Cacadores the 1st

1st Cacadores in line. No skirmishers.

With unparalleled swiftness (unparalleled by myself, anyway), I’ve completed another battalion for the Lasalle project. Ladies and gents, the 1st Cacadores. This is a four base unit (24 figures) with a couple of skirmish bases. Much like the 3rd Cacadores, they are very brown. And black. With a dash of light blue.

The 1st, with skirmishers out.

This battalion of Portuguese lights completes the core brigade of my Lasalle division. Well, sort of. I’m supposed to have two more battalions when on the offense, and support brigades can be added to flesh the division out.

My additional on-the-attack battalions will be red-coated regulars, if for no other reason than it will put more flags on the table. I may do a brigade of light dragoons for my first support force, but I’m also tempted to do a brigade of Portuguese regulars in their sweet barrentina headwear. Decisions, decisions.

In any case, here’s the infantry portion of the core brigade. The artillery is beyond the hills, still advancing into position.

From left to right…52nd Oxfordshire, 43rd Monmouthshire, 3rd Caçadores, 95th Rifles, 1st Caçadores.

Now with Photoshopped sky!

From left to right…52nd Oxfordshire, 43rd Monmouthshire, 3rd Caçadores, 95th Rifles, 1st Caçadores.

The 1st, with skirmishers out.

3rd Cacadores in line. No skirmishers.

Rifling Through

Arise, arise, blog! Live!

95th Rifles on the Dusty Road. Some bossy fellow points the way.

 

Well, it’s been a minute or two, but I’ve been a-hobbying lately, and have managed to finish off the 95th Rifles for my long-suffering Lasalle Light Division project.

95th Rifles in Line, 43rd Monmothshire advances along the road. Bossy fellows abound.

With this regiment out of the way, I only have to paint up the 1st Cacadores, and I’ll have my core force completed. The 1st is mounted up on tongue suppressors, and ready for priming, so perhaps early September will see the completion of the first, core, stage of this project (there are additional supporting forces to be painted).

The astute observer will notice that I’ve knocked together a miniature terrain board for photographic staging. I used this exercise to try out some new-to-me techniques, including using sifted dirt and tile grout for a ground base. I think the ground work looks pretty fantastic. The finished product is a good representation of an arid area, and the ‘scale’ of the dirt works well with the figure scale. One thing is certain: you can’t beat the price and availability of dirt!

I’ve borrowed/stolen some techniques from Luke Towan’s excellent model railroad YouTube channel. His tutorials are well worth a watch, and are sure to inspire some new ideas, even if the techniques aren’t directly applicable, without modification, to the rigors of a wargaming table.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

95th Rifles in Line, 43rd Monmothshire advances along the road. Bossy fellows abound.

95th Rifles on the Dusty Road. Some bossy fellow points the way.

 

 

 

6th Cacadores for Sharp Practice II

6th Cacadores – 8 troopers, an NCO and an officer.

 

Just a quick update. I’ve made a good start on a few Portuguese skirmishers from the 6th Cacadores. I should have twelve troopers for the standard Sharp Practice elements, so I need to purchase and paint four more. This is my way of avoiding painting 95th Rifles!

These figures are from Brigade Games, and I believe they were sculpted by Paul Hicks. They are wonderful sculpts-highly detailed, and pretty easy to paint. They’re easily on par with the Perry miniatures I’ve painted, and they’re produced here in the U.S..

The thumbnails below will take you to a full size image.

 

 

 

Legere and Barrels

All of zem.

I’ve been procrastinating on starting my 15mm 95th Rifles for Lasalle (although I did clean up all 50 casts, and mount them on craft sticks in preparation for priming!) by finishing up my 28mm French legere for Song of Drums and Shakos/Sharp Practice II. I also painted a couple of resin barrels, as you might
have gathered from the subtle title of this post.

A basic force in SD&S is a dozen figures, and, conveniently, it seems like skirmishers/light troops in Sharp II are assembled in groups of six.

Soon I will have to start purchasing mass quantities of 28mm figures for my Sharp Practice line infantry. I may go the plastics route, Then again, I REALLY hate assembling plastic figures, and this is a sort of slow going luxury project for me, so maybe I’ll go ahead and bite the (expensive) lead bullet.

This will do as a force for Song of Drums and Shakos. Perry French light infantry painted up as the “Incomparable” 9th.

All of zem.

More fun than a barrel of light infantry!

 

 

More French!

Recent production: three chasseurs, a drummer, and sappeur

My long-suffering Song of Drums and Shakos/Sharp Practice project has also seen a little progress this month. In fact, I now have enough figures to put on a French vs. Brunswicker game of Song of Drums and Shakos. I’m intrigued by the streamlined V2 of Sharp Practice that comes out next month-maybe I’ll ramp up 28mm production, and try to get something ready for that by this Fall.

The specialists. Sappers are intimidating fellows! There’s something incongruously brutal about that axe and apron in the middle of all the normal uniform finery.

