Lasalle Project: 3rd Cacadores

3rd Cacadores in line, skirmishers deployed.

I’ve completed my second full battalion for my Lasalle project. These fellows are the 3rd Cacadores, who were brigaded under Beckwith with the 1/43rd Monmouthshire and portions of the 1/95th rifles, at the time of Bussaco (the order of battle I’m loosely basing my Lasalle division on). All figures are AB 15/18mm.

The Cacadores (cacadore means hunter) were Portuguese light infantry trained after the Portuguese army was reformed. They were trained in the manner of British light infantry, and would prove reliable troops over the course of the war. Cacadores were largely armed with smoothbore muskets (particularly early in the Peninsular war), but would usually have at least a company of sharpshooters who bore the famous Baker rifle. I’ve depicted my skirmishers with said rifles-you’ll notice their hunting powder horns, as well. A truly superb article (and by superb I mean it has everything the lazy wargamer needs to know in one place) can be found at academia.edu. I have no idea how long the article will be up, so get the information while you can!

They’re really brown.

The 3rd had black facings. Black facings, along with the black trimmed hussar-style jackets, and dark brown uniform make for an extremely dark battalion! In the pursuit of contrast, I lightened and warmed my base brown color considerably (Vallejo German medium camo brown, mixed with about 30% bright yellow), but unfortunately I can say I erred on the side of caution. I’ll probably shoot for the tone of chocolate milk for my other battalion of Cacadores (the 1st), and hope that they don’t come out so dull. It may be hopeless.

3rd Cacadores, with their friends in the 1/43rd.

I’ve acquired limbers, and a howitzer, so I’ll be finishing up Ross’s A Battery next, as well as painting high ranking officers (Black Bob Craufurd, himself, Beckwith, and a dashing Aide-de-camp).

3rd Cacadores eating dust (note poorly painted blanket roll straps)

Once the battery is complete, I’ll be faced with painting up a large battalion of British rifles, made up of an amalgamation of the 1/95th and 3/95th. This will require 36 figures in close order, and I’ll need 6 skirmish bases, as well, because in Lasalle, large battalions with a high skirmish value can be split into a half battalion, and companies of skirmishers that can be distributed as desired throughout the division.

That’s all for now. Thanks for casting your eyeball this way!

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Edit: I’ve painted this battalion incorrectly for Bussaco. The Cacadores had yellow chest cords, and the 3rd had yellow facings, until a change of uniform that occurred in 1811. Bussaco, of course, occurred in 1810. Whoops. That’s brown egg on my face! Rather than try to repaint these guys in-situ, I’ll switch my Light Division OOB to Fuentes de Onora. Theoretically, this would add the 2/52nd to my second brigade, which would break the Lasalle generic OOB structure, that I’ve been trying to adhere to. I’ll have to ponder how (or if) to incorporate this change.

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Edit the Second: Well, now I’ve realized that the brass badges at the base of my cacadores plumes should actually be red and black ribbons. I’ll get this fixed on my figures, but wanted to leave a note here, in case anyone is trying to use my efforts as a painting guide (a dubious prospect, at best).