Military orders

MILITARY ORDERS:

These are figures I converted to fill out my Teutonic Order and Knights of St. John armies.
Three elements of crossbowmen

The top row are two elements of Crossbows. They are ESCI Muslims with a few head swaps and pavise shields glued on.
The crossbows were made by melting their muskets. Hold the figure with the gun pointing at a candle flame, and slowly move it toward the flame until the barrel melts into a blob. You don't need to actually touch the flame. The blob will naturally flow away from the flame and form a ball. When it has receded enough, pinch the blob lightly so it flattens, then drill a hole with a pin-vise drill for a bit of curved florist wire. This makes a surprisingly sturdy crossbow. A dab of superglue will help hold it in place.
The Pavises are squares of cardstock (actually, old library catalog cards) with lengths of split toothpick providing the central ridge. These are not obvious as the uprights of the crosses are painted directly on them.
The heads came from Revell 100Yw English and Italieri Crusaders, although some of the kneeling figures just had mail coifs painted on. Most figures also had curved daggers and bandoliers sliced off, although I missed a few.
The mounted figures are an element of Cavalry for the Teutonics, representing Knechte -- the junior members of the order, not yet knighted, who mainly stayed back with the baggage and prayed for success. The crossbowmen are Italieri Crusaders, cut off at the waist and glued onto the legs and hips of other Crusaders. I use the wire-through-horse-legs-and-torso already described by others on the DBLCHM list.

Here's a side veiw of the Crossbowmen:
Crossbowmen in profile
Actually, I did two elements in white with black crosses for the Teutonics and two in red with white crosses as St. John. The kneeling figures look a lot like the Italieri Crossbowmen and could be mixed together for more variety but I had already based mine as Psiloi or cut them up for Knechte.

The last image is a fairly simple conversion -- bowcases and quivers were added to Italieri crusaders to create Turkopoles.

You can see the front rider's quiver and the horn coming out of his back is actually the bow in the back rider's bowcase. After making the Persian camelry, I had the quivers and bowcases from the camels in my spare parts box and used them here. I sratch built the rear rider's bowcase from a bit of sprue (carved into a bowcase) and wire (bent into a bow shape and inserted into the case). Turkopoles were named for the Turkish tactics and weapons they adopted after the Crusaders' experiences. In some cases -- particularly in Crusader armies in Outremere -- they may have been actual Turkish mercenaries or converts. It would also be possible to place lightly armored Crusaders on Saracen or Mongol horses with bowcases already included.