From RichardM - Napoleonic French cavalry in 6mm (245.5 points)

This week started with an intention to get six French Dragoon regiments done to end the challenge.  Good progress on these saw me pull out two additional regiments - early French Carabiniers and then when Curt extended by a day I decided to push and add an additional two French Chasseur regiments.  Again these are all 6mm Adler Miniatures 

So I'll start with the six French Dragoon regiments.

A random three dragoon regiments from the side

There were a random 11 foot dragoon figures so I did these while I had the colours out.

I already have the later French Carabiniers but wanted to add the early ones given how different their uniform was - so two early French Carabinier regiments.

And lastly two French Chasseur regiments.

Points

10 regiments of French cavalry so 240 figures @ 1 point each = 240 points

11 French Foot Dragoons foot figures  @ 0.5 points each = 5.5 points

Total = 245.5 points

From Millsy:

Six dragoon regiments in one go is something else. One of the joys of this scale is the ability to do proper cavalry divisions and what a sight they make! And then you added a few more regiments for good measure! Lovely work mate, and probably my favourite of your Naps apart from the Confederation of the Rhine.

What a way to close out your Challenge. This takes you past 2000 points so well done indeed.

Cheers,

Millsy

From RichardM: Confederation of the Rhine dump and a few cavalry regiments (166 points)

A big dump of remaining Confederation of the Rhine units and the last of the British /KGL cavalry.  

As I come to the end of painting units from the Confederation of the Rhine a word on the madness of my hobby is perhaps warranted.  The units that I have painted were primarily engaged in small skirmishes, convoy protection and action against the Spanish guerillas - although some were in larger battles, particularly early in the war.  At the scale I play, few of their actions are likely to see the tabletop.  However, after I read about the units in the wonderful series of books by Digby Smith, I was taken by their variety both in origin and uniform.  Hence I decided to add them to my forces.  If they do not see the table in many historical refights, I expect I will bring them to the table when playing some what-if actions.   

Onto this week's contribution.  

First up is the 4th Regiment of the Confederation of the Rhine - three battalions composed of contributions from five Saxon states.  The 3rd battalion being a light battalion is dressed in green.  There is some uniform variation within the battalions given their mixed origins.  I was unable to find any information on colours used and given the numerous states there may not have been battalion colours.  So to outfit these battalions, I have used flags from states that comprise the battalions - Sachsen-Gotha for the 1st and 2nd Battalions and Sachsen-Weimar for the 3rd.  

3rd Light Battalion on the right

Next is the 6th Regiment of the Confederation of the Rhine - two battalions, with the 1st from Schwarburg and the 2nd from Waldeck and Reuss.   Again we have uniforms that vary by contingent and colours that I have added from the states of origin.   

Then we have the Princes' Battalion.  This was raised from six different small states of Thuringia whereby each house was to provide a company, consequently there is some variation in uniforms worn in the battalion.  They were ordered to the Peninsular in January 1809 where they were engaged in small actions and, like many other units, worn down to eventually become ineffective.  In 1810, the remaining troops were absorbed into the 5th and 6th Regiments (shown above).  They are unlikely to have had a battalion colour so I have used one from the House of Rudolstadt who provided the 2nd Company.

The next is the Frankfurt Battalion.  This entered the Peninsular in late 1808 after being mobilised by order of Napoleon in August 1808.  I have painted it in the white uniform that it entered the Peninsular with - it it believed to have changed to blue coats after the Battle of Medellin in March 1809.  There is also very little evidence or information on the colour that they carried so I searched for a Frankfurt colour that was used at another time. 

This cavalry unit fits the category of why do I bother.  It is the Nassau Chasseurs a Cheval and only ever had two squadrons in Spain.  I know this now that I have done some research on it - but at the time of purchasing the figures a few years ago I didn't look to see how many squadrons were raised - I just saw a regiment listed so purchased enough to do the four squadrons.  It was also only involved in skirmishes and small actions - but I am a completist and as I had the figures I painted them.  They did not carry a colour into the Peninsular - but that wasn't stopping me. 

