Mid War Spanish Additions - Officers

It's been a while since my last post, for reasons I don't really want to go into, and for that I apologise. 

It has been a longer while since I painted any Spanish, so to remind you of the first baby step I'm going to do a short recap. Initially I painted a commander, four units in the so called "1812 British Uniform" three guns and a couple of limbers. They are pictured below and here is the full post link.

It was a start but, not much of one. However, just recently I've gone through a rather more productive phase and added a four new command stands including a Spanish C-in-C, seven more units of infantry and three units of cavalry. The Spanish are no longer a contingent, they are a force. 

More to the point, the lead pile definitely looks a lot smaller now: I'm almost exactly half way through it. I always find the start of a project a struggle because I feel like I'm working for little result: at the start of a project there isn't enough (an army / a force) to play a game with for a considerable stretch of time and in consequence initial enthusiasm quickly flags. Now, at last, I can see the end in sight and I feel like I'm on the easy down slope (a bit like myself, with age) - I'm even thinking about any extra units I might need to buy to "finish up".

Several of the new units are made up of Front Rank figures that have received small conversions - though none as extensive as the baggy-trousered horse artillerymen pictured above (now my favourite stand in this Peninsular collection) - and most require some explanation. Consequently, I'm going to add the new units to the blog as a series of posts rather than one long one.

First up, the four command stands.

The Spanish C-in-C stand. For the British and French I did one of these 120mm x 70mm stands with four mounted figures and a foot figure. For the Spanish I decided to do two mounted and three foot figures, filling the empty space with a piece 'furniture' in the form of an adhoc table made from a door on two barrels littered with bits and pieces (more anon).

Firstly, the figures: The two mounted figures and the chap with the gold trimmed bicorn are straight out of the box. The 'hussar' and the other ADC are conversions. 

The hussar is a French horse artilleryman with linstock with a British hussar head swap (from an unused British hussar standard bearer that I had replaced with a trooper). I removed the linstock, remodelled the hand to grasp a goblet and raised his arm 'in salute'. 

A note on arm raising: You can't just bend an arm from down to up without removing most of the metal between the armpit and the shoulder (I did this by sawing up from the armpit with a junior hacksaw until only a millimetre or two of metal remained at the shoulder) before changing the position of the arm. Once in the new position the resulting 'armpit' space was filled with a bead of two part epoxy glue (Araldite) to give strength, then after the glue had set, finishing with modelling putty (Milliput) . If you don't remove the metal first, the arm will not move at the shoulder like a real arm does.

The other ADC is a Portuguese foot artilleryman's body (head already removed to make one of my Portuguese limber drivers) with a new head in bicorn. Actually this was a Roman bare headed head with a bicorn added separately. His sword and sabretache are from a plastic two figure 'sample' sprue finished with Milliput belts. His fringed epaulettes were also made from Milliput.

But this stand, for me, is all about that table. 

The table itself was made from two plastic barrels (from a Lego toy?) that I've had kicking about in my bits box for years, with a table top made out of a plastic sheet (Perry Miniatures plastic base) scored to look like a door: the hinges are paper with short pieces of wire glued on the ends as the hinge mechanism. The handle is a piece of wire bent into a loop.

The map is just a piece of paper glued onto the table top (the paper was painted then marked with pens and pencils, largely using dots). I thought it would be interesting to use Milliput oranges as paperweights to hold the map down at two of its corners. The earthenware plate, with more oranges, is also Milliput, as are the jug and wine bottle (the latter two were my best effort - I'm not a sculptor). The satchel is a plastic one (possibly WW2 Japanese) with a paper strap added. 

You might have noticed by now that I don't throw anything away (LOL).

The goblets: All the goblets were made in the same (surprising?) way. The stems are wire, of course. The bases are Milliput discs. The goblet cups are white metal cannon balls filled flat on one side and drilled to take the wire stem! The goblets on the table had their bases glued onto the table first, then the bases were drilled (through the table too) so that when the stems were glued into the bases the stems were also glued into the table-top for added strength.

Figures around the table are positioned so that it is actually difficult to touch the table when the stand is being moved about.

Command stand, figures as standard. ADC painted in blue uniform.

Same stand, different angle.

Command stand, figures as standard. ADC painted in green uniform.

Same stand, different angle.

Cavalry commander. 

The bugler figure is a Russian cavalryman. I've added a large feather plume (pinned and glued). 

The Spanish were notorious for their extravagant musician uniforms. As a rule of thumb, for non-unit individuals like this one, be as daring as you like. 

Same stand, different angle.