Tuesday, 25 July 2023

Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 17) - Sagunto Dragoons

This is the second to last cavalry unit for my Spanish (next and last, Coraceros). When it came to painting this unit I was really torn and I didn't go with what I wanted to do most: I went for what was probably more useful.

I wanted to do a heavy cavalry unit in blue coats (red facings) and bicornes and I have a flag for Del Rey but, that glorious unit is unrepresentative of the shambolic Spanish cavalry - if only they had not been so good. I also had a flag for the Sagunto Dragoons and that, strange as it seems, was the decider.

So here they are, the Sagunto Dragoons, or should that be the Dragones de Sagunto.

Figures by Front Rank and the flag is by Adolfo Ramos. Painting is by me, in Humbrol enamels. 
I think they look great in their resplendent, glowing, yellow coats with green lapels (and cuffs, under gloves).
Note the bugler. As with all Spanish dragoons in yellow coats, it's the yellow and  red (turnbacks) of the basic coat that get reversed - no green to be seen.

"No green to be seen" does that make me a wargame poet? Answers elsewhere, please.

I might do Del Rey as an addition at some point - a few additions are pencilled in for this army.

Next up: Regimiento Guadalajara. Not finished yet.



Sunday, 23 July 2023

Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 16) - Voluntarios de Jaen 1811 & Voluntarios de Asturias 1811

I've added two units of infantry Cazadores to the army. These bring the compliment of light infantry to five units: Out of a total of twenty two units (when the last two are painted), including two Guerrilla bands, I think that should be more than enough. 

All figures are Front Rank. Flags are by Adolfo Ramos. Round bases are by Warbases, others are home cut from sheet MDF. All were painted a few weeks ago by yours truly using Humbrol enamels (mostly). Basing is a sand and grit mix; washed with diluted burnt umber ink, then dry brushed with two shades of beige household emulsion paint; the flock is Woodland Scenics coarse turf- a mix of 'yellow grass' and 'burnt grass'.

Voluntarios de Jaen 1811. Uniform details are from Osprey's Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars vol.3. There is no information on headgear. Given that the uniform is brown, I assume it was produced in Spain - so I've gone for round hats.

The number of skirmish stands is a visual game aid: They indicate the base skirmish factor. I nicked it from Lasalle by S. Mustafa. 


The brown and yellow coats look good as a combination and the white belts add nicely to the ensemble. The white gaiters are something I added on a whim. The Spanish wore gaiters in various colours (black, white, grey, light blue and dark blue). I couldn't find information on this unit's gaiter colour so I let rip - it's the men in top hats and spats.
Voluntarios de Asturias 1811. Again, uniform details from Osprey's Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars vol.3.... 
....and yet again, I don't have information on what headgear this unit wore. Given the recruitment area I can only guess that the uniform was produced in Britain: Probably a shako, then.
I decided on black accoutrements for this unit: Mostly because I probably haven't done enough of it in this colour.

Next up, another unit of Spanish dragoons (finished some time ago). That leaves just three units left to do. I can see the pub from 'ere! 

I've also finished the work on the campaign, the players seem up for it, so they might all see some action very soon.


Thursday, 20 July 2023

Little ships and Nimitz

EDIT

On Wednesday evening, as scheduled, Peter J. brought his WW2 ships along. I hadn't seen them before and I've got to say, for something that small, they looked good to me. They are 1:6000 vessels by Hallmark. Having been to the Magister Militum site today I found models of this Myoko class heavy cruiser were just £9.50 for a pack of four. 


Here are the two fleets that Peter brought along for the evening's game. Basically a mix of cruisers and destroyers: You can just about buy the lot for £40. A single unit of twelve 28mm cavalry from Front Rank cost more than that: 






Now, I've only ever played one game of WW2 naval before and that was years ago. It was a game put on by Brian Hicks (of Leeds Wargame club 'Hicks Centre' fame) using some of his shallow seas stuff. It was okay but, it was a bit complex and it certainly didn't enthuse me to go out and make WW2 naval a thing - on the contrary, in fact. 

