Fireforge Hospitallers

I've assembled and painted loads of these now, and the novelty has not worn off!  I've raved about these kits in previous posts, but it's still worth saying.  If you go anywhere near 28mm medieval or fantasy gaming, then you should be able to find a place in your heart for Fireforge.  

I have so many spares from the sergeants / Templars kits, that it's easy to give even more variety when assembling a unit.  The models above are basically sergeants, but with some arms taken from the Templar infantry kit, and the Templar Knights kit. 

This particular commission required 8 crossbowmen, so again the arms from two kits were employed (the mail-armed ones come from the Templar infantry kit) to ensure enough variety.  I don't often employ the 'hooded' heads, but the white one in the upper picture relly stands out when the unit are ranked up, and ties in nicely with the white crosses on the tunics.

You get four different shield types in the kit, plus some extra choices in the Templar Knights kit too, so your unit of spearmen need never look too uniform.  If you need even more choice, try flattening-off the top of the kite shields (the kind used on the centre two spearmen).  This happened in real life too, as the shields evolved.  You can also chop the top off a spare domed or conical helmet (like the chap on the left, here) and add it to the shield as a boss - these were gradually disappearing as shields changed, but I'm sure some were still in employment at this time.

I've just noticed that I took this picture before adding the flag to the standard bearer's pole - a-pole-ogies all round.