A short post on another addition. This is Regimiento de Leales de Fernando VII. It comprises my standard 24 figures plus four skirmishers.
This regiment was raised in 1808 and it fought at Talavera. It features on most wargames tables in the all light blue (red colars, cuffs and shako band) uniform of that time, pictured in the famous print (five fellas on a knoll) after Gomez & Clonard. This uniform is too early for mid war.
In 1810, its 1st Battalion was in Cadiz, where it presumably got the new uniform pictured in a watercolour by Antonio Pareira Pacheco. The other two battalions were campaigning in Extremadura and I don't have a clue how these were uniformed.
The picture by Pacheco shows an officer (without shako plume) and I'm unsure of the shako worn by the rank and file. For the earlier uniform this had a tufted red pompom and a red top band: It was so distinctive that I decided to keep it for the rank and file for this uniform, and added (kept the cast on plume) for the officer figure - so a bit of an aesthetic fudge here.
Conversions: The rank and file figures by Front Rank come without pompoms. How I made them can be found here.
The figures are by Front Rank. The flag I have given this unit is pucker but, it's the regiment's 1808 flag (it may / might have been kept, who knows?): the flag is by Adolfo Ramos.
Next up, a battalion of marine infantry in round hats.
6 comments:
All these uniform variants are great and give a really diverse looking army - I can't wait to get my painting table back in business although my Spanish are behind the last of my War of Austrian Succession project in the painting queue (and I'm very slow).
Thanks.
By the mid war years the Spanish armies were looking a lot less rag tag than they had been in 1808-09 (where new recruits massively outstripped the supply of uniforms and civilian dress was commonplace). The supply of uniforms, both domestic and foreign, seems to have become much better by mid 1810 and the army probably looked fully regular (for the most part). However, without a central authority governing the look of uniforms their 'cut' was pretty divers. That's what I'm going for - plenty of diversity both in colours and styles - using any uniform supplied between 1810-1813.
Sometime in 1814, with central authority re-established, uniforms again became prescribed by government. Alas, too late for my purposes.
Another fine looking unit, James. I chose to do my Spanish in their early 1808/1809 uniforms, to take advantage of all the color there. For the most part I ignored the effects of supply and attrition in favor of “toy soldier perfect” uniforms. As always, there are advantages to either approach.
Beautiful new additions. I wish I had the time and energy to launch into Napoleonic flag creation!
Just to add a few more details regarding the Leales de Fernando VII. It wasn't a very successful unit as its first major action was Talavera, where it was one of the three units that part of the regimment ran on the first night.
This incident was overblown by Napier but it did happen and the fact that the remainder of the regiment fought well on the second day did not absolve the colonel Juan Chacón from a court-martial.
Chacón was declared not guilty of dereliction of duty in 1810 but the first battalion in Cádiz was disbanded in 1811 to the Irlanda Regiment and the other two were captured at Albuquerque in March 1811.
Hi Peter,
I know what you mean. I did think about an early war Spanish army but decided against it so I could do a three way campaign (Brits, French, Spanish).
Now I'm planning to revisit at some point and do a second Spanish (1808/09) army. If I do, I too will go for the 'toy soldier' approach and largely ignore new recruits in civilian garb - mixed civilian / regulars would be difficult to do using Front Rank.
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