From PaulOG: Allied Gallic Cavalry (132 points)

These two units are Crossing the Rubicon for me - I just don't do units of cavalry for any period, so these took some working up to. But at last, here are my Allied (Mercenary) Tribal Cavalry to fight for Caesar.

Gallic Cavalry with attached General and retinue

Having procrastinated for years, these brought me real joy and I did the models in a weekend, including hand painting all the shields. These aren't anything special, but they are special for me - I even tried a dappled grey for the Chieftain as a stretch goal. To be honest, it took a few goes.

Look at those great Gallic moustaches!

I've done something a bit different with the basing too - I wanted to depict them as a thundering mass of terrifying horse flesh bearing down on the trembling legionaries of Pompey Magnus. So they are on deeper bases to give them space for dynamic placement, and I chunked one of them up with even more figures to depict the attached General and his retinue.

I bought the figs second hand, and while I'm certain the Command figs are Crusader models, I'm not sure about the rest.  All are metal though, so these bases have a very satisfying heft when you pick them up :-)

So there they are - a dozen 28mm mounted figs for 120 points, pending any hand painted shield bonuses. If AHPC is about pushing oneself, either in productivity or new styles, then these Cavalry models have certainly taken me out of my comfort zone and helped me round out this Army project. Thanks for the encouragement!

From Millsy: I'm really pleased to hear you've enjoyed painting these Paul given how much you dislike cavalry as a general rule. Sometimes once you start enjoying something it sticks so maybe in future mounted minis won't present such an obstacle. Your end product here is absolutely smashing I have to say and if mine had come out so well I'd have been equally pleased. Beautiful work especially the shields which I'm awarding an extra point each. Cracking effort mate!