I painted a unit of these chaps over 10 years ago as part of my fictional Balkan-style army of Forbodia.
The figures are in fact these - amazing the difference paintwork makes!
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and a conversation with my wargaming friend Diego. He had asked me about sourcing 54mm figures for the Carlist Wars in Spain. I explained that there probably aren't any but many exist which can be bodged into figures with a suitable - or at least tolerable - appearance. I undertook to produce a couple of units so Diego won't have to carry the entire project. And I'm easily led.
A bit of research revealed that the government troops had a very 'Napoleonic' appearance. As I have er, 'some' Napoleonic figures and a few (really this time) I painted as Neapolitan government troops (see here), so I figure that the priority should be on the Carlist forces. As always with 54mm, I find that results are yielded by a combination of looking at pictures of troops and thinking what figures could be suitable bodged and looking at figure ranges wondering what they could be bodged into.
A painting of Carlist cavalry in the Osprey book sent me off in search of the figures above.
A dab of Milliput was used to add the distinctive shape of the Basque-style beret.
Berets came in different colours but red was popular. I repainted the trousers red, touched in bits of damaged paintwork on the horse and prepared to repaint and tone down the tunic.
6 comments:
Excellent, that is a real man's beret! Good Lord, was it really ten years ago that Vulgarians and Forbodians faced off?
Thats a fun project, with some exotic uniforms to recreate in 54mm. Interesting to see how it develops.
Michael
I love the Forbodians and the Carlists. I feel sad for the lost Forbodian cavalry, though. Of course, as refernces for what Forbodian uniforms looked like are scarce you could return the Carlists to Forbodian service at a later date.
Martin Rapier
It's a hat a man can be proud of! And yes, December 2012 - scary.
MGB
I'm sure the whole sordid tale will unfold here!
Quantrilltoy
They saw a fair bit of action as Forbodians but given that their last deployment was 8 years ago I feel pretty positive about repurposing them. All The Forbodian infantry and gunners have had a revamp and are mostly now in the service of various mid-19th Century Italian states. More on this coming (not very) soon.
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