Lastly there is the one additional Light Dragoon regiment for the British / KGL troops.  This is the 1st KGL Light Dragoons which are uniformed essentially the same as the two British Light Dragoon regiments I painted a few weeks ago.  This ends the Light Cavalry I need for the Allies in the Peninsular with three regiments in total.

Points

4th Regiment - three battalions each of 36 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 54 points

6th Regiment - two battalions each of 36 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 36 points

Princes' Battalion of 36 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 18 points

Frankfurt Battalion of 36 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 18 points

Nassua Chasseurs of 20 mounted figures @ 1 point per figure = 20 points 

1st KGL Light Dragoons of 20 mounted figures @1 point per figure = 20 points 

Total = 166 points

From Millsy:

Like you Richard I've always been captivated by the minor nations and allies in the armies of Napoleon. So often maligned they did an awful lot of the dirty work and received little credit for their contributions. My own "French" armies have always included a healthy number of Confederation, Saxon or Bavarian troops.

Their uniforms are interesting and diverse and depending on scale you can even mix uniforms in the same units because some contingents were simply too small to operate on their own as your Thuringians demonstrate.

I've thoroughly enjoyed your deep dive into these rarely seen units. It'd be great too see them all together in single photo if that's possible.

Great work as always mate and another 166 points added to your considerable tally.

Cheers,

Millsy

From RichardM: Spanish Guards, Cavalry and assorted regional troops (188 points)

All Spanish this week - and as with all of my posts these continue to be 6mm Adler Miniatures.  Flags are either home made (copied from images on internet and manipulated) or from Tiny Tin Troops in this case.

I'll start with two regiments (four battalions) from the Spanish Guard.  These are the Guardias de Infanteria Españolas (Spanish Guard Infantry) with their purple Coronela colour and the Guardias de Infanteria Valonas (Walloon Guards) with their Sencilla colour with a blue field.  

The Spanish Guard were initially under French command in 1808 but pretty quickly returned to the 'good' side of the conflict.  Various battalions (of which there were four in the regiment) fought at battles including Ocana, Medellin, Albuera and Badajoz.  The Walloon Guard included action at Bailen, Somosierra, Medelin, Ocana and Albuera.  

There is little to no difference in the uniform between the two regiments - especially at this scale.  However, for the keen eyed among you, there are a a few Grenadiers with their decorated flames on the bearskins in the command company bases.   

 

Spanish Guards to the left and Walloon Guards to the right

These are followed by three regiments of Spanish Heavy Cavalry - the 2nd de la Reine, 3rd del Principe and the 4th del Infante.  They have similar uniforms with sky blue, red and white facings respectively and saddlecloth trim varying depending on button colour.

Next are four battalions of Spanish Infantry in various uniforms.  From left to right in the first photo there are the Los Voluntarios Distinguidos de Cadiz, Regimento de Luarca, Voluntario de la Milicia Urbana de Zamora and the Regiment Muerte (Death).  The flags for these battalions are random ones I had on the sheet from Tiny Tin Troops (and one of them is upside down!!).  

Los Voluntarios Distinguidos de Cadiz

Regimento de Luarca

Voluntario de la Milicia Urbana de Zamora

Regiment Muerte

Finally this week I have two battalions of Spanish Light Infantry with their tarleton helmets and green jackets.  

If you're interested in the huge variety of regional Spanish Uniforms then the book I have used is amazing for inspiration.  At this scale I can get away with slight variations on the figures used to provide a close match to the uniforms worn, e.g. the top hatted figures are Austrians and the Light Infantry in their tarletons are early French Revolutionary

Points

Four battalion of Spanish and Walloon Guards each of 24 figures at 0.5 points per figure = 48 points

Three regiments of Spanish Cavalry each of 24 figures at 1 point per figure = 72 points

Four various battalions of Spanish Infantry each of 24 figures at 0.5 points per figure = 48 points

Two battalions of Spanish Light Infantry each of 20 figures at 0.5 points per figure = 20 points  

Total: 188 points

From Millsy:

Gasp! Surely it's not more 6mm Napoleonics from your Richard? You never cease to amaze me!

