Carlist commanders

As a coda to my trio of Carlist personalities, here are the remaining mounted officers and a couple of priests. I thought these two priests would look good standing in front of Carlist units.  I have a further 3 priests left - one will go on the Don Carlos command stand (in addition to his special mounted, carbine-armed escort) and I'm not sure what to do with the others; I might insert them into a unit of irregulars. I painted all these figures over Christmas 2025/26, as part of an attempt to erase my First Carlist War lead-pile. Of course that meant painting the few remaining infantry figures, which in turn led to an order to Perry Miniatures earlier this year to buy the figures I needed to finish the units - you know how it goes...What's left includes another Carlist infantry battalion and a unit of Isabelino light infantry. I might see if I can get those finished off over the next week or so, to keep the FCW posts coming. And Don Carlos himself, of course. There's also a regiment of cavalry I did back in 2020 but I never got around to making up the lances.

Because I've been so remiss with this blog over the past few years, I now have quite a historical backlog as well as a sci-fi/fantasy one. I have several Napoleonic Wars units, for both the Waterloo and Egyptian campaigns, lots of Great Paraguayan War stuff and even a trio of AWI battalions. I am determined this time to get up to date, so please bear with me and many thanks for all the comments and encouragement.

4 figures. Painted December 2025. Background cliff face by Bill Nevins (more on that in due course).

Don Sebastião Gabriel of Bourbon and Braganza

This is the third of my Carlist general vignettes. I have Don Carlos himself still to do, but unfortunately one of his arms snapped off during undercoating, so he's going to have to wait a bit. In the meantime, we have this chap, who I'm just going to call "Don Sebastian" for short (as per the Perries' website). He was born in 1811, the only child of Maria Teresa of Portugal, the daughter of King John VI. His father, Don Pedro Carlos, was a the grandson of King Charles III of Spain and Queen Maria I of Portugal. His mother was a fervent believer in the Carlist cause, as Don Carlos himself was her uncle. The young Don Sebastian no doubt saw an opportunity for adventure and, presumably as a result of his grand-uncle's patronage, took command of the Carlist Army of the North in December 1836. 

He won a famous victory over combined Isabelino and British Auxiliary Legion forces at Oriamendi on 16 March 1837. However, he consequently led his army on an expedition down to Madrid, which was not a success. He appears to have been removed from command in 1837 and it's difficult to find out what he got up to subsequently. Having been stripped of all his titles as a result of joining Don Carlos, he was reinstated as a Spanish prince in 1859. He died in 1875.

In this vignettes, Don Sebastian is accompanied by an ensign in the uniform of what Conrad Cairns' book describes as a "volunteer lancer" and a priest (all Perry figures). I think the Don Sebastian figure looks a bit old for the 25 year old who won the Battle of Oriamendi; or maybe that's just the result of my painting! The pack of priests is a good source of figures to add to vignettes; I've saved a couple to add to Don Carlos' stand when I get around to it.      

Three figures. Painted December 2025. Flag from Adolfo Ramos.

General Tomás de Zumalacárregui

Tomas de Zumalacarregui (1788-1835) was born in the Basque region of Spain. When the French invaded in 1808 he joined the guerillas and fought in the sieges of Saragossa. He decided that the guerilla life was not for him and he joined the regular army for the duration of the war. The military life clearly appealed as he remained in the army after Spain was liberated. What he didn't like, however, were the liberal ideals of the Spanish government and it seems that his political views prevented him advancing from the rank of captain that he had achieved during the Napoleonic Wars. However, these issues were ironed out and by 1825 he was a lieutenant-colonel in the early 1830s became military governor of the port city of Ferrol in Galicia.

When the Carlist War broke out, Zumalacarregui was a natural supporter of Don Carlos and accepted command of the forces in Navarre. Those "forces" consisted of a few units of guerillas and irregulars, but by 1835 Zumalacarregui had raised and trained up a decent army of some 30,000. He won several victories but was ordered to secure Bilbao went he wanted to march on Madrid. It was during the siege of Bilbao that Zumalacarregui was hit in the leg by a musket ball and this led to his death in June 1835.  

Zumalacarregui appears here with two soldiers from the Navarre Lancers as his bodyguard, in their rather fetching dark green and ren uniforms. Unlike General Cabrera, he doesn't have his own flag and I've given him a generic Carlist one.  I'm going to finish catching up on my First Carlist War pieces and will then probably try to get to grips with my Frostgrave stuff. Also recently finished are more French Napoleonics for 1815. 

Three figures. Painted December 2025. Flag from Adolfo Ramos.   

A day at Eureka (2)

Things have been very busy since I returned from Australia 5 weeks ago, but I'm hoping regular blogging will resume. Before my recent holiday, it had been over 15 years ago that I was last in Melbourne. A highlight was visiting Eureka Miniatures (which I blogged about here) and meeting Nic and his team. Well, I couldn't go to Melbourne again without saying hello again (and also meeting up with local wargaming chums John Baxter and Mark Spackman). Mark picked me up from the local Melbourne suburb station and Nic then showed us around his new premises. Nic doesn't have a shop anymore, which he had in 2011, rather an office and factory space where everything happens. The photos show the various parts of the operation and seeing all the moulds and casting equipment shows how much effort goes into making model soldiers.   

