First Carlist War: Isabelino parade (1)

The last "parade" I photographed over the summer was my Isabelino army for the First Carlist War.  At that time (August) it was one unit short of where it is now (I painted a regiment  of lancers for the British Legion in September), but it has everything I've painted since I first fell for this period at Salute in 2009.  This doesn't seem much for almost 4 years' work, but then I have painted a decent amount of AWI and Napoleonics in the meantime as well.  The progress of the Isabelino collection can be followed here.  On the Carlist/rebel side, I only have a handful of units as yet, so they will be the main focus over the next 4 years.  For the Isabelinos, I need to do some cavalry, light infantry and finish off the British and French Foreign Legions, as well as a couple of line infantry units.  So I'm not quite done yet.

The backbone of the army is formed of 6 battalions of regular infantry: 5 line and 1 of marines.  There are two battalions of each of the Regiment Princessa (tunics) and the Regiment Borbon (greatcoats).  I have 1 battalion of the Regiment de la Constitution, and intend to add a second in due course.  The marines are a favourite unit, because of their deep blue uniforms and beautiful pink flag.  The infantry are painted in a mix of white summer trousers and grey winter ones.  There is nothing scientific behind this; I just wanted some differentiation between the units.  I don't yet have any light infantry, which wear rather smart dark green piped/faced yellow uniforms.  There's also the Guard, in snazzy scarlet trousers, that I would like to do one day.  

Marines

La Princessa

Regiment de la Constitution

After the regular army units are the provincial militia regiments.  These were smaller units raised on a city by city basis and which supplemented the regular army.  I have two of these, the Madrid and Pentevedra militia, or 12 figures each (the flank companies would have been detached to form the Royal Guard).  Finally, there is the Zaragosa National Militia.  The national militia was different to the provincial militia, and was more like an urban-based paramilitary and police force.  Their primary function seems to have been to defend the cities from Carlist attack and sedition.  I chose the Zaragosa because of its attractice uniform of sky-blue trousers and yellow piping.  These units add some colour to what would otherwise be a largely over-coated army.


Pontevedra Provincial Militia

Zaragosa National Militia

Madrid Provincial Militia

I don't have many guns as yet: 2 foot artillery crews and 1 horse artillery.

All the buildings are made by Paul Darnell/Touching History.  Flags are from Adolfo Ramos and the figures are, of course, from the Perry Miniatures range.  I hope these photos show what a colourful period the First Carlist War can be.  Over the next couple of days I'll post the remaining photos on the foreign auxiliary troops.