Two More First Carlist War Units

Now that the Crimean War armies are finished – well at least until the Heavy Brigade are released – my focus is returning to two incomplete projects: the First Carlist War and the Russian Napoleonics.

 

Off the painting table this week are the last of four un-uniformed infantry battalions, a squadron of Navarrese lancers and the set of male civilians, all from the First Carlist War.  

The look of units on the table has been important to me and ever since the mid 1980’s the look has dominated the way I base figures. There has been some variation to the way I have organised and based units over that time, but when I started the  Wars of the Roses armies, I settled on an organisation that I have applied through the Crimean War and First Carlist War armies. I will probably apply this organisation to all armies going forward. This method uses three stands as the basic unit for infantry and cavalry units and one for two stands for artillery (this latter variant is to reflect that some armies – the Russians in particular – use large batteries). The choice of three stands for the infantry and cavalry means that when the units are formed in line, the command stand will stand in the centre flanked by line stands – and they look right.

 

The War of the Roses armies had a base measuring 60mm wide and 40mm deep and this suited the irregular nature of the WotR armies. For the Crimeans and the Carlists, however, the figures were just a little too spaced for my liking so the width was set at 50mm for all arms with a depth of 40mm for the infantry, 60mm for the cavalry and as required for the artillery. I did make an exception for the Russian Crimean War infantry, making their base 35mm wide by 50 deep. This was purely to allow the Russian infantry to form in a narrower but deeper column formation for which they were well known. 

The number of infantry figures on a stand is six and this is for two reasons: first is that it looks right and second (and by no means a minor consideration) the Great War and Perry infantry are sold in packs of six, so that there are no odd left over figures when building units. The number of figures on cavalry bases does vary a bit and this was mainly a matter of economy. To save a bit of cash I only used two figure on a stand for the Crimean units, but left it at three for the Carlist (Foundry pack cost £12, Great War cost £10 for three figures whereas Perry’s cost £8.50). While I did save some £145 by taking this option with the Crimeans, I wish that I had though “to Hell with the cost” and left the Crimean units at three figures per stand, because with the two figures the units look a little light, while the Carlist units look solid and menacing.

 

I have to say that I have been mightily impressed with the service I have had from the Perrys with the Carlist War orders. Every order I have placed in the last few months has been processed and shipped within a day and the longest transit had been seven days – not bad when you consider that this parcel has to be collected from the posting point, sorted at a depot, transferred to an international mail sorting facility, pass through to one or more airline cargo handler, spend at least 30 hours on an aircraft (longer if it comes through the Asia) to cover the 13,000 km between the UK and here, be screened by customs, transfer to a central distribution centre, sent to a local distribution centre and finally delivered to my doorstep (taking into account that suburban mail deliveries in New Zealand are only every second day now).

 

Because I am so impressed with these Perry Miniatures figures, my plan is to create armies of both sides that make use of almost every figure in the range. The Armies will be significantly smaller than the Crimean armies. The planned forces (and progress so are) are:

 

Carlists 

6 battalions  of uniformed infantry – four completed, two on hand

4 battalions of un-Uniformed infantry – all completed

2 battalions of Valencian volunteer infantry – one completed, one on hand

1 battalion of Navarre Guides - completed

1 field gun - completed

1 mountain gun (packed and unpacked variants) - completed

4 squadrons of cavalry – three completed, one on hand

 

Isabelinos

4 battalions of guard infantry – four completed, two on hand

8 battalions of line infantry – two completed, two on hand

2 battalions of militia infantry – completed

2 squadrons of Heavy Cavalry– on hand

1 squadron of Light Cavalry– on hand

1 field gun – on hand

1 horse gun – on hand

1 mountain gun (packed and unpacked variants) – on hand

4 battalions of French Foreign Legion– not yet ordered

1 squadron of French cavalry – not yet ordered

1  Foreign Legion mountain gun (packed and unpacked variants) – not yet ordered

2 battalions British Auxiliary Legion infantry – not yet ordered

1x British Marines Battalion – not yet ordered

1 British Auxiliary Legion gun – not yet ordered

1 British Auxiliary Legion rocket team – not yet ordered

1 x squadron British Auxiliary Legion cavalry – not yet ordered.