New Barracks for the Liberators! Armies.

With the leap forward this week into British Summer Time my evenings have been spent outdoors rather than slaving over the workbench of doom. Besides which this recent burst of good weather may be the only summer we get this year, so best enjoy it while its here.
Consequently I've been outside the Shed of Despair knocking together some shelving for the South Americans & their Spanish opponents.

The unit has 'barracks' has been built out of planked sycamore* bought off a neighbour then planed and jointed by me. After a couple of weeks letting the timber acclimatize to the room I'll add a back board to hide the non period wall paper and a door to keep the dust out but it will do for now to keep things tidy.

* Sycamore because its a sterile wood so doesn't give off any natural acetates that affect paint  & glue, it used to be used for lining drawers because it didn't tarnish silver cutlery.

Liberators! Hussar de Junin.

Output has been a bit slow this week, but I've finally managed to finish the first of the Peruvian Hussars de Junin for my South American War of Independence project.

The man himself is a straight from the box Perry British Hussar painted in accordance with the details shown in the Osprey title covering this period. The plate shows the hussar in question holding a lance with the pennant depicted above, but its unclear whether this is intended to be a guidon or whether the Hussars de Junin were in fact lance armed. An albeit quick look through William Miller's biography has failed to clear up this point so for the time being I'm going with the flow and creating a lance armed unit  just to try something a little different. This may lead to some extra work in finding suitable arms to hold a 'couched' lance but it may be worth it in the end to give the figures some variety.
I think I've enjoyed painting this figure but he does seem to have taken quite a while; this may be down to the fact there's a bit more detail compared to the French Hussars that my previous cavalry have been based upon or it may be down to getting used to painting a new figure. I suppose only time will tell.

Liberators! Short Six Pounder WIP.

Spent a little time this afternoon assembling a Victrix plastic gun, well they say you should do something new every day.

The parts went together very well, though the limited amount of flash that required removal did go straight over some very delicate rivet heads which proved to be a bit of a pain. I did notice too that the crew are quite small, certainly in comparison to the French infantry produced by the same firm. Not that it will prove difficult in any way but just seemed a bit inconsistent.
More to follow soon.

Liberators! More New Stuff.

Pictured below are some recently finished miniatures, still fresh from the Workbench of Doom. Firstly I've completed and based the Peruvian Legion Light Company:

As I've mentioned previously there is a small amount of imagination involved in their appearance, but having re-read the relevant chapters of William Miller's biography earlier this week I feel a bit more confident given his description of various Napoleonic 'army surplus' being used by the Peruvian military.

Next up is a Royalist Commander for the Dragoons de Peru, apparently a man of taste and breeding having disdained to wear the gaudy pelisse and brass helmet in favour of a more suitable bicorne:

Finally the first Peruvian Hussar de Junin, Colonel William Miller. Here I feel on safer ground as Miller himself reports that the Peruvian Hussars wore uniforms very like those of their British contemporaries. To this end I have used the Perry Miniatures British Hussars plastic boxed set officer to represent him although he may not have sported the Errol Flynn moustache depicted.

Peruvian Legion Light Bobs.

Inspired somewhat by the imagery featured in the last post I got round to putting together a couple of light infantry of the Peruvian Legion. They're based on a description by William Miller, a British officer who served with the Peruvian Army during the Wars of Liberation who attributes them with a French style uniform and caps similar to the Rifles ( presumably he means the 95th Regiment), I have taken a slight leap of faith in assuming he mean't the shako and not the 'bobble hat' fatigue cap. Any way they have been constructed from Victrix French Infantry bodies & arms and Perry French Hussars heads- the ones with the cylindrical shako. They're probably not spot on but close enough I hope to make a decent impression.

Just got back from WMMS 2012.

Our local ish wargaming and modelling show 3/4 hour away down the motorway from HGA Towers. Managed to find enough things there to engage my interest for a couple of hours but came away feeling slightly underwhelmed by the experience. Not that it was in any way a bad show, its a nice venue and there were plenty of Traders and a good cross section of demo-games on display; its just that nothing really grabbed by the balls (so to speak). This I think may be indicative of a couple of things:
1. Over exposure to the internet. It used to be years ago that the only place to see new products was at shows ( or in your local games shop if you were lucky enough to have one), nowadays good quality pictures of new stuff is the click of a mouse away so all the ball grabbing is done virtually. This might equally apply to a number of things, but I digress.
2. Salute. One of the UK's bigger shows takes place in under a month and a lot of companies seem to co-incide all their new releases with this event, which makes a lot of sense for all concerned but its a bit of a pooh for those of us who can't get there.
These points aside hats off to the organisers who again managed to put on a good, friendly show in a civilized venue that succeeds year on year in pulling in a good crowd.

On another plus I managed to bag a box of Victrix Foot Artillery & a box of Perry British Hussars for £30 quid all in, this will in all likelyhood be the last purchase required to finish the Liberators! project for the time being.

I even managed to get some more painting done, inspired in no small measure by the two light bobs on the show brochure, but you'll have to check out the next post for those 'cos I'm of to enjoy some early spring sunshine.
N.B. please note this post is now 24hrs out of date because I neglected to post it yesterday. You may also want to have a look on TMP where some nice show pictures have started to appear.

Liberators! Royalist Cavalry Update.

A very quick mid-week post to illustrate where I'm up to with the Royalist Cavalry Brigade.

Its amazing what you can do with one box of plastic hussars and a few liberties taken with small uniform details. All that remains to be done now is another base of the fabulously tasteless Dragoons del Peru.
Once these are done its back to more Patriot troops, Peruvian flavour this time: I'm intending to use Victrix French Infantry as a base for the footsloggers and Perry British Hussars for the Fancy Dans, it would appear that there were very close similarities.

Dragoon del Peru. Military tailoring at its very worst.

I found this little beauty in one of Mr. John Fletchers excellent publications and setting aside my usual high standards had to have a go at painting one for myself:

What were the Spanish military thinking.
N.B. Built from a Perry French Hussar with a Victrix Austrian Infantry head.

Liberators! Franscisco Aramendi.

A bold statement perhaps and not particularly elucidating :) Franscisco Aramendi being the Colonel of the Loyalist Sacred Squadron, an elite Venezuelan unit formed from a cadre of the earlier English raised Red Hussars and various native 'Reformadoes'.

He will, once based have the distinction of leading my Patriot cavalry brigade. The figure is from the ever useful Perry Miniatures plastic French Hussars boxed set but with his right arm re-positioned into a more commanding pose. The grey horse is an apparent feature of the Sacred Squadron and a bit of a departure for me. I'm afraid I hold a grudge against greys having twice been painfully ridden over by them, once during a ECW re-enactment and once by a run-away who despite having 20 acres to choose from happened to pick the square yard I was standing in;  because of these incidents I'd rather not have to glorify them with the paintbrush if I can help it.

Husares de Concordia Ready to Rock.

After what seems an age I've finally completed the Husares de Concordia for my Liberators! Royalist forces. These will be brigaded with the previously completed Fernando VII Husares.

Next up a dapper Patriot Brigadier.