Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 1 of 6

Or "The joy of plastic in six easy installments!".

With these next few short posts I thought I would describe in more detail the various modifications and alternations made to the recently completed Warlord Games plastic ECW cavalry figures.

As I’ve stated previously the possibilities of tweaking and modifying plastic figures is almost endless. If you have the time and inclination with the various combinations of headwear and weapons I’m quite sure you could make every individual miniature unique.

The majority of these changes were made at the request of my brother who kept on coming up with numerous ‘useful’ suggestions such as “Why don’t you try to make one that looks like he’s been injured.” and “Could you make another one without a hat?” etc.

Lieutenant-Colonel Eduard Van Verloren Wapen

First up is the one-armed figure inspired by another fascinating character from the period, Sir Henry Bard 1st Viscount Bellomont and a former Governor of Worcester. At the Battle of Cheriton Down, March 1644, Bard lost an arm (or more precisely lost the use of one unspecified arm). He recovered from this serious injury and went on to fight alongside Colonel Leveson and Colonel Bagot at the Battle of Naseby, June 1645.

After initial reservations about the realism of this approach I realised that mounted archers throughout the ages had been able to ride hands free and still managed to loose off arrows on the hoof. A friend (a horsey type) confirmed it is possible for an experienced rider to control a horse using a combination of just your legs, voice and body weight. I reasoned to myself that removing the right sword arm would have left the figure looking distinctly passive. Therefore I decided to make things awkward for myself and remove the figure’s left arm along with the hand meant to be holding the reins, leaving the right arm to carry a weapon. The left arm was cut away above the elbow and the upturned sleeve was remodeled with Greenstuff.

Lieutenant-Colonel Eduard Van Verloren Wapen

Note also the raised faceguard on the lobsterpot helmet; I’ll go into more detail about this in a following post.