Cheap shots and sarcasm aside these are typically beautiful and painted as well as I could ever something equivalent at 15mm. Volunteers in top hats are something of a rarity and definitely worth calling out especially when decked out in snazzy red and yellow crimson and gold as Richie Benaud would likely say.

Top work as ever mate. 188 more points for your tally, once again composed of a LOT of wee men.

Cheers,
Millsy

From RichardM: 6mm Peninsular Napoleonic British Cavalry, Spanish Infantry and Provincial Grenadiers and the 'Canaries' (224 points)

A bit of a mixture this week - Spanish infantry, British Cavalry and a unit that I have wanted to do for nearly 20 years.

We'll start this week's work with the Spanish Provincial Grenadiers.   

These took some work to gather information on.  I had seen an entry for Provincial Grenadier Regiments / Battalions in a few of the early OOBs.   While all Spanish Infantry Regiments had Grenadier companies (which on occasion seem to have been detached and converged), these were something different.  There were some references in books and online, although they were quite brief and did not provide much uniform information.  Specifically I was looking to see what colours they would have had for their facings and hence their 'flame' bearskin bags.  I had read a brief reference to red facings - but still believed that would have been for just one province.  Then I read elsewhere that as they had been detached from the Provincial Infantry Regiments, their uniforms were simpler and all had red facings.  Searching also took me to this blog where I found all the satisfaction I needed.   So I was off... and four battalions emerged after a day's work. 

I know zooming small figures is not a good idea - but I spent over an hour on these flames and I wanted a record of it.  Unfortunately it is still quite hot here in Sydney so I needed to thin the white quite a bit to keep it mobile enough - hence it is quite faint.

Then a rinse and repeat from an earlier post - four more battalions of later Spanish Line Infantry with the dark blue British supplied uniform.

Next up are some British Cavalry with their uniforms for the Peninsular.  While I will share British line infantry between my Peninsular and 100 Day campaigns with a mixture of stovepipe and Belgic shakos in both, the cavalry did look noticeably different with bicornes and Tarleton helmets - so I decided to do both early and late uniforms.  Here are the 'heavies' - 3rd Royal Dragoons and the 1st and 4th Dragoons with their bicornes. 

They are followed by the 14th and 16th Light Dragoons with their tarleton helmets.

And finally a unit that I have wanted to do for close to 20 years since I saw it in 28mm and was struck by how different it looked.  I later read about it in Guy Dempsey's excellent book Napoleon's Mercenaries.  I will be honest though - it's place in this week's painting was pure greediness.  I looked at how many points I was going to get and thought it would be nice to get over 200 in at least one week of the challenge - so I looked in the boxes for a single battalion and this popped up pretty quickly.

They were called the "Canaries" in reference to their yellow coat colour and with that colour on a French cut uniform they could only be the Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel.  They were absolutely in the Peninsular but are unlikely to appear on any of the OOBs for actual battles that I will fight.  They spent most of their time in the North of Spain in combat against guerrillas.  However, they were present at Wagram in 1809 (where it is believed they played a small part), in Russia at the Battle of Krasnoi and also in action on the last day of the Battle of Leipzig.  So hopefully they will get into action on my table in an historical refight at some stage. 

Points

Four btns of Provincial Grenadiers each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Four btns of Spanish Line Infantry each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Two regts of British Heavy Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 40 pts

Three regts of British Light Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 60 pts

Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel of 36 figures @ 0.5 pt per fig - 18 pts

Total = 214 points

From Millsy:

Thanks for taking the time to detail the background for the provincial grenadiers Richard, it was absolutely fascinating and I promptly followed that link and kept reading. I'm unsurprised about where you found the info, that blog is a treasure trove of cool stuff.

