Friday, February 20, 2015

28mm Napoleonic Spanish Guerrillas


Cripes, I started these figures back in December and have been slowly nudging them along in fits and starts. It’s funny; I find that when I’m not following a common uniform ‘template’ it can take me forever to come up with the goods. I’ll hum and haw over how to paint every item of clothing, every strap, every hat, almost paralyzing myself with indecision. It’s quite silly really. I know I could have probably done-up the majority of these figures in simple browns, greens and blacks, but that seemed pretty uninteresting and frankly a bit of a cop out for such fine figures. So I painfully plodded through them, model-by-model, and I’m have to say I'm happy to finally see the backs of them. 


These fifteen 28mm castings are from Brigade Games. Most are listed as ‘Napoleonic Guerrilla’ figures, but a few are actually Napoleonic naval crew, nonetheless, I found they blended together relatively well. By the looks of them I would say that Paul Hicks was the sculptor, but I’m not sure on this. No matter, they are excellent models – requiring little in the way of preparation and were a real joy to work on. 


From my understanding many of these guerrilla units were composed of Spaniards from all walks of life so I decided to paint them in a motley assortment of civilian garb and re-purposed bits of uniform, both Spanish and French. (And, yes, you apparently have to have a fierce priest and armed monk with any Spanish guerrilla unit.)


I stuck to my standard method of basing for these. For ease of identification the force commander is based on a hex base, while the lower level leaders are on squares and the troops are on rounds. 


The roadside shrine below is from Grand Manner. It’s quite a nice hunk of resin. I often find a small characterful terrain piece can speak volumes to a setting than a bunch of nondescript models. When I put this on the tabletop it immediately says to me, ‘We’re in the Iberian Peninsula. Genuflect, put on your wide-brimmed hat and enjoy some hot chocolate and churros.'


I picked up this shrine along with a few other pieces from Grand Manner this past Christmas during a promotion. It was the only way I could rationalize getting them, as with shipping they’re quite expensive. Nonetheless, while some of their range has been around for quite awhile, I still find Grand Manner offers some of the best terrain available, so it's nice to be able to treat oneself from time to time. 


Next up for this little project will be some dismounted French dragoons for these Guerrillas to tangle with…

12 comments:

  1. Those figures are excellent and the shrine is superb. I do agree that Grand Manner produce some of the best looking models but they are expensive - I like the idea of a small piece suggesting a location rather than a whole town!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, GM stuff is super expensive (especially when you add in the shipping) but it is soo nice to have. Like I mentioned above, I try to take advantage of their seasonal sales events to ease the hit on the credit card. :)

      Delete
  2. Great work Curt! I love these irregular bands of fighters. Plenty of variation in colour and the style of dress and poses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, thanks Samuli - I'm glad you like them.

      Delete
  3. Bravo Sir! These are tremendous Curt, I love the colours all tied together perfectly with the basing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Mr. Awdry. As I'm sure you sympathize, I frequently find myself spending as much time agonizing over the basing design as I do with the figures themselves!

      Delete
  4. Fantastic painting work of these very nice figures. I´m really tempted by your work with these Brigade Games models, too much tempted!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Juan - please give them a go - I'm sure you'd do a fabulous job on them.

      Delete
  5. Very nice, I need to paint up some guerrillas for my Sharp Practice Peninsula War Campaign. Love those Brigade games figures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ron. Yes, these would be great for Sharp Practice. I'm going to mix in some figures from Perry's Carlist War range in next as they are similar in look and period.

      Delete
  6. Love the way you have slipped the sailors into this bunch.
    Great job.
    Cheers
    Stu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stu! When I looked at the castings it didn't seem like too much of a stretch.

      Delete

Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)