Navarre Guides

The Basque country of north eastern Spain was a fertile recruiting ground for the Carlist cause.  The area enjoyed the autonomy of remoteness and was traditional in outlook - its inhabitants were conservatives and natural Carlist supporters.

The province of Navarre provided a dozen battalions to the Carlist northern army and a battalion of "Guides".  The Guides of Navarre appear to have been essentially elite light infantry.  They took part in the battle of Oriamendi in March 1837 and then the Royal Expedition into central Spain in May.

Perry Miniatures make specific figures for the Navarre Guides, as their uniform was quite distinctive.  The command pack gives you 4 command figures and 2 casualties, so if you base your figures in fours you end up with a unit of 16 or 28 figures.  That's not really a problem as the unit was lage anyway - some 1,000 men apparently.  So this unit on my 1:30 ratio is almost there - and to date, my largest unit of the First Carlist War.  These figures are pretty nifty and the uniforms are quite smart.  Michael Perry makes very good command figures, and I particularly like the officer with the drawn pistol - he looks like he means business.   

I painted the coats with the Foundry "Slate Grey" palette and then used all kinds of things for the blankets.  Some patterns worked ok, others didn't.  I couldn't really think of patterns that didn't feature horizontal stripes of varying thickness and colours.  But the overall look is ok, I think.  It's a sign of how behind I am with posting that I started painting this unit in January.  As it is relatively large, it took a while to finish, as I worked on other things in the meantime.  I then had to order the flag from Adolfo Ramos direct in Spain (which was very easy to do, as it happened). 

28 figures. Painted January to March 2012.  Flag from Adolfo Ramos.