In consequence, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much of the planned game. So it came as a nice surprise when the game proved to be both simple to pick up, exciting and fun: The rules used were Nimitz by Sam Mustafa.

We all decided to get stuck in from the start - which is usually the best way to pick up new rules (none of us had played, only Peter had read). Not knowing what ships could do what (beyond move rate and weapon range) there wasn't much tactical thought in evidence. Indeed, before move three was out pretty much everything had drawn up at close quarters and then all hell broke loose - this move to close range was lucky for the Americans because the Japanese would prove to be much better at long range than them.

This photo was taken at the same time as the other shot but, I thought I'd add a pencil to show the scale of these little beauties. The ship size means a big table isn't needed - I doubt we got out of a 5' x 3' all night. Shortly after this shot the formations dispersed a little, and the game got a little (being generous) more tactical. 

The rules were sorted within a couple of turns and the game ticked over very nicely. The firing mechanism was especially sweet because, unlike that other WW2 naval game I've played, it was very simple. Firing is split into three stages: Ships fire secondary armament (cruisers had some, the destroyers didn't), followed by all firing main armament, followed by torpedoes: Basically gunnery was half a dozen modifiers to give you a difficulty factor (0-5), cross referenced with tubes firing on a to hit table to find the number required to hit, then roll d6 - you hit, or you don't; if you hit roll D6 for damage cross referenced with gun penetration at close or long range, minus target armour for effect (tick off damage boxes); then roll a bonus 2D6 for a critical hit. Each fire takes literally seconds to resolve. The effects of damage were also very easy to follow; general movement rules were even simpler.

There is a bit of book keeping to be done on the individual ship roster / damage / gun factor sheet but, this was so easy it is hardly worth going into, except to say that, as with everything by Sam Mustafa, it's all incredibly clear once you've identified the symbols - he's a very 'visual' guy: Once identified and understood they do stick in the mind. 
The whole game, with virtually no looking at the rules, was carried out using this one sided QRS in about two hours. Pretty good for a first game with four players.

The game was a draw with both sides getting quite badly mauled. The Japanese cruisers were better off than the American ones at the end but were much worse off for destroyers.

Will I be going out to buy WW2 naval. Well no, but only because Peter has already done so. Otherwise, I'd be sorely tempted. 

Word to the wise about Sam Mustafa's rules: If you think you will get round to this as a period one day, and you like hard copy versions of rules, buy your copy of Nimitz now! They will sell out pretty quickly (they always do) and there never seems to be a re-print so second copies go for twice the price!

RECOMENDED!

We liked it so much we are playing it again next week.


Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Variety, they say, is the spice of life....

After a long break, gaming is now up and running again on an almost weekly basis. Unfortunately I haven't found time to blog about the games in any detail. Normally, I always take a photo of the set up for games but somehow I haven't even managed that for a few of them - for instance this week's game was an X Wing scenario featuring the asteroid base I made a couple of years ago (pictured opposite: Made out of a big sponge, half a polystyrene ball, Lego pieces and a couple of beads with Marmon Herrington turrets on top - panelling is thin card). This was a scenario test of the prequal to "A Tinder Moment" scenario called "Pod-Cast" where Tinder Caress kidnaps Moff Diver, escaping in the escape pod, under cover of a diversionary Rebel attack on an important Imperial spy base. Tinder will always escape in this scenario - it's just part of the back story. The game scenario is actually just a simple bombing mission versus a huge ship. The huge ship in this case is the spy base (which I counted as an immobile GR-75 mounting two Flechette Cannons) defended by a squadron of three Tie Defenders and a Tie Advanced. Attacking I got to use my two new (now old but never used) B/SF-17 Bombers plus two X Wing escorts. It's a pity I didn't take any pics because it actually looked pretty good - I'm always amazed at how good these games look: plenty of bang for buck, IMHO. As an obstacle, I classed the base as an asteroid rather than a ship (I had made the matching table template for that exact reason), with any damage for flying over it (rolling to hit dice as normal but allowing an action) being counted as coming from short range laser fire rather than an actual collision; classing it this way allows the Resistance Bombers to make proper bombing runs; the Imperials could fly over it without penalty as a defence advantage. Anyway, at some point I'll write this scenario up. I was the Imperial player and got whooped - mostly by doing my famous fly into small asteroids at every opportunity manoeuvres! It's a good job I don't drive.