52nd Oxfordshire

The 52nd leads, 43rd in the middle, 3rd Cacadores in the rear.

For my first post of the new year, may I present to you the 52nd Oxfordshire? The 52nd is a large elite unit for the Lasalle project, consisting of 6 bases of close order infantry, and 3 bases of skirmishers.

 

Deployed in line.

In line, skirmish markers deployed.

Ross’s Battery: Fully Charged

The Napoleonic project wheel advances a cog! I’ve completed Ross’s Battery, which involved painting up a howitzer, and three limbers. I’ve done my limbers in a manner similar to the ones I use for Regimental Fire and Fury. I really couldn’t see painting up the full 6 horses and three riders that come with each limber pack from Eureka, so thankfully Rob at Eureka kindly obliged me by selling me one full limber pack, and a couple of extra limbers so I could divide the hoss-flesh up amongst them.

I must say, I was quite confused on whether the various cannon should be bright brass, or as I’ve painted them. Some paintings (and lots of figures) that I looked at on the internet had brightwork, but the examples from museums that I saw were dark. Feel free to tell me I’ve screwed the entire battery up. I won’t cry too much.

In any case, here’s the whole bunch.

Working the new howitzer

Stand fast, you worms(eye view)!!

Limbers

Close. A little TOO close

I’ll be finishing up the 52nd Oxfordshire (I’ve already painted and based half the unit), next, and then I’ll have to face a major hurdle and paint up the 95th rifles from scratch. This will all be happening in December. November is going to be a very busy time for me, so there will be a short hiatus from game-related activities.

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!

---

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.

---

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).

1/43rd (Monmouthshire) Light Infantry

To celebrate Labor Day, here are the fruits of some of my labor: my first completed battalion for Sam Mustafa’s Lasalle! Ladies (yeah, right) and Gentlemen, I give you the 1/43rd Monmouthshire.

Skirmishers out! That’s the 1/52nd, with their fancy-pants mounted colonel, approaching in column, and a bit of Ross’s Battery is off to the 43rd’s left.

In Lasalle terms, this unit is a “normal” four stand regiment, with a skirmish value of 3. The skirmish value means that the unit is capable of fighting as irregulars (useful in BUAs and woods), and can be completely broken down into skirmish bases to be distributed among the players forces as supplementary skirmish points. Each base has 6 figures, for a total of 24 redcoats in the unit. As you can see, the 43rd had white facings. A practical note for you Lasalle players…18mm AB figures barely fit on a 40mm base, especially when they’re marching with their muskets in trail. Stick with figures with shoulder-arms (is that right?) poses.

Line formation

I’m basing my force, which will eventually be a division with attached elements, on the Light Division under Bob Craufurd at Bussaco. At this battle, the 43rd was brigaded with the 3rd Cacadores, as well as four companies of the 1/95th Rifles. They were lead by Lt. Col. Sidney Beckwith. Interestingly, depending on how I approach the attached brigade that is part of the standard Lasalle force, I could end up with a British ‘army’ with only two battalions of redcoats.

Form square, lads!

I’m going to concentrate on finishing up this brigade, which means I’ll be painting Cacadores, or rifles, next. Probably Cacadores, as I already have the figures!
—————–
The Scarlet J has decided to join me in this project (huzzah!), and will be building a French force. We’ll start giving the rules a workout, once we have three or four battalions and some artillery to put on the table.

A Portion of A Battery, RHA

A quick update on my Lasalle Project. I’ve completed 2/3 of a battery of Royal Horse Artillery-there’s a howitzer yet to be added. Nominally, they’re from Ross’ Troop (note the chestnut horse). I need to paint up limbers, as well, but don’t currently have any.

The basis of my roster is the Light Division at Bussaco, Black Bob commanding.

The reason I’m showing partially completed units is that I’ve been working on the lead I have around the house. This project was started for Neil Thomas’s rules, which require fewer figures than Lasalle. Never fear, the purchasing of figures to fill out the units will happen soon enough!

Royal Horse Artillery + 52nd Oxfordshire in line.

Blues are a bit too dark?

RHA  to the front.

I really need to work on my photography skills. These photos came out way too dark, and have been modified to hell and back in Photoshop in order to get them close to what my eye perceives under bright light.

In other news, I’ve been coating my figures in brush-on gloss and matte varnish, in an effort to prevent paint chipping. I hate it. Totally dulls the colors, and suppresses detail. I’m going to try using spray-on gloss and matte for my next batch of miniatures, in hopes that the thinness of the coat vs. brushed on helps. If it doesn’t look any better, I’m just going to start hitting them with a quick coat of Testor’s Dullcote. The single coat of Dullcote is how I’ve done most of my ACW miniatures, and you don’t lose that much of the detail. Of course, they’ve taken quite a bit of damage over the last couple of years. Trade-offs and compromises!