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.