From RichardM: Start of my Peninsular 6mm Napoleonic Forces - Portuguese Cacadores and Line Infantry (216 points)

After having so much fun and getting so much work done last year, I am back again in 2026 - again tackling something small scale.  

This year I am going to work my way through a range of units for my Peninsular Napoleonic armies.

The figures I am posting will be exclusively from Adler Miniatures.  While they are labelled as 6mm, they are much closer to 8mm and much larger than the grandfather of 6mm armies - Heroic & Ros.

I am starting with the Portuguese and will continue with them for a few weeks / posts.  Following (in an undecided and probably haphazard order) will be Spanish, some British, Swiss and the German Allied Divisions that fought for France.  Having looked at the photos below I will also do a few small pieces of terrain to accompany them and make the photos a bit more atmospheric.

The first units are eight battalions of Cacadores - specifically the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th.  

You may ask where are the 8th and 9th battalions?  So am I!!   I am pretty sure I painted them two weeks ago and now cannot find them to include.  I'm sure they will turn up at some stage.  

I have painted them in the 1811 uniform which used a Stovepipe shako and hence I am using advancing British Stovepipe infantry figures for them.

I also know that they were not allocated colours and certainly did not carry any into the field.  But I have nearly always provided a colour to all of my 6mm Napoleonic units to assist in identification on the table and because they look good on a table full of little figures.   

All eight Cacadores Battalions

A Cacadore Battalion from the flank

Two Cacadore Battalions in line

Then we have 10 Line Infantry Battalions.  These are organised and painted as two battalion regiments - so we have the 3rd, 8th, 12th, 15th and the 16th regiments.  The identification of individual regiments is important so I can paint the correct collar, cuffs and turnback colours and assign the correct regimental flags.  I took a few more close up and individual photos - but they are blurier than my eyes after celebrating the Australian Ashes victory :)

(PS: Anyone with advice on how to improve photography of 6mm miniatures will be welcomed)

Points:

Cacadores - eight battalions of 24 figures each @ 0.5 points per figure = 96

Line Battalions - 10 battalions of 24 figures each @ 0.5 points per figure = 120

Total: 216 points

From Millsy:

Seems like the man who loves the wee men is at it again! I absolutely love your small scale stuff Richard and I never cease to be amazed at how much you can knock out in one go without sacrificing the quality.

These are all lovely but I think the pick of the bunch for me are the Cacadores, for the flags alone if nothing else. The Portuguese certainly knew what a good colour looked like.

Great stuff mate and 216 well earned points added to your tally for the year.

Cheers,
Millsy