vrijdag 7 september 2018

Portugal 1808/09 (Project)

I purchased a year ago three packs of Blue Moon British and these remained un-touched during my immersion into the ancient period. While awaiting an order for more figures I will have time to finish these figures. I envision the collection of British and Portuguese to model the British army based at Coimbra in May of 1809. This had an establishment consisting of two brigades of mounted and seven brigades of foot with each British brigade retaining a battalion of Portuguese infantry. The historical representation under the rules variant have each element of figures representing a battalion of foot or a regiment of mounted;  troop types who normally fought in open order, such as skirmishers, these have two elements.

The Portuguese
I am aware that the Portuguese uniform regulations pertaining to the Barretina shako being replaced by the Stovepipe took place later, but for time and economic reasons I opted for one style of uniform to serve for both the Portuguese and British. I will admit to not being a purist about this point, but my primary focus is the development of some interesting historical scenarios and less the depiction of accurate representation of figures.  

The miniatures
The three packs of Blue Moon 15mm to be painted are British Generals (10), Rifles (15) and Dragoon Guards. (15) A few British generals are reserved for the Portuguese and will have a Portuguese uniform and likewise some British rifles will be painted as Portuguese Cazadores. The cavalry posed another problem as the 15 Dragoon Guards are too many as only two regiments will be represented. I did not wish to purchase figures to fill out the compliment of light dragoons so after some cutting, filing and Milliput, six Dragoon Guards were converted light dragoons. Aside from the Tarleton helmet, all horse tails were docked as was the custom and blanket rolls were added (Milliput) for all the cavalry.


Hopefully by early next week I should have these painted up and photos will be posted. 


Illustration: By Soerfm - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27955583

Recommended reading.
The Peninsular War by Sir Charles Oman, all 7 volumes are available online.    

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