Along with their Set 1 of Spanish jinetes, this set 2 provides a number of swordsmen plus one man armed with an axe. The javelin (covered in Set 1) and the sword were the main weapons of these light cavalry, and here everyone is clearly in a fight with their sidearm. The first figure in the top row looks a little odd, holding his sword arm close to his face, but the other two in that row look good. We did not care for the central figure in the second row, however, as again the pose is quite unnatural, with his sword arm wrapped closely round his head and his sword to the side. This suggests a blow to the right side, yet he faces straight ahead, so the pose just does not make much sense. We also had reservations about the last pose. Again the weapon is being head sideways and directly over the head, when you would expect any weapon to be held with the blade or axe head facing the enemy. So the poses are a mixed bag at best.

The issue of poses gets worse when it comes to the horses. These are the same as those in Set 1, and a pretty ropey lot they are too. Some are just mad, with legs flying in all directions and none of the co-ordination such quadrupeds would demonstrate. Their saddles etc. look accurate, and they are at least a reasonable depiction of the anatomy of the animal, but they suffer badly from flash so will take quite a bit of work to make presentable.

Although some of the human poses did not meet with our approval, the standard of sculpting is very good, with lots of nice fine detail and pretty natural proportions. One seems to have a metal cuirass and another has a mail shirt, but otherwise these men wear the brigantine or other quilted armour that you would expect of such men. One man has protection for the knees too, and the helmets are a nice range of styles current at the time and so very appropriate here. No one has been given a shield, but each sprue does include a couple of separate shields as shown. Strangely the designs do not include the Moorish heart-shaped shield so much associated with these men, so while both the provided designs are plausible we felt the lack of the most typical kind was unfortunate. Also there is no means of affixing the shields to your chosen man – you simply glue it to the man’s left arm and hope for the best.

These are nicely produced figures but some have poses that could have been much better. Good detail and an accurate look are the plus points here, but the horses are definitely a negative aspect both in terms of pose and the amount of flash they carry (particularly annoying as the men have no flash). As so often then this is a set with some virtues but also some blemishes that make it rather less than it could have been, but when combined with Set 1 it provides a good range of accurately researched figures that deserved better mounts than they got here.