Completed 40mm Peninsular Cavalry

 Having completed the last few Cavalry I wanted to share them with you as completed units.

First up the French 4me Hussars. Not as distinctive without their dolmans but still a bright unit.

The command figures were those remaining to be done so the photos do pretty much focus on them.

All Perry miniatures Hussars, I do also have a set of Sash and Sabre to paint as the same unit, although I might do the Elite Troop with those.

The Trumpeter in particular pops in his reverse colour jacket.

Whilst on with mounted figures it made sense to complete this chap. Leader for the Paris Municipal Guard.

I am not sure that the photos do him justice but I am really happy with this guy.

There are a lot of photos as I was experimenting with two different phone cameras.

I do like a grey horse and particularly the pink nose when I allow myself the time to add it.

Originally a Ligne officer I have removed the head to add a Bearskin and swapped the arm wielding a sword to another one with pointing finger directing his men, hopefully different enough that they dont look odd on the table together.

Next the British Light Dragoons. All Perry miniatures apart from the leaders horse which is Front

 Rank. 

These guys took bit more work than most others as all the guys with swords had to be slightly converted from men firing or loading a carbine.

Not nearly as colourful as the French but I do love the Tarleton helmet. The only head swap is the chap with  bandaged head taken from a Flashing Blade Portuguese Cacadore head.

Lastly the first of my Cacadores, a Portuguese Sweet William with his eye patch. Really like this figure.

Bags of character, just what we need in a leader for the Portuguese contingent.

Thats it for this time thank you for stopping by, hopefully see this on table in the near future. Cavalry less useful in Sharp Practice but a nice to have for sure. Just as well really I ahve loads more French cavalry to paint.

Mexican vs Apache Sharp Practice AAR

 Chris C decided this week he would get his wonderful Mexican and Apache collections on table for a game of Sharp Practice.

He has had many of these for some time but recently rebased them for use with Sharp Practice and this was to be their first outing after re-basing.

Based on the battle of Tres Castillos in Chihuahua in 1880 where Victorio's band of Apache were destroyed by the Mexicans.

The Apache were hiding near a lake in the desert with their families and a large Mexican force attacked them from both sides. Looking at the above picture you can see the Apache have plenty of cover but no where to pull back to.

These two slept through the whole thing. A long hot day I suspect.

The Apache had the flexibility of being skirmishers and of the majority of the cover. The Mexicans the advantage of many more troops and also surrounding the Apache so they had nowhere to go.

Steve's State Militia deployed and immediatly fired a long range volley which caused casualties amongst the Apaches.

To offset the massively outnumbering forces of Mexicans the Apaches had two units with repeating carbine rifles. allowing them to fire twice in a turn but not getting the extended range. They also had a blank card allowing any unit with repeaters and extra shot.

On my side I have a formation of state militia and a formation of town militia supported by a group of 6 skirmishers. I am facing the best of the Apache, two groups under Victorio armed with Winchester Carbines. So doubled firepower as they dont need to re-load but not the extended range of repeating rifles. Chris also has a card allowing an extra round of firing for any repeater armed unit.    

A long range shot causes two hits both of which I save on the Town Militia, I doubt I will get so lucky going forward.

A further couple of rounds of shooting and the Town Militia are suffering quite a lot of shock. They get a return volley away but not much impact.

A further round of firing sees my Town Militia leader shot and knocked down. Its not looking good.

On the other side Steves State Militia formations are closing with the Apache, on this side the units are mainly armed with mixed weapons and are classed as poor shots to reflect the Bows, Muskets etc they are fighting with.

Sots from the formation on the flank and the skirmishers ont he other flank have started to whittle down the Apache who of course have no where to retreat to.

Shock and casualties are mounting on my side, particularly on the Town Militia who look very shakey and have too much shock to be able to advance, my skirmishers and state Militia however are returning fire with the odd hit.

Chris turns one of his flanking units to return fire on my skirmishers, this does however reduce the fire going into Steve who has taken very few casualties so far.

As Steve closes on the other side he puts a couple of close range volleys in and suddenly the Apache are in big trouble with lots of casualties and shock. My guys continue to fire at the repeater armed warriors and knock off a couple more causing one unit to retreat, but they can only retreat closer to Steves advancing troops.

Two units of Apache break completely under the weight of fire reducing Chris force morale further.

A further two volleys from Steve and the Apache at his side are almost wiped out.

My skirmishers close with the remaining three Apache with repeaters, whilst the Apache win, just, there are virtually no Apache warriors remaining in the centre of their position and Chris's force morale is spent.

A Mexican victory which was always on the cards really. Sharp Practice handled this later period really well, giving the Apache mixed weapons as well as repeaters in different units gave both sides some headaches. All told a cracking game I am sure we will see more of these lovely figures. 

August Holiday Workbench

 Chum Chris Charlton very kindly gifted me a lovely little gun emplacement, too big really for 28mm but perfect for my 40mm.

I couldnt wait so parked the other painting and cracked into this before finding myself painting a gun for my Spanish to go inside it. Lovely little piece this cheers Chris.

With a number of the main units completed its also been time to start painting a couple of figures from the next units to try get the Pallettes right. This Flashing Blade Cacadore Officer has had a bit of conversion work done on him by the late Ian Smith. A lovely job, not sure this will be the final brown for the unit but the sky blue looks nice.

He does remind me a little of Sweet William in a Portuguese uniform.

I also decided to change the head on this French figure so my Spanish have even more Variety with an advancing figure, I think this will fit in really well, I made add another.

For my French I am working on the Paris Municipal Guard, This Sash and Sabre figure will be the first of the Voltiguers. I hope to have a couple of groups of these in skirmish order.

With the first fusilier and Voltiguer complete it would be remiss of me not to paint a grenadier. These chaps will be in bearskins as I couldnt resist adding a unit in bearskins.

I have different resources giving me red or green collars. In the end red seemed most likely to me.

OK so its September now clearly I have got more done so adding these in at the last minute.

The British light Dragoons are now done with the addition of these two, just basing required. The firing figure is the original base figure the other has converted hands and sword arm.

Then adding to the lovely Paris Municipal Guard, I have not given these guys collar and cuff piping, more research shows, white, green or no piping at all, as green wouldn't really be visible I am going with none. I actually think it looks better without. 

The photo here of the Paris Municipal Guard commander doesnt really do him justice, he has come out well. This is the Perrys ligne officer with head and arm swap.

Two more Municipal Guard Grenadiers takes me to 6. The left figure a slightly different stance to the right.

And one more Spanish musketeer, I notice I have missed the yellow metal bar in the cockade so will get that fixed.

Good progress getting me closer with a couple more of the units.

This last picture is one of two boxes for painted figures waiting to be based, quite a bit in here for the 40mm project just waiting on bits here and there to get a number of units complete.

Thanks for stopping by.