50th Regiment of Foot

Well as the weekend draws to a close another battalion marches off the painting table for service in the Peninsula.

This time it is the 50th Foot.

Painting may slow down for the next few days, and disturb my carefully planned schedule, due to overseas visitors at work. I still plan to have the next battalion ready next weekend.

Distractions - Welcome and Otherwise

I was home Thursday last week waiting (OMG it is Thursday again today - has a week passed already...) for a service man for the garage door to come and tell me that the bearing on the garage door opening motor is shot and needs replacing. And by the way the springs on the door should be replaced too (I knew this and had been putting it off). The whole repair would cost $1200. Ouch! Still it has to be done and he will do the work tomorrow. This was an unwelcome distraction.

Still reeling from the thought of spending four months of toy soldier money on a garage door repair, I went back into the house and made a strong coffee. While that was brewing I saw that the May copy of Wargames Illustrated was ready to download. With the coffee brewed and armed with my new reading material I went outside to drink and read in the sun of a beautiful autumnal day.

The coffee hadn’t even wetted my lips and I hadn’t yet turned to the first page of my digital magazine when the BING-BONG of the front door bell disturbed my peace. Prising  myself from my sunny comfort I opened  the front door and there stood a smiling young woman with a bag of brochures under her arm.

“I hope I am not disturbing you (you certainly are I thought), I am from Contact Energy...” she said and there I butted in.

“Not interested thank you.”

“But I am not selling anything,” she protested.

Oh yes you are, I thought...your certainly not here out of the kindness of your heart to do the housework and mow the lawns for free.

“Not interested,” I said again a little firmer this time with a certain finality in the tone, and minus the thank you.

She smiled, shrugged and walked away. I closed the door and went back to my slightly cooler coffee. This too was an unwelcome distraction.

I hadn’t had more than a few sips and just turned the magazine onto the first of Observation Post pages when bing-bong. NOW WHAT!?

I was getting grumpy now as I left my comfortable sunny spot again and as I moved towards the door I heard a vehicle moving off. I open the door and was about to growl “not interested” when I saw the parcel. My heart rate increased although I knew what it is before I saw name of the sender. It was the first of the Perry plastic British Napoleonics. This was a very welcome distraction.

I immediately opened the box revealing the three boxes of miniatures therein. The first box of British infantry was quickly opened and the sprues removed and examined. Thirty minutes later the coffee had gone cold and the iPad had long gone into sleep mode, but the first six figures are glued up and fixed to old paint pots ready for painting.

Fast forward five days and here is the first full battalion, the 20th Regiment, completed for the Peninsular War (and War of 1812) with stovepipe shako. 

The plan for this force is that there will will be seven battalions a regiment of light dragoons and a couple of guns, all in the stovepipe shako. For once there will be no scope creep here because this will be a force to complement others in the group who are collecting British.

French Chasseurs à Cheval

As mentioned in my last post, here is the 16th Regiment Chasseurs à Cheval, made up from left overs.

Completed at the same time are two more left over chasseur figures that will serve as ADCs or couriers, this time from the 7th regiment.

Finally, I have rebased a unit of Prussian Napoleonic uhlans. There were based on an old basing system of two figures in a 40mm x 40mm base. This doesn’t match to my newer system of three figures on a 60mm x 60mm base. While the per figure frontage is the same, the additional depth protects the figures better. Since this is the only Prussian cavalry unit not on the new bases, it was time to rebase.

So this is the before shot...

...and this the after.

The Texas Spanish Tercios

The Texas Spanish Tercios were raised in the early 1800s as reinforcements for the Spanish colony of Texas. The original plan was have four light infantry and four cavalry tercios of three companies each, but only two infantry battalions were formed. Stationed at Cadiz in 1808 the corps was never sent overseas. Instead both tercios were consolidated into a single battalion of 436 men and were heavily engaged at the battalion of Bailen.

This is the last of the Spanish infantry in the lead pile. More will follow in May.

Next off the painting table will be some French Chasseurs a Cheval for 1812-1813...yes I know I said I was done with French for that period, but when you buy the Perry Chasseurs there are so many options that you are left with enough bits to make two regiments. My Scottish blood would not let me thrown them away...”waste not want not” as my grannie would have said...and thankfully the Perrys sell the horses separately, so no waste.

The Jaen Regiment and Some Mounted Officers Completed

This week sees the completion of the Jaen Regiment, with the second and third battalions exiting the uniform store.

The second battalion...

And the third.

Also completed are three mounted officers.

First Battalion, Jaen Regiment

The latest unit in the Spanish collection is this First Battalion, Jaen Regiment, with their black facings.

Again this is going to be a unit of mixed military and civilian dress, so the Grenadiers of this battalion have been given pants in a mix of colours.

Carlist War Battle

 Today, in our regular Sunday game, we cough a First Carlist War game. There was no specific scenario, just a straight up fight. A Carlist force of 20 infantry and six cavalry units, supported by two units of field guns and two mountain guns, faced off against an Isabellino force of fourteen infantry and three cavalry units, one field artillery unit, a horse artillery unit and two mountain guns. The Isabellino troops were supported by a force of French and British troops that added another nine infantry and two cavalry units, plus a field gun and a rocket group.

The terrain featured a village in the center of the table surrounded on two sides by steep hills. The rest of the terrain was rolling with a couple of small farms and their surrounding fields.

The Carlist decided to hold take and hold the village, committing one brigade to hold it, while a second brigade held the left of the village. The third Carlist brigade was further to the right whose intention was to delay the arrival of the  British and French.

The Isabellino forces chose to swing wide with their cavalry and an infantry brigade against the Carlist left, while their other brigade attacked the village. The British and French were to push between the hills and fall in on the left of the village.

The first clash occurred on the Carlist right between the French lancers and the Ontorio Hussars. 

The hussars were the victors in this fight and the action here took a turn when the British cavalry came under effective fire from the Carlist guns and quit the field. With no cavalry to oppose the Carlist cavalry were able to maneuver freely and The British and French were held in check. 

An attempt by the Foreign Legion to push through beside the village was initially successful, but was quickly contained by the Carlists, and eventually turned back.

The action then shifted to the centre and the Carlist left. The Isabellino cavalry were successful at driving off the Carlist cavalry on the left.

The Carlists were forced to reinforce their left with a second brigade of cavalry and two reserve units. The fighting here seesawed for some time.

In the end the Isabellino forces triumphed. Hardly any impact had been made in the village but on the Carlist left the sustained pressure of the Isabellino forces (the reader should read that statement as appalling bad dice luck from the point of view of the Carlist commander and the incredibly good luck on the behalf of the Isabellino commander whose saving throws were bordering on legendary) drove in the Carlist left flank.

Spanish Artillery and a Bit of Planning

It is with some relief that the demise of Google+ has passed without damaging my blog. I must admit I had some concern largely because I had no idea what Google+ actually did. I did go to the effort of backing up my data which showed maybe 20 or so possible pages affected, but now that the deadline is passed, all of those pages are still intact, so who knows.

Last night I completed the base on the fourth and final gun set for the Spanish Napoleonic army. This is a lovely set  with the gunners firing the gun.

In a quiet moment I updated my project plan. It is a much more fractured plan than last year’s that will result in a much lower output overall, in line with my plan to manage storage. Apart from the completion of the Spanish and a few bits and pieces of French 1812-13, the plan does feature one unanticipated project (the French Revolutionary army), three expansions (Carlist War – completed – Peninsular British/War of 1812 and War of 1812 American) and one completely new project (Swedish Napoleonic). The very end of the year has some space for some potential enemies of the Swedish or French Revolutionary armies.

Time will tell how this all pans out.

The Castrapol Regiment

As part of my ongoing study of military millinery I have just finished the Castrapol regiment for the Spanish Napoleonic collection that sports bonnet de police. This form of headgear that was by no means unique in Napoleonic armies, but it was unusual that it should be the headgear of choice for the whole regiment. While the officers wore bicornes, the rank and file all wore the bonnet, moulded on these figures in various states of array and a few even have a peak.

In early 1808 this single battalion regiment wore a British made white coat, without lapels. What I didn’t read when I was planning this regiment was that later in the year the regiment expanded to two battalions - damn does that mean I have to do a second battalion? In 1812 another British made uniform, this time in sky blue, was issued...no, no, no I must resist doing yet another Spanish army to cover this later period!