Spanish Line

The last set of units, these nineteen battalions of Spanish line had been awaiting some updated flags and their unit labels for each of the command stand, which I finally managed to complete the weekend before last:

Each battalion consists of twenty-four figures, on a ratio of roughly 1:40. They have just one company of grenadiers however, which is slightly different to my 28mm version of the same army where I painted half the figures of the first battalion of each regiment as grenadiers, but none for any second battalion of the same regiment (where they existed):

This is again due to the order of battle for the Spanish of the 15mm group I game with, and an argument can be lodged for either case particularly as the Spanish, as with the Austrians and Russians, were often in the habit of removing grenadiers from line units to form converged grenadier battalions, of which I have also completed half a dozen in this particular army and photographed on an earlier post.

For the line battalions I tried to use an assortment of differing facing colours to provide some variety, the only slightly disappointing aspect being that the lapels are largely obscured by the cross-belts on the 15mm Essex figures:

That said, I found the Essex figures quite nice to paint, although doing so many of the same pose did become a little monotonous after a while:

The battalions consist of one each from the following regiments: Rey; Reina; Princesa; Principe; Granada; Guadalajara; Ordonnes, Cantabria; Navarra; Valencia; Aragon; Malaga; Leon; America; Zaragoza; Mallorca; Espait; Cordoba and Murcia, some famous names and also some great holiday spots amongst these.

In terms of the flags and given that many of the actual regiments only consisted of only one battalion, I could have provided some of the regiments with both the Coronela and Ordenanza standards, but was ultimately limited by the number of flag bearers in the Essex command packs, and also by our basing convention which allows only three figures to a base for Spanish line. In the end I distributed them between the units on a roughly 50/50 basis, again to give a little more variety.

Now that they are completed, I might try to haul the entire army out for a group photo before they get stored away, then to no doubt be dispatched piecemeal for various games in the future.

Spanish 15mm Army

Even though the bulk of it was completed two years or so ago, I have only in the past month put the finishing touches on this Spanish 15mm Napoleonic army to the point where I can now consider it complete.

It is probably self-indulgent but, as I probably won't get the chance to assemble it again in its entirety, I thought I would set it up for a a few group photos, if nothing else than to remind me what I actually had actually managed to assemble.

Firstly, a view of the army from the front:

And another view of the same from the flank:

The figures are all Essex Miniatures 15mm, apart from the staff figures which are from Warmodelling who have an excellent range of Spanish personality figures covering most of the Peninsular war.

Here is a shot of the Warmodelling General Jose Pascual de Zayas figure in front of some light cavalry, who was one of the most ably performed of the Spanish Generals and performed so creditably at Albuera (primarily because he had taken the time to put his troops through several weeks' worth of manoeuvres prior to the battle):

All of the flags are GMB, with the exception of those of the Spanish Guard and Swiss which I again purchased from Adolfo Ramos in Spain:

The flag of the Guardias Royale in particular is amongst my favourite Napoleonic flags as it is quite distinctive:

Twelve regiments of cavalry in all, including five of the yellow-coated dragoons seen here from the back, with a unit of guerrillas at their rear (which I am not sure I would be completely comfortable with):

Here they are again from the front, with two hussar regiments and a line of artillery spread before them:

I managed fourteen artillery pieces in all, with the number of figures representing how many pieces there are in each battery, with either three or four crew figures on each base:

I attempted to add a bit of variety to the limbers by including a few ox-drawn pieces, to represent the difficulty the Spanish had in finding decent horseflesh. Notwithstanding that, the Spanish artillery was one of their best-performing arms:

Also included are six units of light infantry to provide the army with a decent skirmish screen, seen here spread across the front:

And with the also very able General Don Pedro Caro y Sureda, 3rd Marquis de Romana, and his staff visible in the background:

The one nice surprise I found when putting together both this and its larger 28mm couterpart was how much colour and variety is to be found in a Spanish Napoleonic army, particularly that of the earlier part of the war before the rather more drab British supplies found their way through as replacements. Some of that may be seen in the following overhead shot, which includes elements of the line, converged grenadier battalions, the Swiss, the Guard, an Irish battalion, along with some hussars, dragoons and heavy calavlry:

In case anyone is interested (and to help my own failing memory), the final numbers for the army is as follows:

23 line battalions of 24 figures each
3 Guard battalions of 25 figures each
6 composite Grenadier battalions of 12 figures each
8 provincial militia battalions of 15 figures each
1 urban militia battalion of 20 figures
4 light battalions of 20 figures each
2 light battalions of 16 figures each
1 band of guerrillas of 20 figures
14 artillery pieces with 48 crew
12 limbers with 20 figures and 50 horses and oxen
5 dragoon regiments of 16 figures each
3 heavy cavalry regiments of 16 figures each
4 light and hussar regiments of 16 figures each
25 mounted and 9 foot staff figures

This gives a total of 1,265 figures along with 267 horses.