I'm still processing the fact you bothered to paint ALL the grenadier bearskin bags. 96 of them! I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or organisation some sort of intervention. Either way it's worth another 10 points for the effort.

Another massive pile of wee men done and your tally boosted by another 224 points. Great work mate.

Cheers,

Millsy

From Richard M - Peninsular War 6mm Confederation of the Rhine dump (162 points)

I've only got Confederation of the Rhine troops to show this week - all fought for the French in the Peninsular, albeit at different times in some cases.

All together 

Firstly there are four battalions of Nassau troops with their green uniforms and rich yellow colours.  These are the 1st and 2nd Battalions of both the 1st and 2nd Nassau Regiments.  In the main the units are uniformed identically, except for the Grenadiers.  In the 1st Regiment, they were meant to wear leather helmets with a caterpillar crest - but were only able to acquire enough for the 1st Battalion.  Consequently, the 2nd Battalion has been painted with shako and red plume and epaulettes.   Then in the 2nd Regiment the Grenadiers used brown colpacks with red bags.  The other neat thing with their uniforms is that they had buff straps - I've used a buff / yellow colour but given their size it is hard to see.

Leather helmets for the Grenadiers on the left of the photo

Colpacks for the Grenadiers on the left of the photo

Then we have the two battalions of the 4th Baden Infantry Regiment.  Nothing much to say about their uniforms but I do like their yellow focused colours.

These are followed by one half of the 5th Confederation Regiment.  These are the Anhalt Battalion with their colour that looks like a pineapple on a white field (from a distance).  These again have a pretty simple uniform but I think the pink facing and shako pompon set them apart.  The other half of the 5th Regiment is the Lippe Battalion but I have found conflicting information on their uniform and am questioning whether I have the correct figures.  I'll hopefully resolve that in the next week or two. 

Don't look at the colour bearer's superglue face

I have kept the white uniformed troops until last.  These are two battalions from Cleve-Berg.  My reading suggests that they did not take colours to the Peninsular - but mine did not get that instruction.

Keen readers of my entries will recall my comment last week after posting a number of white uniformed battalions, that I needed to find a way to add some depth to the white.  

I had some good suggestions from Iain and Tom regarding possible use of speed paints as a way to deal with this.  I did a test with some Citadel Contrast Colours and Washes as well as Army Painter Speed Paints and Washes.  I have decided to use Army Painter Blinding Light Speed Paint for when I want a colder white colour and I will use Army Painter Soft Tone Wash for warmer Austrians white uniform.  In all cases these are over an Off-white basecoat and then I use pure white for the straps.  I'm not sure this all comes out too well in the photos but it is sufficiently noticeable on the desk / table for me to persevere with the extra steps. 

The other liberty I have taken with my Confederation troops is with regard to state of uniform - it is all over the place.  All written accounts and also the wonderful plates from Bob Marrion show them as disheveled with whatever they could find to wear.  I have tried to replicate this in some instances with different coloured trousers and no shako cords on some units.  In other cases I have done them with shako cords and plumes.  Sometimes all mixed up.  Based on nothing more then the figures I am using (eg: I couldn't bring myself to cut off the plumes on the Nassauers) as well as whim.

Points

Pretty simple this week, 9 battalions each of 36 figures at 0.5 points per figure = 162 points

From Millsy:

More 6mm goodness Richard! Will it ever end? If our regular chats are anything to go buy not for a long time yet.

I think you've really nailed the look of troops who were treated with some disregard in terms of both their quality and equipment. Despite the fact so many fought for Napoleon he only ever really treated them like he was doing them a favour by letting them fight. Colpacks on infantry are something I love to see, they're just so different from more typical elite headgear for foot troops.

Really looking forward to seeing the massed ranks of all your 6mm stuff in late March. Great work mate as always.

Cheers,

Millsy