Here is a brief pictorial review of my 28mm Napoleonic Portuguese collection, which will see action in tomorrow's BIG game at Barrys. The images are pretty crap, due to the lighting in the garage - I normally have units for photographs up on the painting desk using an angle poise lamp to light them - but for this review, I wanted the units together in their brigades.
I must admit to one 'cheat' - I am still short one Cacadore battalion, so I recycled one of them in the images below.
Unusually for me, the collection was inspired by an actual division (Silveira's) in a Peninsular battle, listed at the end of the following book:
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The section of the larger OOB I used - I think Packs Bde in bold print is a type setting error
I have pretty much the entire Light Division, I think - might parade them next time! This is the Portuguese portion.
If you want to see better images of the collection, they are on my blog in around 2018/19 - just search Portuguese! This is one example - Bydand (1808534.blogspot.com)
Today, as I was preparing breakfast, my wife informed me that a couple we know had proposed a Saturday morning walk, followed by coffee. Nothing too exciting, just another trip up Mt William, a fifteen-minute drive from home. We have been up there several times before and I have posted images, but nonetheless, here are a few more. It was quite grey and misty when we arrived, and we did worry we might end up wet, but as it happens, the mist burned off as we walked, and it was quite a pleasant autumn day by the time we reached the trig point at the summit - about a 5km round trip that only took us an hour or so.
On arrival, the top of the hill was shrouded in mist.
But as we progressed upwards, it gradually cleared away.
Views from the summit of Mt William
Compare the last image with the first two - it was taken from roughly the same spot, an hour later.
As mentioned, I am off to the Napoleonic game tomorrow, so an AAR with lots of images is likely to be posted here within the next 36-48 hours - hopefully a good game, and a win for the Allied army!
Lovely scenery and great to see the Portuguese on parade. Hopefully they perform well in your upcoming game
ReplyDeleteThanks Scotty - it will be interesting to see how it goes - Brits, Spaniards and Portuguese take on the French.....I am a bit nervous :)
DeleteIn one of those butterfly moments my mind has wandered to putting together two small Nappies forces for some solo games and the odd FtF one. I've been looking at the Light Division as an option cum guide, so rather serendipitous timing here Keith! Still early days but at least I have my MDF figures to scratch the itch in the meantime. Fingers crossed the Allies beat those damned Frenchies!
ReplyDeleteNice photos as always and the weather looks like it has been here for most of March and April, but without the rain! Here's hoping we do get a Summer and not suffer like you chaps did.
Thanks Steve - would you consider the Warlord "Epics" for your itsy bitsy teeny weeny Nappies? My mate Chris is slowly and somewhat secretively gradually building up several Napoleonic armies using their figures, and given the relative cheap cost, I have been tempted to consider them too. Mind you, I would be scaling down the units - I see NO point in using 13mm or whatever figures and then finding a battalion takes up exactly the same footprint (width wise anyway) as our current 28mm figures do!
DeleteHopefully you get a reasonable summer - ours was pretty crap, but to be fair, it's one of only a few poor summers I can remember in 35 years, whereas the only really good summer I remember in the UK was 1976 - which, according to a quick Google search was both the 13th hottest UK summer ever (on record) AND the hottest summer for 350 years!
Not tempted really Keith as they are 13.5mm (15mm all bar the shouting) and there frontage is too long for my games. These days I go with a frontage of about 100mm (4"), with 4 bases per unit. The basing makes it easy to form square, attack columns, march columns and of course line. So our dining table easily equates to a 8' x 5' board using reduced distances for the smaller figures, making it very achievable to put on a 'big game' should I wish to do so.
DeleteTotally understand all your logic Steve. IF I used them, I would definitely not follow their ideas on how many strips equal a unit....and I would probably experiment with using a sharp knife to split some strips in half!
DeleteGood luck with your Napoleonic game with Barry. Kieth nice to see your local scenes- very green and good to see April not completely rainy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev, it will be good to attend a face to face game with group. Ironically, the forecast we have is for a week of solid rain...which was supposed to start yesterday (Saturday). So far, it overcast and not particularly pleasant, but no rain😎
DeleteFine Portuguese Parade and inviting landscapes. Good luck in your Saturday battle!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon, the game is only a couple of hours away now!
DeleteBeautiful scenery sir!
ReplyDeleteThank you Michal.
DeleteAnd very nice they look too!
ReplyDeleteWhat you can see of them in those sub standard images, Ray...but thanks for your comment!
DeleteNice units Keith. The photos make it look like they are marching under a bright Iberian sun.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard, I think I used a similar explanation in one of my SCW reports! ☀️
DeleteGood looking Portuguese, my nephew is enjoying painting them, it's a nice change from Brits for him, I supply the French, but I think I will have to do the Spanish as he doesn't fancy them! Nice views as always. We have actually had the first day where I haven't had to wear a coat to go out so the weather is looking up finally!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain! I am with your nephew...the Spanish LOOK nice, but can they fight (bit like my bloody Austrians, really!) Our mate Mark has some Spanish (what disentangle he have?!) and tries to convince us that sometimes, they were quite good....we shall see!
DeleteBit miserable here today, grey and blustery, but not particularly cold, so no coat required yet for me either!
How on earth did Blogger get "disentangle" out of "doesn't"?
DeleteA lovely Portuguese collection Keith. I see you have separated the flags between the two battalions for each regiment which is exactly what I did. I know the battalions invariably fought together and most people seem to put both flags on the same command base probably for that reason, but I much preferred the idea of keeping them separate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence. From memory, the single colour flags are determined by where the regiments home depot is - the northern, central or southern military district, and I did do those accurately. The other flags are basically identical apart from the regimental number in the centre - I think!
DeleteGreat looking figures Keith and good luck in your game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben! The game was over about five hours ago and I am smiling - so you can probably guess the Portuguese acquitted themselves honourably - just about to start the AAR!
DeleteLovely Keith and some good inspiration for me to keep going on the Naps. The scenery and weather very similar to here at the moment 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt - you should definitely keep going with your Napoleonics, you know it makes sense! As we are both in "crossover" seasons - autumn here, spring there, it makes sense the weather is quite similar.
DeleteYou have so many armies Keith! I can only drool with envy. Excited to click "Newer Post" to read up on the game!
ReplyDeleteLol. My wife would agree with you Dai...she always asks how many more figures I need!
DeleteA very fine collection of Portuguese, Keith. Needs some artillery and a few cavalry unit's to go with it. I purchased new lead to more than double my existing small Portuguese contingent, but who knows when i will get around to painting them!
ReplyDeleteAh yes...maybe that will be next on the "to do" list Peter!
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