Probably more than I will ever need, but hopefully enough variation to cover most scenarios:

Now to complete my 28mm Portuguese project, which I am optimistic enough to believe might be achieved before the end of the year.

Spanish Provincial Militia

Over the past couple of weeks I have finally managed to put the finishing touches on the Provincial Militia and Line for my Spanish 15mm army. The figures themselves had actually been completed over a year ago and a few units have seen action on the table, but the line and militia have been awaiting their flags and the labels for their bases, indicating their unit designations.

I put together eight units of Provincial militia, which are essentially the Essex Spanish line figures painted with the red facings and brass buttons of the 1805 militia uniform issue:

This is in contrast to the Urban Militia units which were more mixed in appearance, and for which I used a mixture of browns to represent more hastily acquired clothing as opposed to a regulation uniform.

The militia were present in a number of engagements where it has to be said they performed poorly. At Talavera anywhere up to four battalions were said to have fled at the sound of their own gunfire as the front ranks engaged a few skirmishing French cavalry, much to the bemusement of the British (and annoyance when they were found to have apparently looted the baggage train after their departure). It has to be questioned whether this is really very surprising as they were poorly trained, led and supplied, and it is probably a sign of their fortitude that they were there in the first place.

In the rules our group games with they are classed an 'E' and we have to be extremely careful where we place them, which is normally to the rear where they act as a morale bonus in providing rear support:

The paper strength for Spanish militia units does appear to indicate a number of attached grenadier companies.  Nafziger however appears to dispute this so we have not included them in our order of battle for the Spanish. That said, I threw a few in and painted a couple of figures in blue overcoats, for the sake of variety:

That's the militia completed, and I have finalised nineteen battalions of the line which I also hope to photograph for the sake of posterity over the next few days.

Spanish Light Battalions

I have finally managed to get around to putting the finishing touches on a few Spanish light battalions, including the Gerona and 1st Cataluna light regiments:

With the Gerona battalion at the front:

These are probably not the most "dynamic" of the Essex figure range, and quite noticeably shorter than, for example, AB Miniatures (by at least 3mm), but they do the job nonetheless.

The 1st and 2nd Aragon battalions:

The 2nd Barcelona:

And a formed unit of 2nd Cataluna, just in case I need to pull one back into the line:

That's it for the Spanish light. Now I just need to put the finishing touches on 19 battalions of line, and half a dozen rural militia battalions...

Spanish Guard

I used standard Essex Miniatures 15mm figures for the guard battalions. Even though they had a longer coat than the standard line, at 15mm I really don't think many will be able to tell the difference, especially as the tails on coats of the Essex figures come down to back of their knees anyway:

The Walloon Guards are in front, with a battalion of Spanish Guards to the rear. Both flags are from Adolfo Ramos. Great flags, although you do have to be careful to correctly position them at the first attempt as they are more porous than, for example, those from GMB or Maverick models:

A second battalion of the Guards is to the left, and carries a Maverick Models flag:

Spanish Guerrillas and Urban Militia

No Spanish army would be complete without a band of guerrillas in my opinion, and those from Essex have a fair bit of variety:

As with my 28mm efforts I tried to restrict myself to a predominance of a variety of browns rather than try to splash around too much colour:

The same figures double up for urban militia, which are still loosely-based but in a slightly tighter formation than the guerrilla units:

There is a common perception of guerrilla units lurking around French supply lines, ready to cut down stragglers or intercept communications. This is probably true for the most part and they played a vital role in continually harassing the French and inflicting some fairly substantial losses, and also augmenting allied intelligence with regard to French movements.

I remember being quite surprised to read about the deployment of Julian Sanchez's guerrillas on the British right or Southern flank at Fuentes de Onoro, however short-lived that deployment may have been. One of Sanchez's men rode up to the French to taunt them before the battle, but some British light troops apparently mistook him for a French officer and shot him. Sanchez was (probably not unreasonably) upset, and quit the field of battle.

The British did manage to subsequently convince Sanchez to redeploy behind the field of battle and defend some of the approaches to the town of Fuentes do Onoro. I personally find the episode interesting because it confirms the potential for guerrillas to be deployed in the line of battle, rather being relegated to skirmish games.

