From Tim: 28mm Front Rank British Command: William Carr Beresford

 

Back in February when I issued the Spring Thaw Napoleonic Painting Challenge my friend Tim said he would kick in as he was on the path to collecting a British force for 'Black Powder'. Well, Mr. Tim's a busy lad as you can see from his blog but he knew he had commited himself and so sends in this entry - probably the first of what will be a mad dash to the finish line.

Here we have a lovely British command stand made up of 28mm figures from Front Rank. I think the bald fellow is Carr Beresford who was basically Wellington's second-in-command for much of the Peninsular War. Beresford was instrumental in organizing and training the Portuguese army along British lines. In fact, by the end of the conflict in Spain almost a half of the 'British' army under Wellington was in fact Portuguese. The usually dour Wellington paid a rare compliment to the Portuguese in calling them 'The fighting cocks of the army' - they were very hard fighters and this combined with Beresford's administrative abilities made them a potent force.

Though they were painted just before the Challenge date I'm taking the liberty to poach some shots from Tim's blog to feature his excellent 42nd Highlanders.

Some poor wee jocks taking a 'dirt nap'.

... and another command stand.

I really like Tim's painting style. I actually reminds me of Paul's - very clean and distinct, with great choice of colour tones. Beautiful stuff, Tim! You're officially on the board!