Friday 27 December 2019

Peninsular Spanish in 6mm

To complement my British Peninsular units I am mustering some Spanish and Portuguese units.  Actually, the word 'some' is a bit of a misnomer since the unpainted lead I got recently from Baccus is anything but ! Anyway, this week I got eight Spanish infantry stands off the painting desk, just shy of a hundred figures, representing the 7th 'Zamora' line regiment with black facings and the 8th 'Soria' regiment with purple facings. I am not aiming for any particular historical scenario so I am choosing units at my whim.  Unfortunately Spanish army organisation was quite chaotic between 1805 and 1812 and OOB's are rarely complete and accurate so it is quite useless to invest too much time in researching in too much detail as very often there is none to be found ! I am mostly using Steven Thomas's excellent site at https://balagan.info which contains a wealth of information on Spanish army uniforms and organisation during the French invasion and the Peninsular War.

As usual, units are based for Age of Eagles on bases 3/4"frontage by 1" depth with twelve figures to a stand.  Baccus come in strips of four so they fit in almost exactly to one base frontage. 
 
There were nominally three battalions per regiment in 1808 but there was no such thing in real life and no more than two would actually see the field.  The first battalion would have two grenadier companies which would sometimes be hived off (as per the Austrian model) into separate units and the rest of the battalion would then join other fusilier units orphaned of their grenadiers into ad hoc formations.  To mirror this as much as I could I put one stand of grenadiers for every three of fusiliers - this should give me the ability to muster the grenadier stands separately if necessary. The figures shown wear the 1802 / 1805 model uniform with bicornes and white jackets in regimental facing colours while drummers wear blue jackets piped in red. Officers carry a crimson sash, presumably to impress the senoritas !

Apart from the regular units there was a plethora of irregular militia and guerilla units, mostly in civilian clothes or brown jackets.  Information on such units is sparse, however, and honestly it is doubtful how useful such units would be on the wargames table so I am not sure if it is worth going into much depth in this area.
Units in line - 'Zamora' to left and 'Soria' to right
Units in Supported Line - 'Soria' in front and 'Zamora' to the rear
 Each regiment carried a king's colour (foreground) together with battalion / regimental flags


13 comments:

  1. Most impressive regiments, great job and impressive mass effect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Phil. The smaller scales are unbeatable for that mass effect.

      Delete
  2. I have to marvel at the detail of your painting - lovely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank Norm. I have to admit that lately I am finding that my eyes are getting tired after a couple of hours painting. That’s the price to be paid I guess !

      Delete
  3. Your Spanish look terrific, Mike! You put a lot of detail in these tiny figures. Spanish organization has always given me fits too. In my 15mm Spanish armies, I think I left the grenadiers attached to their parent. In 28mm, I am still undecided!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jonathan. I suspect the instances when Spanish grenadiers were completely detached were not so common so I wouldn’t worry if they are based attached to the parent unit.

      Delete
  4. Great work Mike wonderful painting skills.

    Regards

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for your kind comment Peter.

      Best wishes for 2020!

      Delete
  5. Superb looking figures Mike and reminds me I am going to have to crack on with my Spanish this year. The wide array of uniforms makes the Spanish interesting to paint. I also like the bases by the way - enhances the look of the figures nicely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a million Jon. Yes, I’m really enjoying painting these Spanish units as they are varied and colourful. As for their bases, I use Warbases as I find they give me uniform dimensions throughout and I save a lot of time as I don’t have to cut out all my bases any more. Moreover Warbases give excellent service. For texture, I add a layer of beach sand and apply a black base. Once dry, I apply a quick dry-brush of lime green with yellow highlights.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the info Mike re the bases. Certainly very effective.

      Delete
  6. Wow - sorry for missing this post earlier - stunning array of troops in white!

    ReplyDelete