Peruvian Legion Grenadiers.

Oh the opportunities that time off work presents: I was spending a little well earned downtime yesterday evening re-visiting Osprey Publishing's title on the Armies of Bolivar and San Martin and stumbled upon a plate with the titular unit featured. Now how I missed this before is anyones guess but in the caption is a description alluding to the fact their appearance was very similar to Napoleons Imperial Guard. So now thanks to the bearskin grenadier heads in the Victrix french plastic set I now have the nucleus of a Peruvian division to add to the Venezuelan Patriots already completed.
Here is the first stand below:

The time off has also allowed me to finish off enough units to stage a small game, scheduled for Wednesday next. Pictures and battle report to follow.
Well thats the last post before the madness of Christmas descends on HGA towers, I'm off to down a few glasses of good single malt and sleep the sleep of the righteous. Joyeuse Noel & Wassail to One and All.

Liberators! Slightly Generic Patriot General.

Based on the mounted Colonel from the Victrix Miniatures Austrian Infantry boxed set, I've used the covered bicorne head from the same company's french infantry box and applied a suitable paint job.

He may not be bang on the money, but for the few pence he cost near enough I hope. The slightly allegorical theme to the base is a bit of a departure from the norm, forced upon me by by being unable to separate the horses base from the rectangle of plastic card I used to hold him whilst painting. So in order to tie in the resulting plinth effect to the rest of the base I've added a few fallen stones and some fresh greenery. I may yet add a stand of arms and a captured standard to enhance the effect.
The only real downer to the whole thing is the horse; the body and head are fine, but that neck is way too long.

Cantabria Regiment. Fusilier Company Number One.

Finished the first stand of Fusileros for the Cantabria, three more to go.

I don't know who was responsible for selecting the uniform colours for the Spanish Army at this period but it would appear that they weren't short of imagination.

Quick & Dirty Update. Cantabria Regiment Try Out.

A rum pair for the Royalist Cantabria Regiment, they are faintly reminiscent of the Seven Years War era Prussian 'Triple Blues' . Well at least in my feeble mind.

Liberators! Update. Venezuelan Red Hussars & Burgos Cazadores.

Finished basing these fine fellows this evening. First up Venezuelan Red Hussars:

These chaps along with the Dragoons of Colombia will form the mounted arm of my Patriot Army. Compared to their European contemporaries they seem a paltry bunch, but numbers aren't everything.

Secondly the finished Burgos Regt' lights complete with enthusiastic Subaltern.

Currently on the work bench ( of Doom) are Royalist Cantabria Regiment soon to be resplendent in dark blue jackets with light blue facings, red turnbacks and purple collars.

Dragoons of Colombia.

Despite using up the better part of the day consuming a large lunch, several pints of stout and sleeping it all off afterwards I've managed to complete another base of Patriot Dragoons. Ever so slowly creeping toward having enough units completed for a small game over the festive season. Capitan Games do a downloadable skirmish ruleset for this period which I need to investigate in more detail, but it might be a practicable route to take.

Obviously carbines and scabbards still to add, but thats for tomorrow.

Burgos Regiment Cazadores.

Just a quick post today before heading off for a pub lunch. I was going to do some work on the vegetable garden this afternoon but its raining fit to float the Ark and a lengthy luncheon seems a better bet.
I wasn't going to bother doing any light companies for the Royalist army, theres a little mechanic in Fire & Fury Liberators that abstracts light infantry combat into the overall firing resolution. However I had loads of spare heads left over from the Perry Miniatures French Hussar sprues that were almost identical to light infantry shakos and nothing better to do on a Saturday night so voila!

Fernando VII Husares. Fin.

Hussar! Finished the first unit of Royalist Cavalry for the Liberators project. Actually there's still the sabretache and sabre scabbard mouldings still to add, but artificial lighting isn't the best for painting in royal monograms & wreaths on sabretache(s) at 28mm scale.

Credit where its due these Perry figures really are excellent and I'm tempted to go a bit mad and buy a few more, but staying within broadly historical bounds there just weren't that many regular cavalry available to either side involved in this theatre of war.
I do wonder what the locally available horseflesh was like in South America. I imagine that the temperate grasslands of Argentina would be suitable conditions for breeding good quality horses but the extremes of environment prevalent in other parts of the South American would be less conducive to their long term well being. Certainly the mountainous terrain in which the armies operated in the Peruvian & Chilean campaigns would have limited the usefulness of the mounted arm which may also have had a bearing on the low numbers employed.

Burgos Regiment Completed.

Chalk up another battalion for the Royalist cause.

The rest of the Sabbath will, I think consist of completing Fernando VII Hussars. Painting fiddly braid as a change from painting fiddly straps and people ask me why I squint all the time.

Tabletop World Graveyard. A dangerous distraction.

After a wait of two weeks a package of resin goodies arrived from the depths of Croatia.

Overall this piece of Ruritanian real estate measures 12 1/2 x 11 inches and consists of the single piece base, a mausoleum, a three part dead tree, 30 odd gravestones, crows, mushrooms, gravediggers tools and gates and railings for the walls. All virtually flash free and zero mould lines, even on the very fine ironwork castings. There isn't a single air bubble anywhere on the castings and even the cast on hooks for the gates to hang from are perfect.
It wasn't cheap at around £100 but the sheer amount of detail on the piece is unbelievable, much better than my paltry photographic skills can capture and if painting it is anywhere near as enjoyable as The Guard Tower ( see much earlier posts) worth every penny.
The only danger is it could distract me away from painting South American stuff, but with the holiday season fast approaching it could prove a welcome diversion from all that festive cheer.

Burgos Regiment Command base.

Have finally finished the command base for Regimiento Burgos after what seems an interminable length of time; preparation for and enjoying of 'The Otherhalf's' birthday having got in the way somewhat, not to mention recovering afterwards.

So far I'm happy with the look of El Burgos, the uniforms are quite striking if somewhat fiddly to paint and the red-coated drummer makes a nice contrast to his brethren.
The flag comes courtesy of a file posted on the Liberators 1810-1830 forum by Capitan Games featuring a nice selection of both Royalist & Patriot standards and guidons for which I owe them a debt of gratitude, the quality of detail really is quite remarkable. I did texture up the white field and red ragged cross with some acrylic to give the whole thing a bit of life but so much easier than starting from scratch.
Once the last two fusilier companies have been finished this weekend then its back to finishing off the cavalry contingents and then its Venezuelan Rifles for which I will be using Perry miniatures 95th Rifles with green stuffed ragged trousers.
Hopefully it won't be too long before Perry release their Prussian Reservist plastic figures as I was intending to use these as a basis for the Patriot Cazadores Britannicos, but in the meantime there is enough to be going on with.