Yeomen - A Conquest Games Mashup

I was able to justify picking up a box of the Conquest Games Norman infantry for a fair price from my local model shop, I hadn't looked at them before, having no need for more Dark-ages models and not envisaging a use for them, but with the start of my Feudals I cast an eye over the models in the shop.  44 figures for £20 is great value, but what really tempted me was the composition of the poses:

A crammed sprue full of options

Three of the main poses and one of the command poses wore no armour at all, and in suitably generic clothing they would easily pass for 13th century levies.  Especially as I had a bag of spare parts from the Fireforge figures to add to the mix.

It was an easy job to slice off the shields from some of the arms and upgrade to Feudal ones, and by careful trimming of the otherwise useless Norman bare head I was able to make a sabot neck for the Fireforge heads (which have the neck joint fitted to the torso, unlike the Conquest models).  I equipped all the models with spears, noting that the Conquest arms adjoin the sleeve of the tunics in a rather vague fashion, but one that allows for a great variety of positions if you have the patience for the glue to set.

This only left the issue of every man having a sword as standard, rather a luxury for Yeoman levies in my opinion; so I cut most of them down so at least their lord had only provided short swords from available stocks.

Overall the net result looks fitting:

A mix of parts does the job!

I'm looking forward to painting these, not least as without armour they'll be fairly quick to do.  I can't decide if their lord would issue second line troops like these with livery, but the shields will certainly be in Hastinge colours.

So after not bothering with them for some time (I can't make an excuse to buy just every set of 28mm plastic figures, now can I?), what do I think of the Conquest models.  Quiet nice actually, like many sets from the smaller companies there are few basic poses with a decent range of optional parts; this gives a reasonable selection within one set.  the way the arms fit to the sleeves reduces the options in poses to an extent, but not so badly as to hamper the set greatly.  

For the competent converter there is obviously lots that can be done with this set to push it beyond Normandy, into its' past and future - I can see the models with the right spare parts working for periods from 500-1500ad in the right forces.  And this is without considering the armoured torsos in the set.  Obviously they cover their intended purpose well too.

This lot are destined for Lion Rampant, but some of the rest of the box will probably go to Saga units.  So, a satisfying set with loads of potential.