A few weeks ago a parcel arrived for me quite unexpectedly. It turned out to be an early Christmas present in the form of some Portuguese cavalry and Spanish infantry, very kindly sent from Sean at Newline Designs. I'd asked Sean about the cavalry at the beginning of the year when I first had my eye on building up a British and allied army. At that time, Newline Designs didn't have any, but it so happened that they were already in the pipeline, along with various other Portuguese and Spanish units.
I remember reading a series of posts about 20mm Portuguese Cavalry over on the (highly enjoyable) 'Prometheus in Aspic' blog, dating back to 2011. At that time no-one made any in 20mm, so they had to be cobbled together using horses and riders from other nations. It'll be interesting to know if this new release from Newline is indeed the first dedicated Napoleonic Portuguese cavalry available for 20mm.
I decided to paint this unit as the 3rd regiment, based on this plate by Michael Chappell from the Blandford Colour series book on the Peninsular War. Looking at the plate again, I realise I may well have mistaken the sideburns on the figures for chinscales. Easy enough to fix it that is the case, but I will need to investigate further.
The 12 figures are mounted on 50x30mm bases, three figures per base, as per my plan for playing games of the new Lasalle rules once they're released. For games of Commands & Colors, I'll only need to use three bases (not sure yet how I'll go about distinguishing light cav from heavy cav).
My thanks go once again to Napflags for the flag. According to the info over on that site, Portuguese cavalry carried one flag per squadron, each of a different colour. I opted to give them the flag carried by the 1st squadron.
Next up will be the Spanish infantry. These are 'remodelled' figures, which I'm assuming means they are new sculpts to replace the old ones. I never owned any of the previous models, so I won't be able to make any comparisons, but the new infantry do certainly look very fine.
I have another week off work coming up, so should get most of that unit done before deciding what to focus on next. I'm hoping Sam Mustafa's new Lasalle rules will be available soon so that I can give them their first try out, pitting my French against my Prussians. I'll be putting together a battle report for that when I do.
A very happy New Year to everyone when it comes!
Wow these are absolutely stunning Kevin!!! I commented on the previous post about rebasing but the gremlins must have gotten to it, sounds like a great format. I like Sam Mustafa's style and very long term wanted to make armies for Blucher or La Grand Guerre.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony! Sorry you lost your previous comment (I didn't receive any notification you'd made one, so it must just not have saved. That's happened to me before.) I'm looking forward to trying out the new Lasalle rules. I've never played Blucher before, although it's in my library of rules. I have a 10mm collection of Naps that I might try using for that one day. I do like the big bases used in the game. I've read good things about Grand Armee as well.
DeleteWow, gorgeous Portuguese cavalry, excellent painting!! All the best for 2021!
ReplyDeleteCheers Phil. Best wishes to you for the New Year.
DeleteBeautiful, fine painting. Newline should use images of your figures on their website!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Thanks very much, James. Yes, Sean at Newline does use some of my photos, as he does with some of his other customers I think. I do wish there were more makers of 20mm figs out there, but at least Newline has plenty of Napoleonics to choose from, and Sean always seems happy to receive suggestions of what else could be added to the ranges.
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin, SNAP, just got my portugese cavalry as well. Love your models. You have, as always, set a very high benchmark to follow. Sean also sent me a selection of his new Spanish Lt Infantry circa 1802-1809, very colourful. He has ulitised the Tarleton Helmet but they look ok at this scale. All I had to do was modify the plume as per prints taken off Pinterest. Happy New Year
ReplyDeleteMike
Hi Michael, Happy New Year to you too! Great to hear you've got some of the new Spanish and Portuguese figures too. I have to admit, I never knew that the early Spanish light infantry wore the tarleton. I had to look up some pictures of them after you mentioned it. I think they look great! I hadn't planned on adding any Spanish troops to my collection for quite a while, but I'm really enjoying painting up the line infantry at the moment, so I reckon I might build up a small brigade to use in games. A combined army of Spanish, Portuguese and British could be fun to take to the table.
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin,, love your Spanish infantry. Also it is good to see the unit in pristine condition. By 1808-9 most Spanish units, due to neglect, corruption etc looked a real rag,tag and bobtail force being dressed in all sorts of uniforms. I will follow your example when I get some Spaniards and likewise do them proud. Also what blue have you used for your Portugese as their uniform was (looking at all the available prints) really very dark.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. I'm really glad you like the Spanish. I really enjoyed painting bicornes for a change! Yes, they do look like they're all fresh from the tailors! Here's hoping their first action in the field will be as pristine...I may well decide to make the next unit more rough and ready looking.
DeleteThe Portuguese blue was a bit of a tricky one. I was keen to try my best to make it look different from the blues I'd previously used for the French and Prussians, although I'm not sure how far I succeeded in that. I used a Vallejo colour called 'Night Blue' as the base, but I mixed in some 'Heavy Red' to give it a more purplish tone. I then washed it with a GW's Drakenhof Nightshade. After that, I added the main hightlight with French Blue B from Foundry, and for a very small highlight I used French Blue C mixed with a lighter blue (from Coat d'arms - sorry, can't quite remember the colour off the top of my head). Phew! It sounds like a lot, but really the highlights were done without being too fussy about it, so didn't take too long.