Old Gendarmes

Taking stock of my Gendarmes figures, I had a variety of figures painted but only enough for one FOG-R unit with three left over. 

Here is a picture of those original 1980s figures. They are a mix of old Minifigs Gendarmes (back row, left as we look at the picture) and Archers (front row, left) with Asgard / TTG French Gendarmes (front, 2nd from left) and Pensioners (no plumes, 3rd & 4th from left in the front). I had mixed up the horses to get more variety. I must have added to them a bit later because there were also a couple of the current (1990s?) Minifigs Early 16th C French Generals and one of their horses used to mount the third from left figure in the front rank.

I had replaced the various bendy lances with wire but my attempts to make them look like lances rather than spears was limited to a blob of Araldite in lieu of a lance guard and pennants.

The trouble is, the more I looked at contemporary illustrations, the less satisfied I was with these figures. With gradually evolving hindsight: the lances didn't look right, giving them pennants was a mistake, the horse barding didn't match (what are those fringes about?) and, though you can't see in this photo, the distinctive 'skirts' covering the back of the saddle were absent. In fact the old Minifigs gendarmes looked like they were wearing 3/4 length baggy culottes. 

I had enough unpainted (or badly painted) figures for another one and a half units and I decided I wanted to do better with these.