We've also played a couple of Napoleonic games. This one was the first full on French versus Spanish encounter that we've played. I took three photos on the first evening's play, none on the second. It featured everything I have recently painted for the Spanish (except a couple of command stands).
The terrain was originally set up to do Bussaco but I decided I didn't have the time to research it properly, added a stream for difference, and played this fictional encounter on it instead. The French advanced on the wood sheltered convent, sweeping all before them.
The French swept up the long ridge, then over it, kicking Spanish arse all the way. There were lots of virgin Spanish infantry and cavalry units in action (17 of 21), and the Spanish did as most gamers might expect - I don't think I've ever played with that many new units in one army in a single battle before and I've definitely never seen that many new units break: Why do newly painted units always tend to do so badly? I was on the losing side of this game too!
We've also played a couple of To The Strongest battles set during the Early Crusader period. This one (pics of set up only) was interesting in that it featured an entirely mounted Saracen (Syrian / Turk) army. It was a point balanced game and I composed this army first (using every Saracen cavalryman possible to get a points total) before matching it with a more usual mixed force of Crusaders. It's actually less Saracen cavalry than it looks - there are only about 320 of them (Note to self: Need more horse archers). Of course, we used my purpose made (fit into grid) terrain pieces on my home made tea and coffee (plus a smidgen of burnt umber ink) stained canvas play mat: This has probably been one of my better money saving ideas - because it was simple and only took a few hours of work, if you don't count the three days of on-table (to keep it flat and uncreased) drying time - my house smelled like a coffee house for over a week.

It was an incredibly close game, nip and tuck all the way and very confused, especially on the wings. In the last turn of the evening, the last possible Saracen command to activate was a single unit of horse archers; it activated to shoot on an 8 (so it was probably the last activation of the Saracen turn), they hit on a 10 but went out of ammunition and having no ammunition chits left wouldn't shoot again in the game, the Crusaders failed to save their unit of armoured sergeants, in shieldwall, on a 5+ and lost their last two victory medals. The Saracens had won with just one victory medal left of their own! My unit of horse archers - heroes to a man - and a blessed VICTORY!!!

This week's game will be something completely different again. Peter is going to bring his ships (WW2) along for a naval game. Hopefully I'll remember to take a few photos this time!


Sunday, 16 July 2023

A Peninsular War Campaign

As I only have three Spanish units left in the lead pile (I've finished another three Spanish units since the last Napoleonic Project update, more on those later), it's probably time to get some proper use out of what is now, at well over 2,600 men, officially my largest collection. What better way than to launch into a wargame campaign. 

Over the last couple of months I've been slowly getting everything for a campaign together, and I'm almost ready to go. We are scheduled to play a naval game with Peter J.'s ships on Wednesday, then hopefully we can start the campaign the week after that. 

The players in this umpire-less campaign will be Peter J, Graham H, and Mark D and myself. There will be one Anglo-Portuguese, one Spanish and two French players. Peter J. wants to be Spanish, and that's fine by me. Mark and Graham can dice off for next choices and I will take what's left. 

The campaign will be fought over this point to point map. It was downloaded from here. At full size the map was too big for my map board - I printed the one pictured at 75%. I think these maps are quite brilliant for large area horse and musket campaigns in Europe and I'm very grateful to their cartographer for making them freely available on line.

