Military Miniatures

First of all, “Happy New Year” to all of you who have visited this blog last year and especially to those of you who regularly come back to watch the progress of the current 54mm military miniature project.

It is nice to start this new year with a new project, and one that is a little different from the others I have created in the past.

This military miniature diorama will be of two Grenadiers, one French and one Spanish. It is set ‘somewhere in Spain’ during the peninsular war around about 1808.

The two 54mm figures are both from El Viejo Dragon. One figure is his Spanish Grenadier Officer (C1F12), the other figure is one from the Jose Napoleon Regiment (C1F14).

Both figures’ facings will be changed so that they are both grenadiers and other minor uniform alterations will made so that they will become combatants.

Our Spanish Grenadier Officer is attacking with his sword, the French Grenadier is attacking with his musket and bayonet.

I won’t use the bases that the figures came with, instead I will scratch build a suitable base to hold both figures.

Starting with the Spanish Grenadier Officer:
The original lead figure came with a very thin and flat epaullette on his right shoulder. This was carefully bent upwards (to emphasise the movement of his arm as he brings his sword over his shoulder ready to strike).

Using “green stuff” I built up a larger epaulette and with a sharp knife scored the tassles hanging down to make it look more realistic.

The result can be seen in this view of the partially painted figure:

The yellow facings and turnbacks as well as the modified epaulette can be seen in both pictures.

His face is complete and all that is left is to find out what design would have been on the yellow bag attached to his bearskin.

There are a number of drawings of the various designs embroidered onto the bag, but as is usual with this period, I have also found conflicting details of the actual colours and designs.
One book states that the regiment I have chosen (Regt Irlandes) did not have any embroidery at all. Another shows a simple silver design – which is what I shall paint, once the yellow bag has dried.

Next, the French Grenadier, but that will be the subject of another posting as all I have done is clean up the casting and undercoat it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Spanish Battle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.