Black Seas: AHPCX #4

 

Over the last couple of months I have much enjoyed painting my first Age of Sail miniatures. To be honest, they are the most enjoyable minaitures I have painted in quite some time. In the last few years, my focus has been on gaming and terrain and much less so painting, which in most cases I have been happy to hand off to the professionals.

These miniatures, however, are a lot of fun and once assembled look great on the table. I have also played a couple of games of Black Seas and that has been fun as well. To prepare for a game this Friday, I decided to paint up and assemble (the assembly is the more challenging part of the process) some more ships for my Spanish fleet.

1st Rate (yet to be christened)

Lots of guns

 

This is a resin and metal model, I have heard some complaints about the metal masts and they are a bit more of a challenge with the rigging but I think it came out OK.

3rd Rate (the Montañes)

 

An all plastic model

 

Gunship Squadron

Single Medium Cannon in front.

I did these in Salem, but my mat was in Montreal so I will have to darken up the base a bit.

My Spanish fleet

Spanish Recruits

I thought I would post some photos of some recent acquisitions for my 18mm Napoleonic armies. Here are some more Spanish, I believe this may close it off for the Spanish. This makes up a nice little force with 8 infantry battalions, two cavalry regiments and a artillery battery. I may need another colonel and one more stand of artillery ( I subsequently found out that many Spanish artillery batteries were 8 guns rather than 6). These were all painted by Pep.

The Spanish force as it now stands

Regimento Irlandia, lovely blue coats

A regiment of Cazadores Voluntaries de España, light cavalry. 

Vountarios Distinguidos de Cadiz, how is that for a name?

Well that is all for now, I am expecting several battalions of French from the painter in Thailand in the next month or so, this should finish off my French forces.

Spanish Army of Estramadura

I have been interested in adding a Spanish force to my Peninsular war units for some time and the commissioning of a new 18mm army allowed me this opportunity. I really know very little about this army and I have to say researching this force was much more challenging than I had expected. I did not even know where to start, I knew I wanted a brigade sized force rather than a division. The Napoleonic variant of Chain of Command that I favour as a ruleset usually has 3-4 brigades per side, so I felt the addition of a Spanish unit would add some variability to a game.

With some research I found out that Spanish Divisions in the Napoleonic era were actually brigade sized so this worked out well. I then left it to Pep, the commission painter who would be doing the force, to pick something that he was interested in painting. He decided on Portago's 3rd division at the Battle of Talavera in 1809. I asked that he add a unit of artillery and cavalry to the force and off he went.

The Spanish Army underwent a massive change after the battles of 1808, where the regular army was essentially destroyed by the French. The cities and regions of Spain responded to these loses by raising many volunteer infantry units. Steven's Balagan website provides a very nice overview of the Spanish Order of Battle during the Peninsular War. Here is a direct link to a painting guide on his site.

Within a couple of months he had the force painted and I received that last figures about a week ago. He really did quite a nice job on them. The only Spanish Napoleonics I had previously painted were from an earlier period when they all had white uniforms, so I was happy to see the blues and browns that make up this post 1808 force.

The army is made up of regular and volunteer line units, a light unit as well as a militia unit. I would love to hear from readers on how they would rate the units in this force. GB-CoC allows for elite, seasoned and untested units. The most valuable resource I found on line was actually the blog of another wargamer, JJ's Wargames. I found this excellent painting guide on his site for those who are interested. You can also read an excellent series of posts about his Spanish army and the Battle of Talvera on his blog.

All AB Miniatures with flags by Adolfo Ramos

Badajoz Volunteer Line Infantry

2nd Antequera Volunteer Light Infantry

Imperial de Toledo Volunteer Line Infantry

Provincial de Guadix Militia

Leales de Fernando VII Volunteer Line

Jaen Line Infantry

Rey Cavalry Regiment

Foot Artillery

Major-General Marquis de Portago