I decided to start the campaign using armies from around mid 1811. Mostly, this was to give the Anglo-Portuguese player full control of Portugal - it wouldn't be much of a campaign if Wellington got pushed back into the sea on campaign turn 1. As a start date it also makes my Spanish army look about right. 

There is one massive fudge - much of the French Army of the North (about 70,000 men) is AWOL. However, this army was employed in trying to hold down the large swathes of Spanish territory under French occupation and took little part in offensive operations - what men were available for 'use in the field' are accounted for in the other armies starting line ups or as campaign card additions. The army's absence helps to even the campaign's odds, which numbers wise are already with the French. I feel that the inclusion of this army as 'a player army' would make it a French walkover unless some very complicated (and boring) rules for policing and garrisons were formulated. It is a leap for the imagination to make but, I simply can't think of ways to effectively keep the Army of the North occupied doing what it did historically - which in wargame terms is virtually nothing! - and make the campaign playable as an enjoyable reasonably balanced game. The two much smaller Spanish armies kicking about northern Spain (total about 25,000 men), which kept popping up to disturb the peace before disappearing into the hills, and which heroically kept the much larger French army dispersed, tied down in garrisons and fruitlessly 'chasing ghosts' about the place, are also AWOL - one lot cancelled the other, so to speak. 

To begin with, each army is represented by a single pin placed at its 'campaign jump off' point. The campaign will start with a set up turn. This set up turn will be used to sort out the actual dispositions of the forces before the campaign begins in earnest. This special turn will serve to give the players a run through of a full campaign turn (I will remove the End Turn card); the only caveats for how this special turn is played through is that no one will be allowed to initiate a battle or begin a siege - it is purely a game turn of manoeuvre and positioning.

Note all of the campaign counters (pins) that are stuck into the map board. There are pins for every division (the smallest individually tracked campaign force in the campaign), supply dumps, extreme weather, Guerrilla action and various other things that might feature due to campaign cards and events - I don't think I've forgotten anything.

Here is a sample army roster sheet, in this case for two of the Spanish armies. These note any special divisional units and will be used to track army strength. They are loosely based on historical divisional composition for 1811.

If you look closely you can see starting strength - bold and non-italics number - of each infantry division: Tracking individual units is too much paperwork - I'm happy to simply track divisional strength in unit integrity points (UI) and let players organise their divisions into units when a battle occurs. 

I'm not going to track cavalry or artillery at all: Cavalry numbers are a product of infantry numbers, as is artillery. In this case, both Freire and Blake will get 1 UI of cavalry (random unit type) per 6 UI of infantry fielded, and each division will get a battery if it has 9 UI or more. 

One thing I have added to the campaign mix is 'hospitals': These are useful for dividing post battle infantry UI losses into two types - temporary and permanent.

One sheet not pictured is the random unit quality table for each troop type. Before battle, a dice will be rolled to determine the quality of each unit.

The game will be card driven. There is a campaign activation deck. This has two activation cards for each army (one for Joseph, alternately controlled by the French players), two 'draw campaign hand cards' for each player (see below) a reinforcement card for each 'nation', two extreme weather cards, a naval move card, and to sow the element of doubt into 'turn sequencing' an End Turn card. There are 36 cards in total.
Lastly, there is a campaign hand deck of 54 cards, most of which are too detailed to list. They will be picked up by players during campaign activations and can be used by the players at any time during the campaign to help them or their ally, or to hinder the enemy. Hopefully they will add governed campaign flavour and surprises - which is useful in an umpire-less campaign.

Lastly there are four or five pages of rules. I will not detail these until after they have been play tested a bit but, they cover movement, stacking limits, supply & attrition, initiating battle, force concentration from adjacent areas prior to battle, post battle casualty and movement, sieges and the like. I've tried to keep everything pretty simple because past experience has taught me that's usually best.