All the Eureka Miniatures I have painted, largely for the AWI, can be found on this label. Highlights include the cavalry range with separate hats, the "ragged" Continental infantry and the various mounted command figures from other ranges that I have used as Hessian generals. Non-AWI stuff I have painted includes a lovely set of Maori warriors (pics coming soon). One major range in the Eureka catalogue is the French Revolutionary Wars. I have already used figures from that range as AWI French, and my purchase on this trip was largely confined to more figures from the French range that I intend to use for my "Napoleon in Egypt" project. These are command/officer types which I use for command stands. I also bought the mdf Maori waka, or war canoe, which is going to be fun to paint and build. I don't know how much my haul cost, because Mark Spackman gave Nic a box of metal shavings he'd collected over the years and asked if that covered the cost of my figures; to which Nic agreed! So many thanks to both Mark and Nic for allowing me to scam these figures for free! [I had a bit of a drama at Hong Kong airport, when the guy at security threatened to confiscate them, saying "no metal allowed" - but I showed him that the bayonets were not going to harm anyone, and he waived them through. So note to others: if you acquire figures abroad, stick them in your hold luggage just to be safe.] Mark also presented me with a beautifully painted Perry AWI Indian as a present (see pic below). Mark is a superb painter, pretty much exclusively of 25mm (like me) and you can see more of his work on the Perry Miniatures website.  

It was interesting discussing the hobby with Nic. He confirmed what other UK-based companies have been saying recently about the challenges of running a model soldier business today. It's not just the price of metal, but energy costs, customers perhaps not spending as much as they used to, the rise of 3D-printing and various other factors. As the photos show, a company like Eureka needs substantial "office space", and keeping the company going is clearly a huge amount of work to fall on Nic's shoulders. Anyway, let's how Nic keeps the plates spinning for a good while yet, as the Eureka catalogue is full of goodies and I'm sure there are more in the pipeline. Mark and I then had and excellent lunch in the "little Athens" quarter of Melbourne and in the late afternoon/evening John Baxter took me on a tour of central Melbourne's wine bars before our respective spouses joined us for a terrific Asian dinner. I love Melbourne - it's huge, and the outskirts are rapidly filling up with new housing; but it's such a vibrant, buzzing place.  

I'll be posting some more photos from my trip as we saw a lot of historical and military stuff. In the meantime, here are some shots of Eureka's premises.       

Mark surveys the stock room

The mould storage room

The casting room

A set that I wish I'd bought!

But here's what I did "buy"

Mark's lovely present.

     

General Ramón Cabrera

Ramón Cabrera y Griñó (1806-1877) was one of the best generals on the Carlist side of the First Carlist War.  Originally a leader of a small band of Carlists, in late 1834 Don Carlos appointed him commander of all Carlist forces in Aragon. His forces won several fine victories, notably the battle of Maella in October 1838, and his Army of the Centre carried on fighting after the Army of the North had collapsed.  Cabrera seems to have held an almost fanatical belief in the Carlist cause, and he achieved some notoriety for executing prisoners. In 1837 Carlos granted him the title 1st Duke of Maestrazgo in recognition of his services.

Cabrera was finally forced to flee to France in July 1840. After a short period in captivity, he was allowed to go to England. Save for a brief reappearance in what is sometimes called the "Second Carlist War" of 1846-1848, he remained there until his death in 1877. By that time, he had essentially renounced his belief in the Carlist cause and urged Carlos to submit to the authority of King Alfonso XII and end the civil wars. Cabrera, together with his English wife, is buried in a church at Virginia Water in Surrey (which isn't that far from the place where King John signed Magna Carta in 1215).  

Cabrera is presented here with two cavalrymen from the Tortosa Lancers. One of them carries a standard that is known to have been used by the Army of the Centre and has been identified with Cabrera. I don't know whether it was personal to Cabrera or was carried by army units themselves. This post was written somewhat in haste as I fly off to Oz today. There's much more to Cabrera's biography than the above. 

3 figures, painted December 2025. Flag from Adolfo Ramos.

Standing outside some 3D printed stables, which I'll blog about separately:

 

Alava infantry - 2nd battalion

This is the companion unit to my first battalion of Alava infantry - see here. The figures are the same, but with the other half of the standing command pack. This is the first Carlist unit I have done with the infamous "black flag", which was carried to notify the other side that no prisoners would be taken. I'm not sure it looks right for a unit of troops who look half asleep, but I didn't want to have two units in the same post both carrying the specific Alava flag. As noted before, Alava is a province in the north-west Spain, and contributed about 6 regiments to the Carlist cause. I made even more of an effort than usual on the faces - I really wanted these soldiers to look bored and/or tired. As others have noticed, the "standing at ease" figures in the various Perry ranges are some of the Perries' best sculpts and always have a lot of character.    

