Wednesday 1 March 2023

Portuguese Infantry and the Bishops

My painting this week…….
The warlord British starter army comes with a Portuguese infantry unit to support the British brigade, Although I have picked up a second unit to complete sometime as well. Certainly I will be building a Portuguese brigade at some point.
Nice figures and relatively easy to paint. I have used one of the flags which came in the box these are the 12th with Light Blue cuffs. I gave these the older shako, like many armies they seemed to have been in transition during the Peninsular War, changing Borg shako and uniforms. I have based these in sixes rather than fours, I am still experimenting a bit with basing.
For the 24 man unit the six man basing allows a better looking column of March formation, the down side being the command figures can’t get in the centre when in line or attack formation. Hey ho the challenges we wargamers face ? Next will probably be some British riflemen. My enthusiasm for Napoleonics is very high at the moment 🙂 Here they are marching through Sicily Spoiler alert for our next game !
I have also painted up the converted Bishops which have come out just fine considering they are made of spare bits 

That’s it for now hopefully another game in Sicily soon.

Matt 😀


24 comments:

  1. A splendid unit of chaps there Matt. The marching picture is especially fine! Good work on the Bishops too.

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    1. Thanks David …more fodder for French cannon fire 👍

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  2. The Portugese look superb and we wargamers with our 1st World problems on where to place the command stands and all that;). I know it's something I've worried over too much in the past!

    The Bishops look great considering they were made from spares. A game in Sicily soon? Can't wait:).

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    1. Thanks Steve. The 24 man unit works for me on both painting and playability with the size of table I have. 6 x4 man companies is obviously a fairly common approach, they just don’t look very good marching. I think it likely that the majority of rules I use the 6vs 4 base won’t matter anyway ?

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  3. I like the look of those Portuguese

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  4. Those look rather splendid as do the clergy, good decisions on the six to a base it gives a better impression of mass I feel. I have been adding figures to my Triple Alliance battalions to do the same.

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    1. thanks Phil, They are spaced the same as the four man bases but I agree in March column they look far better.

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  5. Splendid looking toys Matt...
    The Portuguese look quite colourfull dispite their dark blue uniforms...

    All the best Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly, I did sneak in those colour variations on their trousers, perhaps a whole blue regiment is in order ?

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  6. Very impressive output for the week, Matt! Your Portuguese look great.

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  7. Lovely work Matt. I much prefer the older shako and always find it ironical the way they were changing to the cylindrical shako around the time the British were moving to the Belgic, which looks just the same as the old Portuguese shako. Great work on the Bishops.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence, I assume it is probably cost related in the manufacture or the adoption of new ‘technology’ or perhaps just style. I will be creating some variation with units in both types.

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  8. as long as the command part is near-ish the center I've neverminded. it's when it's out on the end that it looks odd.

    great job painting! 😀

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  9. Love all this Matt - great stuff all around. I have almost a division of Portuguese infantry (I think I need a couple more Cacadores units to complete it) All made from the Warlord plastic infantry (the three Cacadore units I do have are a mix of Front Rank and the Warlord metal figures). You are right about the Bishops too, they look very good to me.

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    1. Thanks Keith…a division no less. I’ll be aiming for a brigade to start with and of course the Cacadores are on the list at some point.

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  10. Those are lovely figures Matt, and nice tanks.

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