Once the campaign is properly underway, and any glaring rule errors and omissions have been sorted, I'll make everything available on request.



Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 15) - Garrochistas and more commanders

First up, a few posts ago, I mentioned that I had two more command stands left in the lead pile but, looking into my bits and pieces box, I found two more figures that I could convert to make a third. 

I'm now down to a lead pile of just six Spanish units.

Command stand #6.

You have seen the bugler (he's the Russian figure with an added big feather plume) before. This is a changed / revamped cavalry command stand: I took the officer off and replaced him with this converted officer in a cuirass to make it even more flamboyant. The officer I removed found his way onto a new stand below.

Both of these figures are in made up uniforms - which would be nothing special in a Spanish army of which Surtees commented "It was really absurd and ludicrous to see the strange figures they generally made themselves. In one regiment alone you might observe more different uniforms than both we and the French have in all our armies....all the [styles and] colours of the rainbow.....in the uniforms of one regiment's officers; and every one of them appeared to vie with the other who could make the greatest harlequin of himself...."

The newly converted figure was a French general of cuirassier in a helmet and distinctive laced, square tailed coat. I swapped his head (with a spare British officer's in bicorn), added a large Milliput neckerchief (the neck was a bit of a mess because of the cuirass's ruff), then reshaped the coat tails and added more traditional turnbacks to using Milliput.

Command stand #7
Command stand #8.

Note that the uniform of the ADC is not made up; it follows a portrait by Denis Deighton. Officially the uniform should have been blue faced red with a plume-less bicorn: it goes to show that Surtees wasn't wrong in his opinion.

Command stand #9.

The officer on the left is the second converted figure mentioned at the start of this post. He was a Nassau officer. His new head is that of a decapitated (Renegade Miniatures) Roman with a large (Front Rank) bicorn. I also added some lapels to make him look more like an ADC and a big moustache to make him look more Spanish, using Milliput.

A unit of Garrochistas. These are Spanish cowboys and their 'lance', when not skewering Frenchmen, is for prodding bulls into obedience.

I'm not sure if these figures aren't more early than mid war but, they are very evocative of Spain: They can be used as Guerrillas or light cavalry stand ins.
I tried to make the most of the variation in the multi-coloured striped blankets but I kept the rest of the pallet fairly simple to speed up the painting process.

The majority wear green jackets (the most common colour, apparently) with a few blue and brown ones; trousers are tan (majority), grey or dark brown. 

Most Garrochistas seem to have favoured red head scarves (hair in a black hairnet beneath) and red sashes. 

I did all their hats and gaiters the same colour to speed things up a bit.

At some point, I might change the colour of some hats. I'm not sure what other colours would be appropriate - Zorro black perhaps?

All figures are by Front Rank.

All were painted by yours truly using enamels.

Next up, a Spanish Vs French battle and not a Brit in sight! I got there, in the end....

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 14) - Regimiento de Burgos

In May 1811 2,525 light blue uniforms with yellow cuffs and collar were delivered and issued to units serving in eastern Spain. The uniform was issued without shakos so locally obtained round hats were probably worn with it. 

Caveat emptor - The three battalions of 1st Regimiento de Burgos were serving in eastern Spain in 1811 and in 1814 they wore a very similar uniform to this one (in 1814 it was piped white). Consequently, I think it's not to much of a leap to put them in this British produced uniform and round hats in 1811, though I don't have any direct evidence of Regimiento de Burgos actually wearing it.

Figures are by Front Rank.

The flag is by Adolfo Ramos.

Round MDF bases by Warbases, others are home cut from MDF sheet. 

The foam (grass texture) is Woodland Scenics coarse turf - a mix of yellow grass and burnt grass.

Note the officer on the skirmish base, more anon.

Yet again, I chose this uniform to add another colour combination to my eclectically uniformed Spanish army.

