Welcome to the First Theme Round: 'Empire' / From Curt: Simon Bolivar - Liberator of Venezuela

I'm happy to announce that the gallery is up for our first theme round of Challenge XVI: 'Empire'. Here you will find all things imperial from 40K to Assyrians, Star Wars to the Ottomans. We have 37 entries for the theme which can be viewed in the 'Bonus Themes' section of the blog (click on the button in the navigation bar above, or simply here).

So, fetch your beverage of choice and settle in to enjoy the Imperial entries from our Challengers! Our marvellous Antipodean friend, Millsy, will be installing a voting poll so you can choose your top three entires, so look out for that.

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As to myself I wasn't planning on submitting for this theme round, but current events made me reconsider.

Here is my rendition of Simon Bolivar, famous Venezuelan military officer and master statesman, who during the Napoleonic period led Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to independence from under the rule of the Spanish Empire. 

Born as a South American Spaniard, Bolivar was educated in Europe and lived much of his early life in Spain. It was during this period of the Enlightenment that he vowed to help South America break from Spain and become fully independent. He returned to Venezuela and over the rest of his life laboured and fought to achieve this goal. In the south and central American region Bolivar is still viewed with great reverence, and the memory of his deeds are being invoked and appraised as another imperial power intrudes into that part of the world. What strange times we live in.

Not surprisingly there's not much to be found for Simon Bolivar figures in the market, but I was not to be deterred! As he is depicted in portraits as being uniformed very similarly to many contemporary Napoleonic officers, I decided to see if I could find a figure that, squinting with one eye, could work. 

After a bit of looking I decided to go with this figure from Piano Wargames (thanks Martijn) as he has the broad closed lapels on his uniform coat and the distinctive swept back hair often seen in paintings of Bolivar. Really well designed miniature with lots of character and detail. I'd highly recommend Piano as another option for Napoleonic figures.

Thanks for looking and please enjoy the gallery for 'Empire' (and remember to vote for your favourites!).

- Curt