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…