Please note that to the eye they are more blue, a brighter sky blue, than the camera and my lighting has made them look here.
In the last post I mentioned that I had saved a few pennies by converting the spare standard bearers in the Front Rank battalion packs. 

The conversion was done by simply adding a pouch (small balsa wood block) to the bottom of the figures 'flagpole strap'; removing the hilt of the sword from the top of the scabbard; adding a sword from my bits and pieces box. 

It's not a particularly realistic pose but, converting a dozen or so saved me about £20 and I didn't have to waste many figures.


Saturday, 13 May 2023

Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 13) - Voluntarios de Vizcaya

This unit is actually the 2nd de Voluntarios de Vizcaya: They are cazadores.

The 1812 uniform description in Osprey's Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (3) is "Brown coatee and pantaloons; scarlet collar, cuffs and lapels, white piping; pewter buttons." The details for 1st and 3rd Vizcaya are different.

Figures are by Front Rank.

Flag is by Adolfo Ramos. A great flag this one - totally different in design to any other I have seen.

There has been some minor conversion to these figures. The figures do not come with lapels so I had to remove the central row of buttons on their coatees. The lapels and lapel buttons have simply been painted on.

The officer (nearest stand, left) is a standard bearer with a sword added instead. The standard's shoulder strap now sports a 'square pouch' (at the back). I've done this simple conversion a lot to use up the spare standard bearer figure in each Front Rank 'battalion pack' (each pack of twenty four figures comes with two) to save a few pennies.

There is no detail on the headwear or accoutrements for the 1812 uniform but, Vizcaya units had previously worn a round hat with a white band and white equipment. I assume gaiters were black.

Thursday, 4 May 2023

Packing based 40mm figures for the post

Some time ago I finished a commission of 40mm figures for a client in New York, a client who does not do things by half.

In the past my client has told me that some of the 40mm stuff he gets back through the post, mostly from Europe, arrives damaged in transit. 

This is for two reasons. Firstly, 40mm figures are heavy with thin parts (muskets etc.) and can be easily bent or broken if they get shaken in the package, much more so than 28mm. Secondly, this client likes his stuff based on multi figure stands which means they can't be held flat between soft shock absorbing packaging. They need more, much more.

I've painted a lot of this stuff for this client over the years and over that time I've developed a packaging technique to cope with the weight and fragility of multiply based 40mm figures. You might think this packaging method is a lot of work. However, the contents of this parcel were worth an awful lot of money and they needed to get to their destination safely to prevent greater costs and my professional blushes.
 
First, each stand needs to be self enclosed so that even if the figures get bounced around they are self protecting. 

To this end I use thin card sleeves (old greetings cards), placed over the end files of figures so that any vertical pressures don't actually come down on the figures themselves - the pressure comes down on the top of the sleeve and the base. 

These sleeves are all cut to the same height so that they will fit snuggly into the package's compartments (see below).

These sleeves are held in place by a wrap around of bubble wrap.
Each stand is then placed into a box divided into made to measure compartments. These compartments are made with corrugated card glued together with PVA. They are just a tiny bit longer and wider than the figures' bases and as deep as the height of sleeve, base thickness and bubble wrap.

When the figures' base is wedged into a compartment there isn't any horizontal pressure on the figures. The stand can't tip because when a lid is put on top of the compartment the vertical pressure on the sleeve holds the base flat on the bottom of the box. Any pressure caused by horizontal movement against the sides of the compartment is taken on the edges of the base.

Each compartment is only as deep as the figures plus sleeve, plus a few millimetres for one or two layers of bubble wrap - this is very important, if the figures require too much padding at the top the lid will not hold the sleeve down firmly enough.

This box has two different heights of compartment. One for 'rank and file' stands, one for 'command' stands. It also has some spare room at one end, compartmentalised purely for strength.

Some stands, like this one, have figures that overlap each other (see the mounted officer's outstretched arm) and require the card sleeves to be slotted so that the sleeves don't squash any of the figures with sideways pressure. 

