Republican Roman Cavalry

 Whilst I am trying to stay focussed on one main project and not more than 3 or 4 side projects (maybe 1 "official" distraction too*)  I do still make time to plan other armies that will some time in the future again be the main focus...

(*Yes I'm a nightmare.)

Sorted through some Republican Roman cavalry that are patiently waiting in the queue and as there was a question about sizes on the Lead Adventure Forum I took the picture below to show a comparison of the cavalry figures that I have. I stuck a plastic Victrix figure alongside as these are a well known size as a benchmark.

Sizewise these are all close enough for me to have in the same army. Mixing within a unit I try to match styles rather than sizes but I am quite tolerant about differences. My daubings will mask a lot of the differences anyway. Horses I am a bit more picky about. I will often try to have the same brand of horses within a unit so that they all look more of less the same species of animal...

 One "successful" conversion of an early 17th Century Tufeci (musketeer)  into a late 17th Century Azab did of course leave me with te conundrum of whether to do the same to the other 14 or so figures that make up a unit? The decision was tipped by the receipt of some of the excellent second batch of command figures from Warfare Figures.

These gave me three figures that could slip into place in the Azab unit with minimal adjustments required. So I gritted my teeth and set to with the epoxy putty to get the whole unit converted.

Just getting rid of the feathers on their hats quite dramatically changes the look off this unit. I decided to do a mixture of baggy trousers, of various lengths, turbans round the hats and a few adjustments to coat lengths. Every figure would get at least one of these and some two.

I need to make a few more yatagahan swords from plastic hoplite swords as only a few of these militia types would have access to / preference for a posh scimitar. The command figure waving a rare scimitar was given a  musket from the Perry box of plastic Afghans which comes with qute a few useful bits like this. Although these will probably be graded as low quality regulars, they are probably going to be brigaded often with Bosniaks, Albanians and similar irregulars. They'll make an interesting contrast to the others.