First Warlord Napoleonic Rifleman Completed - Plunket's Shot

The pack of 14 metal Warlord British Riflemen are next on the painting table, and with their predominantly dark Green and Black colour scheme, they will probably not take so long to complete.

First up though, I painted one individual figure, whom I assume the sculptor has based on the famous story of Plunket's Shot from the Peninsula campaign.

A brief outline of this famous incident is reproduced below - I am sure I have read that an officer offered a bag of gold sovereigns to any rifleman who could shoot the French general concerned, although that part is not included in the story below.

"Thomas Plunket (1785–1839) was an Irish soldier in the British Army's 95th Rifles regiment. He served throughout the Peninsular War and later in the Waterloo Campaign of 1815 and is mainly remembered for a feat at the Battle of Cacabelos during Moore's retreat to Corunna in 1809. 

The French commander, a dashing and talented young general called Auguste-Marie-Francois Colbert, seeing the 28th Foot and six guns of the Royal Horse Artillery formed up on the ridge on the far side of the Cua, withdrew his men to be reformed. The British commander, Paget, also pulled his forces back, placing the 28th across the road on the far side with the 52nd and 95th formed up on either side in positions to pour flanking fire onto the bridge. It was this position that Colbert unwisely, and fatally, decided to assault. Forming his cavalry into a column of fours he charged for the bridge.

Seeing Colbert charging ahead of his men, distinctive because of his uniform and grey horse, Plunkett raced out of the line and onto the bridge. Throwing himself onto his back and resting his Baker Rifle on his crossed feet with the butt under his right shoulder in the approved manner, Plunkett fired at and killed Colbert. Before returning to his own lines he reloaded and shot down Colbert's aide-de-camp, Latour-Maubourg, who had rushed to the aid of the fallen general, which showed that the first shot had not been a fluke. Plunket only just made it back to his own lines before being charged down by a dozen cavalry troopers, but the deaths of the two officers were sufficient to throw the pending French attack into disarray.

The shots were "from a range that seemed extraordinary" to the men of the 95th Rifles, who were trained to shoot targets with a Baker Rifle at 180 metres and whose marksmanship was far better than the ordinary British soldiers who were armed with a Brown Bess musket and only trained to shoot into a body of men at 50 metres with volley fire"

Here is an image of the incident and below that the figure I have completed..

I am not sure what I am going to do with the figure or how he can be used in a game, but I am sure we will be able to work out a scenario where he gets to play a part - perhaps it will involve rolling a large number of 6's!