Sunday 6 September 2015

DBN Spanish Army

The heroic army of his supreme catholic majesty King Ferdinand VII of Spain!  I'm a sucker for the underdog & I can't think of another army which was up against it like the Napoleonic Spanish.   With this 'bright & colourful' army, I'm aiming at the early the years of the French Invasion.  It will be interesting to see them up against ze French (plus against the British...?).  The DBN rules allow, the Spanish Army an extra couple of points to build the basic army as they majority are classed as 'militia'.  The core army, the white coated Line Infantry were a purchase, a paint touch up & the basing job.  The rest are from existing stock, I've 'pilfered' the SYW armies we have & re-painted them (the Cavalry & Artillery) as at this scale (15mm) the uniforms are very close.  The Militia units area a mixture of odds 'n' sods for a very rustic look.

We still need some Light Infantry though & I'm on the look out for those snazzy fellas wearing top hats, anyone know any 15mm figure manufacturers?

The Line Infantry


Cavalry of the Line

Wow... Yellow coated Dragoons!

Hussars & Life Guards (come on, the Spanish have to have ONE 'Elite' unit..)

Spanish Militia


Horse Artillery

Foot Artillery

Heroic Spanish Guerrillas

'SANTIAGO'  Major Blas Vivar & chums lead the way (apologies too much Sharpe)

Death to ze French! Spanish Guerrillas

The Spanish Army ready to face the French!!!

6 comments:

Chris said...

Hi,

Naples sent some troops to Spain. Talk about underdogs--it's a close contest as to which army was worse! My personal vote would be the Neapolitans; the Spanish at least kept returning to the fight, no matter how many times their armies were stomped. The lads from Naples, on the other hand--like Sonny Liston when he fought Ali, typically, one shot and that fight was over! At least it was pretty; Murat had flair.

Best regards,

Chris

MrF said...

Cheers Chris..! Ohh, Naples vs Spain or Battle of the bright yellow pantaloons! You've got me pondering now!

All the Best
MrF

Chris said...

Hi again,

Since our last communication, I signed on to Pinterest, and did a search for the Army of Naples. All I can say is OMG--I knew the uniforms were gaudy, but that doesn't begin to describe them--I must have pinned 50 or 60 pictures, all incredible. Guard units, in particular, were sartorially flamboyant, and there appear to have been a LOT of guard units. Napoleon used to mock Murat's penchant for fancy uniforms; the Neapolitan Army far exceeded whatever he wore.

Now I've really got the bug; the main question is which opposing army I want to paint up to beat on them--there are so many possibilities! I'm hesitant to take pictures of the final results after my Neapolitans are finished, though--I'm afraid the glare might crack the camera lens.

Best regards,

Chris

MrF said...

Nice one Chris!

I can't wait to see the results! I might need a few Regiments to add to our existing French Army...! So your work will be great inspiration.

We are currently putting together a Baylen game. We just need a few extra troops, namely Swiss Regiments. I'll be putting a post up soon.

All the Best
MrF

Just Jeff said...

Mr.F, I see you found your light infantry, blokes in snazzy top hats, and Swiss in photos of the Bailen Battle!

Where did you find the figures for the lights and top hats?

Any chance you'll now update the DBN Spanish Army blog with images and captions of them?

Thanks, Jeff

MrF said...

Hello Jeff, I hope you & yours are keeping well, thanks for the nice comments.

They were both picked up from EBAY. The Lights came as a job lot with others. They needed a touch up on the painting front. The top hat infantry were painted from scratch in the similar uniforms from the Wargames Illustrated article on the Buenos Aires Campaign. I'll get some extra pics done in the near future.

Take Care
MrF