First Paraguayan War unit

Just a quickie because I'm in a mad rush trying to get everything done before flying out to New Zealand tomorrow, but I thought I'd post these photos because they are of my first completed unit of Kingscarbine Miniatures' Paraguayan War figures.  The war, which lasted from 1864 to 1870 and saw Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay united against Paraguay, was a particularly nasty one which resulted in massive losses for the Paraguayans (at least 30% of the country's population appears to have died).  I'll post something about the course of the war as this project develops, but there's a decent Wiki article on it here.  Kingscarbine Miniatures are available in the UK from Empress Miniatures.  

Kingscarbine Miniatures have released 3 packs of Paraguayan infantry.  The standard Paraguayan outfit was loose trousers and a red shirt with black triming.  Headgear was a black cap with a band in the national colours of red, white and blue.  The KCM packs are line infantry, militia infantry and command.  The militia have blankets and skirts (I'm sure there's a proper name for what they're wearing...) rather than trousers.  I've added a couple of militia figures to this unit to bulk it out a bit but also to suggest the inclusion of battle replacements.  The militia figures should probably be wearing white shirts as opposed to the "uniform" red and black ones, but I've kept them in red and added a bit of black trim.  For some reason line infantry officers often wore dark blue tunic coats, which is basically what the Brazilian infantry wore.  The flag is hand painted because I don't think anyone makes the Paraguayan flag in 25mm yet.  The obverse side has the the national coat of arms of Paraguay (a yellow star surrounded by a green wreath capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY), all within two concentric circles while the reverse has aa yellow lion below a red Phrygian cap and the words Paz y Justicia ("Peace and Justice").  I don't mind admitting that I find drawing/painting circles one of the hardest bits of freehand.  I painted this flag in a bit of a rush the other night and didn't use a compass or anything like that.

It took a while to decide what to use on the bases.  I've never been to Latin America and so have no first hand knowledge of what the ground looks like.  After seeing some contemporary paintings fo the war and photos of the battlefields, my usual mid/light green scatter seemed to work, although I decided to drop the bushes and undergrowth bits and bobs that I often add to other periods' figures.  As always with a new period, I'm not sure where this one's going to go.  But these figures are dead easy to paint and they're certainly colourful.

20 figures. Painted September-November 2013.