The trick is for the bottom of the sleeve (less slots) to wholly rest on the base.


You can probably just see the slit cut in the right hand sleeve (the officers arm is poking through it) to allow the card to slot over the figures cleanly. 
The height of standards also require additional packaging bits.

To stop tall sleeves being bent inwards onto standards and the like, some sleeves need to have card spacers placed between them - everything is simply held together with bits of tape. 
Once the figures are in the compartments, the compartments need to be sealed with an internal lid before the whole is sealed with the outer box lid. (Unless the box is the same depth as the compartments, which hasn't ever been the case in my experience).

Once sealed I usually wrap the whole thing with brown paper and packing tape. 

For packages to the US it's as cheap to use a courier as anything else. I think the post on this parcel was about £75.

You'll be pleased to hear that, according to my client, these figures arrived in Manhattan "without a so much as a bent musket."

I would like to thank CG for permission to photograph his commission for the purpose of this post. Safely packing 40mm for postage isn't as easy as packing 28mm, not by a long shot.


Mid War Spanish Additions (cont. 12) - More artillery

These pieces bring posts and painted units up to date: I have no more newly painted units on the shelf to show you. However, the 2nd de Voluntarios de Vizcaya are on my painting desk and they will be here sooner rather than later.

That was quite a productive spell: From four units of infantry, three guns, two limbers and a command stand, the Spanish force now has sixteen units of infantry (including two Guerrillas), three cavalry units, five guns, three limbers and six command stands (including a C-in-C stand). There are only nine units (including the Vizcaya) and two command stands left in the lead pile - I can see the pub from 'ere!

These are gun crews of the Royal Corps of Artillery c.1809-1811.

Figures are Front Rank, straight out of the box, painted by yours truly using enamels. 

Without the guns you can see that, when basing, I first do flat patches where the wheels and trail will rest with fine (sandpit) sand before I do the rest of the groundwork with sand and grit around them. 

These days, I always do my guns as separate removable pieces - for limbering.


The grey trousers follow the print after Goddard and Booth in Osprey's Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (Vol. 2). Unusually, although the gunners have pewter buttons, the officer has gold buttons and epaulettes; he also sports white breeches. From another print after Goddard and Booth (same Osprey).

Confession: When I ordered my Spanish army I cocked up my artillery crew numbers and now have a gun without crew in my lead pile. I'm fairly sure that this happened because of the maximum order value Front Rank imposed during the second Covid lock down: I used artillery crew and guns to get my six orders as close to the £250 limit as I could and somewhere along the line I lost track. Not to worry, I'll probably buy a few more Spanish units at some point.

Spanish Gribeauval (French) limber by Front Rank.

The driver is French with a British HA head swap. 

This uniform is for 1813 and a bit later than I would have liked but, at least it's a nice one. I have no idea what they wore immediately prior to this uniform but suspect they wore the artillery uniform of the battery.
The Spanish licensed the Gribeauval gun system from the French prior to the war and used it throughout. 

Probably due to familiarity, the Spanish always preferred Gribeauval guns to British guns and guns seem to be the one commodity the British were not called upon to supply in great numbers. If I had known this at the time of ordering my collection I would probably have stuck to French guns only - Ho-Hum.

In 1811 the British did supply howitzers to some Spanish horse artillery and more guns to other [unspecified] Spanish artillery units in 1812 - they were definitely in the minority of pieces. 

Although I'll use previously painted Gribeauval guns for the newly painted crews of the RCA, this picture shows the two newly painted British guns with previously painted crew.

Note: The Spanish horse artillery in red trousers are heavily converted (trousers and Nassau grenadier head swaps) early war Spanish figures by Front Rank. They represent the gunners of an unidentified HA unit c.1812. From a print after Giscard in Osprey's Spanish Army of....Vol.3.

That's it, up to speed!