Isabelino skirmishers (1)

I thought I'd jump ahead in my painting chronology to give the blog a short rest from AWI artillery. This is one of the two Perry Miniatures packs of skimishing Isabelino flank company infantry. I have painted all these as grenadiers, rather than a mix of grenadiers and cazadores. I haven't really given much thought to how my First Carlist War battalions will operate under whichever rules I end up using (current thoughts are the General de Brigade variant "There are your guns"), but I'm assuming plenty of skirmishers will be needed. It is clear from my reading on the war that both sides made extensive use of troops in skirmish and open order, partly as a result of the difficult terrain in the north of Spain. So I'll probably be painting quite a few more skirmishers in the fullness of time. I admit to finding the faces on these figures quite difficult to paint, particularly the eyes (hence the lack of close-ups!), but I like the figures and their sense of movement.


The building is a fortified Spanish house from Touching History. I picked this up from Paul Darnell last year and it is a very nice model indeed - it's quite large and the ground floor has boarded-up windows and a reinforced door, while the walls have a couple of firing steps, as shown in the photo below. I think Paul made it with the Peninsular War in mind, but I see no reason why an 1830s Basque villager aware of marauding troops in the area would not take precautions to protect his house. I reckon I now have enough Spanish-style buildings for a couple of villages, one made from Touching History models and the other from Tablescape ones. I just need some decent terrain board now...


6 figures. Painted January 2011.