With the completion of the 2/6th Portuguese Line Infantry I've finished Colonel Ashworth's Portuguese brigade for Picton's 2nd Division. Again, they sport the yellow flag of the Northern Division, but I haven't added the regiment-specific cravat to the flag.
Again the figures are all metal SHQ/Kennington with their lumpen sculpting style. The leading figure firing his musket was slightly miscast with a very spindly bayonet that didn't survive the preparation stage, so I tidied it up so that he's firing sans bayonet. The musket looks rather short, more like a Baker rifle. Oh well...
The flagpole snapped off while I was cleaning up the flag-bearer figure (giving me heart palpitations in the process!), but I retrieved the situation by replacing the broken pole with a more sturdy piece of wire and adding the original finial to the top by drilling a hole in the bottom, gluing and inserting the finial over the top of the wire.
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| Sontaran (l), Portuguese fusilier (r). Besides the shako, I can't really tell the difference! |
I've also added a mounted officer to the weak 8-figure battalion of the 1/18th Line to boost it to a 9-figure battalion. He's a HaT figure from their British Command set.
He won't add any command value as our command rules don't go down to the brigade level, but I thought he'd give a little colour to the Portuguese brigade. I gave him a Latin-style moustache before I realised that the officer commanding went by the rather Anglophone name of Col. Ashworth. He probably wouldn't have gone native to the extent of growing a soup-strainer!
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| Here's the whole brigade lined up from left to right: 6th Caçadores, 2/18th Line, 1/18th Line, 2/6th Line and 1/6th Line |
They paint up very nicely - lovely job - I haven't seen the Kennington Portuguese finished so skilfully, so you are maybe a bit hard on the sculptor. There are some inaccuracies in the jacket tails and elsewhere on the Kenningtons, but these look fine. I am interested because, since NapoleoN bit the dust, my last outstanding Portuguese brigade (for the Allied 7th Divn - if I ever get around to them) will have to be Kenningtons. Despite your misgivings, this post is actually encouraging! I missed the production of your cacadores - were they riflemen?
ReplyDeleteCheers - I like them - Tony
Thanks, Tony!
DeleteI'm probably playing up their ugliness after having painted more anatomically correct plastics for so long. Emhar have finally launched their range of Peninsular War plastic figures for French, Spanish, British and Portuguese forces, but they suffer from some rather 'athletic' poses! http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/FirstLook.aspx?id=1747 Still, I might invest in some as they are the only (reasonable) example in 1/72nd plastic, and sport the early period false-fronted shako.
For my cacadores post, see http://rosbiffrog.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/2nd-division-progress.html
I was actually thinking of the Emhar figures the other day. There are certainly some excitable figures in there, but there are some decent poses too and I think with plastics being pennies the figures, I'm willing to pay for a set even if I only use 3/4 of it.
ReplyDeleteJust steer clear of Ykreol - dear Lord they are awful.
Nice work on the Kenningtons and I like the moustache. Proper gunfighter tash that - wouldn't look out of place on a 1980s RSM.
I can appreciate why you would say that, as they do seem 'rough' as unpainted figures, but I really like the Ykreol figures. I have not yet painted the Portugese (although I don't think Ben had any here did he?), but have done the French infantry as Croatians and the grenadiers as Italian grenadiers and velite grenadiers and am most pleased with them. The casualty figures are brilliant too!
DeleteThat said, I am attracted to them 'cause I tend to prefer a more animated and chunky style of figure. It's guess that it is just fortunate for us that we are spoilt for choice so that both of us can be catered for, hey?!
Those pesky Sontarans get everywhere! I hate it when a fiddly piece of detail breaks off in your hand during the prep stage. A dark cloud gathers above me and I think that the whole thing is ruined. I find a quick swig of Earl Grey and a walk around the garden helps before returning to the table. As for your patch up, you would never know.
ReplyDeleteVery nice paint job, great looking Portuguese unit!
ReplyDeleteMore fine painting Ben. I think that Lynx the Sontaran adds to the interest and individuality!
ReplyDeleteThanks James! Though I think I'm with Kinch on this one; if Ykreol figures were children, they'd have faces only their mothers could love!
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