28mm- Peninsular War - British 4th Dragoons - Perry Miniatures

Another labour of love finished!  Here we have the 4th (Queens Own) Dragoons.  This Regiment were present at the battles of Talavera, Albuera, Busaco, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees as well as Toulouse.

These figures are Perry Miniatures sculpts.  The main reasons for choosing these was to keep them size compatible with the other Napoleonic troops that I have.   I was so tempted by the recent Victrix set of Dragoons, but Victrix figures tend to be larger.  

The Perry Miniatures are also in breeches which fitted my own thoughts of it being more likely that breeches were worn in the earlier battles.  I also really like all of the Napoleonic figures by the Perry's so I knew I would really like these.

I never used to be fond of the bicorne hat as a piece of military uniform and even in my teens always preferred to paint up figures with the later dragoon helmets. It's funny how one's views can change. I now really like the bicorne, for all of its impracticality, it is iconic of the British Heavy Cavalry in the Peninsular.

I decided to paint the horses in a variety of colours and not just the one shade that was the traditional domain of the British Heavy Cavalry.  Wellington was chronically short of horses, so much so that he would threaten the Board of Ordnance to take the artillery horses and give them to the cavalry (Wellington's relationship with the Board of Ordnance could be described as antagonistic at the best of times!).  The Regiments surely had a multitude of horse colours at the worst times of supply.

From my recent reading it seems that the British Cavalry in the Peninsular were rarely bested unless heavily outnumbered.  Even facing lancers didn't seem to trouble them. I have not yet found anything in memoirs talking about any particular feelings about facing lancers.  Certainly, the Vistula Legion lancers had a reputation for ruthlessness, gained at Albuera facing infantry, but it seems to be part of the Waterloo story where lancers really gained their reputation.

One thing that really struck me about the 4th Dragoons, was their green facings.  From illustrations I have seen, this seemed to be a pretty lively green and not muted. I tried a new paint that I had picked up from Army Painter from their new Fanatic range called 'Greenskins'.  I think it is meant for painting Orcs and suchlike but it seemed a really nice colour for these.

I used my now standard Peninsular basing method. The application of an acrylic house paint and sand to form a basing texture.  This is followed by a good coating of Matt Earth (Humbrol).  I dry brush with three shades over that; a light brown, a light yellow and then an off white.

This is followed by the application of cat litter rocks that I paint up (or not) depending on where the base is to represent. In this case I went for a Sea Grey and dry brushed over the top of the rocks.

I followed this up by gluing on the various tufts, and then dry brushing Vallejo 'Iraqi Sand' over the greener tufts to tone them down a bit.  This gives, I think, a good summer/autumn mix for the basing - certainly good for campaign seasons!

..and some more pics below to finish off...

I must admit I quite like the Sergeant figure above. Putting the stripes on to the green background colour was a challenge but fun.  I have not been able to find references as to whether the Dragoons wore stripes on both sleeves or just the right sleeve.  I thought both sleeves was just a Light Infantry thing (though no doubt there were exceptions as always!).  I went for stripes on one sleeve in the end.

I do fancy a change now that I have finished these.  I had an excellent 1066 game with Ian at the weekend and I found that I have shortage of Anglo Saxon Fyrd so I'm inclined to do a batch of nice simple clothing for them. No lace, no braid...so much simpler! :-) 

28mm - Spanish House - Grand Manner

Here we have a building of a Spanish house and a wall.  Both of these were made in resin by Grand Manner.

I held off of painting these until I had done my 'Wellington Experience' trip to Spain and Portugal in September.  I was glad I did, as I took as many photos of older buildings whenever I could.  

It wasn't just the buildings either, I was snapping the general landscape, plants, rocks, soil and anything really which might have a future wargaming scenery bearing. 

The building and the wall were my last orders placed with Grand Manner before they shut up the shop.  These were bought as plain resin so it was for me to paint them up. I prefer to paint my own buildings up anyway and am always surprised how it takes far less time than I think it will.

MDF is great and is excellent for economy but resin still seems to have more character. Each stone has shape and the building can teem with raised detail.

I love the little sheltered store on the side with wine barrels, and storage jars and cobbles.  I can spend a long time just enjoying seeing all of the detail.

The wall is really detailed too and there are broken pantiles among the stone debris.  It was quite good fun trying to spot those among the stonework and pick those out with a brush.  I did have to go back over a few things, and I am sure I may have missed some among the debris.  I love the damaged sections, you can imagine the cannonballs slamming into it to cause that damage.

The detail inside the houses are really nice too. Not done to excess, as you might wish to put figures in there too...but just enough to add character.  I decided that mine was going to look lived in by someone living a very spartan lifestyle. Perhaps a small-holding farmer who has only recently left on hearing of Napoleons's army advancing.  Those barrels and pots are still unbroken so the infantry haven't got inside there yet!

I will miss receiving orders from Grand Manner. Every little loose item was carefully wrapped and bubble-wrapped and placed in such a way that it would not be damaged. The care and attention was a marvel and must have taken ages to prepare to send.  I bought as much as I realistically could before they closed up.

Here are some photos that I used to get inspiration for the stone and pantile colours.  This is actually in the street in Fuentos de Onoro which goes up to the Church, where some of the heaviest fighting raged.  Like so many Spanish buildings, these seem to have been largely left as they were before the occupants moved out.  In the below picture the loopholes can still be seen in the walls of houses.  It's quite difficult to imagine that the road going up where the tour member can be seen below was probably 3-deep in dead. Sobering thoughts.  I will post more pics up of my tour to the battlefields soon - I'm still labelling up the 750 photos!  I need to do this whilst I still remember where they were taken and what the significance of the photos were!

On the workbench currently is another Peninsular War treat, but as always with Napoleonics it is time consuming. I really feel like painting Arthurians/Saxons next as I have started reading the Bernard Cornwell trilogy relating to that period (I can't put the first book down!).