I've had a tough nut to crack in the last little while. I'm trying to assemble a unit of 30/32mm Vampire/Dark Elf (in the Mage Knight world they're one and the same) cavalry. I'm having a devil of a time trying to find anything suitable.
The idea is that these are cocky young nobles serving as light cavalry (horses, not lizards or skeletons or whatever) They need some armour and gear but not too heavy or elaborate. They can be armed with swords or lances, though swords are preferred (weapons swaps are an easy conversion though). Bare heads with long hair are fairly important (pointy ears can be added if need be).
My original idea was to use GW Dark Elves' Dark Riders, but once I got them, I realized they look way too much like rogues and not anything like knights. Plus their horses are a travesty... they look like cartoons! GW's Blood Knights are sort of getting at the idea but are far too elaborate with the armour and acrobatic poses and (more importantly) are terrifyingly expensive! (I need 8 figures... $250 plus P&P seems a WEE bit steep for that).
I looked at Gamezone's Dark Elves and Vampires, and the Dark Elves are mounted on some excellent horses with a cool branding pattern, but the figures themselves appear to be kitted in some bizarre coneheads/KKK outfits. And their vampires are just as elaborate and nearly as expensive as GW (actually all of GameZone's cavalry is pretty expensive for this purpose... €10+ per figure).
Reaper is rather light on cavalry/mounted units.
Mantic seemed like a great possibility, but their necromancers are all riding dead or skeletal horses and their not-Dark-Elves have no cavalry (yet?).
I really had no idea this'd be such a poser. I would have thought a simple vampire knight would be one of those quintessential ubiquitous fantasy types.
I'm willing to do some conversion (the source figures don't actually have to be vampires or dark elves), or mix mounts from A with riders from B, so long as the component parts can be obtained cheaply enough. Maybe even some conventional human figures would work, like a troupe of Perry riders or some Spanish Conquistador cavalry (obviously either one would require head swaps). I'm open to suggestions, even just for cheap mounts that would work well.
For a picture, imagine this fellow as a young-looking vampire and you might get sort of an idea where I'm going:

Mantic's Mounted Vampire Lord is also a fairly close for a rider (the horse is, alas, dead), albeit a supremely blasé one.
Any ideas would be most appreciated!
EDIT:
If they were in a pose like this, I think I'd be in heaven, but that's probably asking a bit much.