There's not much else to say about these, really. My Christmas project last year was painting what was left of my First Carlist War lead pile. So the next few posts will be of Carlist high command and a couple of other things. Other stuff I've painted recently for myself includes more French infantry for the Egyptian Campaign and 1815.  So once I finished with the Carlist War I might get up to date with my Napoleon in Egypt units.

I was intending to do a 4th July post with AWI stuff, but that didn't happen for various reasons. Next Friday I head off to Australia and NZ for 4 weeks so I'll try to get up to date with the First Carlist War at least before I go, possibly Napoleon in Egypt as well. Very short notice - but if you're a wargamer in Perth, Cairns, Melbourne or Auckland and want to meet up, leave me a message and I'll see if we can make it work!  

18 figures. Painted December 2025. Flag by Adolfo Ramos.

British camp

The primary purpose of this post is to showcase the amazing vignette that my New Jersey friend Bill Nevins kindly sent to me earlier in the year. This was totally unexpected. Bill had made a number of these vignettes and I had expressed admiration for them and, as always, how he attended to the basing. The next thing I knew, this piece appeared on my doorstep - such is the generosity of a man I've communicated with for several years but, in the manner of internet friendships, never actually met! The second purpose is to show some other terrain bits I've been working on to give Bill's piece some company - I didn't want to blog about it until I had enough other bits to create a proper camp scene. And, of course, once I set up these bits, I kept adding others, until I had an artillery park and prisoners as well. All these other bits and pieces have been blogged about before, but I don't get my stuff out that often and it was nice to see what sort of scene I could create.     

I painted the Perry Miniatures AWI camp set almost ten years ago - see here. Of course there's nothing stopping you having a few extras on any table, but when I painted my Old Glory Continental command stand, I noted that camps play a a part in the following scenarios:

• Long Island - American
• Germantown - British/Hessian
• Whitemarsh - American
• Stono Ferry - British/Loyalists
• Brier Creek - American (militia)
• Savannah - American and British
• Eutaw Springs - British/Loyalist
• Yorktown/Gloucester Point - American 

Bill's piece takes figures from various Perry sets, but mainly the British "dragrope men" pack that I discussed here (wow, was it really 19 years ago they came out?!), and turns them into a lovely vignette of troops resting and having their wounds looked at. I think it's fantastic - such an inventive ande clever use of the figures and "props", which will be centrepiece of any British camp scene (it actually featured in a made-up game I did with Monty a few weeks ago, but I forgot to take photos). I particularly like the bloke who looks as if he's filing his water bottle with wine (or is it medicinal brandy)? If you're on Facebook, then go the various American Revolution groups and you can see more of Bill's stuff under his pen-name "Dan Morgan". He specialises in creating very accurate terrain, based on consideration of (i) the precise location and (ii) the time of year; Bill's provided me with much advice on this over the years.  

Before posting about Bill's vignette, I wanted to paint more bits to create a proper camp scene. The tents are from Renedra - £3 will buy you 4 dog tents and £9 gets you a collection of 6 different tents and a few other things. The free standing crates and barrels etc are off Ebay, from a seller called Highlands 3D Prints (whose service was excellent - I also bought some Egyptian ruins that I'll post about shortly). I like that these aren't based, so can be used in a variety of settings. Also, I see Bill's vignette features one of the crate pieces, so these 3D "sculpts" must be widely available. The based items are a mix of metal sacks and barrels from (I think) Front Rank and more plastic stuff from Renedra. I've had those knocking around for years, so it was good to finally paint them up.   

There's a helpful essay on 18th century barrel-making by the Revolutionary War Journal here. This explains how the design and size of barrels, together with the type of wood used, often depended on what was going to be stored in them. Larger barrels usually contained dry good like tobacco leaf or flour. White pine was often used for barrels carry wine or other liquids. I wanted a mix of barrel types and followed the pictures in this article - so I included a bunch of wine barrels made from white pine and some others using a "redder" type of wood. So for those interested in such things, the painting schemes used were:

• tents: undercoated in GW "Zandri Dust", and then dry-brushed with GW "Ushabi Bone", "Screaming Skull" and with a final light dry-bush of Foundry "Canvas Light 8C";
• sacks: mainly Foundry's "Deep Brown Leather 45" palette;
• crates: mainly base of GW "Rhinox Hide", then wood-grain effect highlights with Foundry's "Spearshaft 13" palette;
• wine barrels: undercoated in GW "Wraithbone", then wood-grain highlights with Foundry's "Buff leather 7" palette.  

I wanted to kick-start this blog again with Bill's piece. I still have a large backlog to post about and hope to keep that moving over the next few months. I fly to Australia and NZ in 7 weeks, so I'll do my best to squeeze in as much as I can before then. Next up will be more First Carlist War stuff and 1920s 7TV!  

Various bits and bobs. Painted May 2026.

Bill's piece:

Crates and tents:

General camp scenes: