Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Monday 21 September 2015

1809 Spaniards - some more test figures


Recently I've got into the habit of painting up prototype figures to see what the uniforms for specific units will look like, and how much work they involve. Here's another couple of trials for Spanish line regiments - on the left is a fusilier of the Regimiento de Ordenes Militares, in the 1805 regulation uniform (white with dark blue facings for this lot, and not much blue in this case), and on the right is the Regimiento de la Corona, in the 1802 uniform (which was the same for all line infantry regiments). Things did not happen very quickly in the Spanish army - Ordenes Militares received their 1805 kit by March 1808, while the Corona boys did not receive their 1802 uniforms until August 1804, and both these units would still have been dressed like this picture at the Battle of Ucles in 1809.

Notice also my "Silence of the Lambs" jeweller's loop specs, with which I have been known to frighten the postie if he rings the doorbell while I am painting, the base of my daylight lamp and one of my dad's old watercolour brushes, courtesy of HM Stationery Office, 1966 - still in good shape.

I was also toying with the idea of painting a staff figure or two tonight - I have Marshal Suchet and his aides to paint, and there is a bit of a backlog of other interesting little projects - including a Portuguese colonel - but the challenge of making a decision proved too much, so I'll try to make a choice tomorrow night.

Zzzzzz.

4 comments:

  1. They look terrific. Have you decided which shade of Citadel Blue you will be using?

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    1. Hi Michael - thank you - yes, the guy on the right is painted in Citadel's "Ultramarine Blue", which gets the right sort of effect, I think. This is the less extreme of the two candidate shades.

      I'd like to know just why it was necessary to change the dress regs after just 3 years - the light-blue-black kit is very smart, I think, and the white 1805 uniforms, though attractive, must have been impractical. Maybe the guys who decided these things were just bored, though there were some things wrong with the 1802 regs - the light infantry had a hussar style green jacket and Tarleton-style helmets which are described as hopeless to maintain on campaign (and some of them marched with Romana as far as Stralsund), and there was a lot of resentment surrounding the regiments losing their individual distinctions (though the 1805 regs gave new facing colours which were nothing like the 1797 ones).

      I digress - Ultramarine Blue - I think Godoy himself would be fooled.

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  2. Nice painting, the Corona regt especially!

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    1. Hi Ray - yes, that deep-sky-blue jacket with the black facings is a classic.

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