Spanish Converged Grenadiers

I've always wondered whether the line battalions were tempted to say "Where did they go?" when the grenadiers were pulled out of their respective line battalions to form "converged" units. I have tried to keep them in the same facing colours as the main units from which they were they were notionally drawn:

The Spanish grenadiers are among the most distinctive of Napoleonic uniforms in my opinion, using seal-skin for their distinctive caps. Obviously not the most environmentally-friendly of headwear and it is difficult to imagine this being put forward as a good idea today but, that said, cultural mores were much different in the late 18th century when they were first adopted:


I have probably gone a little heavy with the black between the waistcoats and crossbelts, and could possibly have put a bit more into the design on the cap bags, but am still quite pleased with the overall appearance:

Swiss and Irish in Spanish Service

Amongst my favourite Napoleonic regiments, I have completed three Swiss battalions in Spanish service - Reding, Betschart and Preux:

This is possibly where the lack of variety in some of the older Essex Miniature 15mm range is highlighted, in that there isn't a figure with the longer tails of the guard, and there are really only the two poses of the line. This is in direct contrast to their Portuguese for example, where each bag can contain six different poses across eight figures. That said, this is 15mm so I suppose the object is to put as much on the table as possible, and the detail is still just as crisp on these as later figures:

I have only managed one Irish unit in 15mm, but am quite happy with them all the same:

Another of my favourite Napoleonic uniforms, with a combination of colour that really stands out on the table:

Now to affix the flags on some converged grenadier units...

Spanish General Staff

I finally completed the General Staff for my Spanish over the past week. The personality figures and some of the ADCs are by Warmodelling Miniatures of Spain, while the foot and general cavalry figures are Essex Miniatures 15mm.

I think the two mix reasonably well, although the Warmodelling miniatures are much slighter. I certainly found myself struggling with them a little more than the Essex at this scale, mainly because I couldn't find the necessary and obvious detail I need more nowadays, although to be fair it was probably there but I may have been unable to realise it:

There is quite a range of personalities to choose from, and I purchased one of each, even though most of them didn't actually serve together in the same theater. I made General Gregorio Garcia de la Cuesta the overall Commander-in-Chief:

Along with Jose Pascual de Zayas, who was probably the most competent Spanish commander of the war, as evidenced by the additional training he put his troops through prior to Albuera which enabled them to perform so admirably:

Don Pedro Caro y Sureda, better know as the Marquis de la Romana who effectively covered the retreat of Sir John Moore before "melting" away into the hills after the British had embarked at Corunna, and with whom Wellington worked quite effectively until Romana's death in early 2011:

That's the generals and staff finally completed. A few more pictures of Swiss and my favourite regiment, the Irlanda, to be posted now.

Spanish Artillery

I have probably overdone the overall number of these and am not sure when they could actually all see the field of battle, but at least I am fairly confident now that I won't run short:

I quite like the Essex 15mm equipment and they have a fairly rounded range to choose from. There is also some variety among the artillery figures - enough to have kept me interested, at least:

The only thing lacking were appropriate limber figures, but I threw some Essex renaissance ox-drawn limbers together with some spare figures which I hope look the part. These don't take a big part in the battles we play, but I wanted to include them more for the sake of completion than anything else:

I'm not overly sure that I managed to capture the faded cobalt-blue of the Spanish artillery pieces as well as (I like to think) I did in 28mm, but they were a lot of fun to put together.

Spanish Heavy Cavalry

The last of the cavalry for my 15mm Spanish army, here are three regiments of Spanish Heavy cavalry:


















These represent the Principe, Rey and Reina heavy cavalry regiments (from front to rear) of sixteen figures each:

The figures are all Essex, with Maverick Models cavalry standards.

Spanish Light Cavalry

Four more units finalised, again all Essex Miniatures with Maverick Models flags. Firstly, two regiments of Spanish Hussars, the Espanoles and Maria Luisa regiments:

This is one of my favourite Napoleonic cavalry uniforms, and the colour seems to work well on 15mm figures. I would be surprised if the Spanish lights actually did carry a standard in battle, but the command set came with a standard bearer and I always think they add a little bit to a unit if you can use them:

I also managed to finalise two units of Chasseurs or Cazadores in the Olivenza and Voluntarios de Espana regiments:

Essex miniatures are not to everyone's liking, but I have to say that I do have a very soft spot for them. I have found the castings to be generally very clean and, while they are a "true" 15mm, and as such stand shorter than other figures such as AB, there is enough detail on them to provide a decent result.