you can get a pretty irregular look mixing helmets (the ones in burgonets might be particularly useful?) with soft hats etc. Also have a look at some of the dragoon figures (particularly the command packs). Be aware the “rank and file Dragoons’” are on nags (as they should be!) rather than full sized mounts (note, the dragoon officers are on normal sized horses!). There’s also a mounted command pack with a bearded officer in 3/4 armour but wearing a montero, I’m currently painting one up as a wizened Royalist Foot Brigade commander but he could happily fit in as the local squire leading his hastily raised troop into battle?

Have a look around and see if any of the range works with what you’re planning?

EDIT - just seen Paul’s comments re the dragoon nags that he put on whilst I was typing this reply. Yep, these might work for really poor quality mounts given what you’re planning?

[soldieroftheline]

Thanks chaps, I'll take a look at all the suggestions.

[Firescale Whack]

Eureka Miniatures do some Gordon Horse that look quite ragged, they might fit the bill?

[Hu Rhu]

The plastic Warlord Games ECW horses come with separate pistol holsters, so you can add them or not.  I second (or is it thirded) the idea of using Scots moss troopers with different hats as the best way to represent less well equipped cavalry.