Paraguay: 6th Infantry

 

My sixth battalion of Paraguayan infantry consists of the Perry advancing packs but also two command figures from the former Kings Carbine range.  I had these figures left over and I think they look fine mixed in with the Perries.  A tad shorter and thinner perhaps, but not so much that you'd really notice.   I'm trying to vary the size of my Paraguayan battalions, so this is an under-strength unit of 16 figures.  I should have put a few more figures in white, rather than red, shirts, as the standard bearer sticks out a bit   

In order to try to speed up the process, I use only two colours on the flesh of my WTA figures.  I used to use the Foundry "South American Flesh" palette, but then the highlight "C" colour dried up and the "B" colour starting getting a bit gooey.  So I then starting using the base "A" colour and GW "Cadian Flesh" as one highlight (which approximates to the Foundry "C" paint).  This works well, save for the fact that some of the faces look a bit undercooked and, well, crappy, with only one highlight.  So I'm continuing to experiment, but to be honest the faces of these and other recent figures aren't really up to scratch (see, for example, the figure on the far left in the first photo below).  This is also down to what I mentioned a couple of post ago, namely clearly deteriorating eyesight - I now find it very difficult to see fine detail except in bright natural light.  Hopefully a pair of glasses will help.

Work has prevented posting over the past few weeks, but I'm hoping to post more regularly now.  There are some Argentinians for the WTA on the workbench, together with the first AWI for a while, which I'm painting for a mate in the US.

16 figures. Painted July 2021.  Flag by Flags of War.

Paraguay: Artillery (1)

Apologies for the post silence.  If truth be told, the weather in the UK the past 2-3 months has been so bad that I was unable to take any photos outdoors in decent sunshine until the beginning of September, and then work took over.  But I now have about a dozen posts-worth, so all is set for the next few weeks.

This post shows my initial artillery sets for the Paraguayans.  For the War of the Triple Alliance range, the Perries have released some packs with 6 crew figures but no guns.  For these, you are directed to the plastic guns produced for the ACW range (available either as part of a box with ACW crew or as separate sprues.  So I bought a couple of sprues and a couple of limbers as well, so I can have the latter placed behind each gun.  To be honest, it's a more expensive way to build artillery, although I suppose the plastic guns give you more options.  I hope that at some stage the Perries give us enormous 24-pounder plus guns, which both sides used in fortifications.  But for now, one has 6 figures per gun, which in pose terms works out at 5 crew around the gun itself and then another dealing with ammunition.  So I've put the last figure from each of the two packs with a limber as an ammunition carrier.

I found the figures tricky to pose effectively around the guns.  The painted examples on the Perry website are perfect, but you can see that the ventsman, for example, can't reach the vent.  Also, the poses of the two crews mean that the guns don't sit side by side on the bases.  I used the Renedra 65mm x 90mm bases that are available from Perry, which give you sufficient space for each of the crews but not in a way that positions the guns themselves in the same place.  I had little idea of what colours to paint the guns' woodwork, so I did them in "ACW green" (which isn't much different to how I'd paint "French Napoleonic ochre"), so the guns and limbers can be removed and used for ACW crews.     

12 figures, 2 guns and 2 limbers.  Painted June 2021.

   

 

Paraguay: 5th Infantry

 

This is my second Perry Miniatures firing line battalion.  This largely uses the same rank and file figures as the previous unit, although with fewer figures in chiripas, and has the balance of the standing command pack, which includes an officer smoking a cigar.  The close-up of that figure in the photo below shows that I need to revisit his sash, as there is clearly some over-zealous black-lining. Also, I admit to finding it much harder these days to paint Perry faces as well I used to.  I'm 48 now and haven't felt the need to wear glasses until late  last year, when I started to find it difficult to focus on things like Perry faces unless I was painting them in direct sunshine.  I think a lack of decent "extreme detail" brushes was partly responsible, but I've realised I'm going to have to get an eye-test sooner rather than later.  My younger brother started wearing glasses years ago, so at least I can feel slightly superior on that point (and I have more hair...).

The whanau and I were on holiday in Dorset last week (hence the lack of posts) - a much needed break and our first "holiday" away from Chelmsford since October 2019.  It's been a long time since I last added to my "Visits" label, but I'll post about Nothe Fort in Weymouth at some stage.  We also visited Bovington Tank Museum, which is one of the best museums I've ever been to; but there was so much stuff I didn't take any photos - just didn't have time to do the place justice.

20 figures.  Painted December 2020.  Flag by Flags of War.

Only one decent chiripa in this battalion

Uruguay: Libertad Regiment

The Uruguayan army was very small in comparison to those of the other belligerents.  Uruguay achieved its independence in 1828, but internal political rivalries soon resulted in civil war.  As with Spain's Carlist Wars, the struggle was between "liberal" and "conservative" factions (called the "red" and "whites" respectively) and various overseas countries sent troops to assist the former, including the French Foreign Legion and Italian volunteers led by Garibaldi.  Argentina had experienced a similar power struggle and came to the support of the conservative president, Manuel Oribe, by contributing a large number of troops.  Brazil, however, intervened on the side of the liberals and this proved decisive.  The war ended in 1851, when the 8-year siege of Montevideo was finally ended,  and the liberal government rewarded Brazil for its support with a treaty of perpetual alliance and even some territory.   The civil war flared up again in 1855, when the whites regained control of the government and Argentina and Brazil again intervened on opposing sides; but I'll discuss that in a future post.  Suffice to say that Uruguayan instability, and the further outbreak of civil war in 1864-65, was a major causal factor in the War of the Triple Alliance.  

A Uruguayan force, the "Army of the Vanguard", was despatched to assist the Allies in 1865.  The infantry element consisted of 4 battalions, one of which was the Voluntarios de la Libertad (formerly known as the Voluntarios Garibaldinos).  These troops were largely battle-hardened veterans of the civil wars and are considered to have been some of the Alliance's best troops.

When I painted thus unit, I didn't understand why the command pack features 3 figures that are the same as the rank-and-file pack.  It was only when I saw Alan Perry's own painted version on the Perry Facebook that I realised the strength of the battalion was such that you don't need many figures.  Hooker gives a strength of just 324 in 1866, which gives 8 figures at 1:40 or 16 at 1:20.  So I've rather messed up by painting 18 figures, and should have done my research more competently.  I suppose I could always paint up another command pack and try to flog the extra figures on ebay.  The uniform is a very fetching, Carlist-inspired one.  For the crimson trousers I used the Foundry "Shadow Pink" 18 palette.  I like this unit a lot, despite completely failing on the numbers front.

18 figures.  Painted November 2020.  Flag from Flags of War.

Paraguay: 1st Cavalry

This is my first unit of Paraguayan cavalry.  As with the infantry, I haven't tried to make any distinction between "line" and "militia" in the unit's composition - I'll decide what they are in accordance with the relevant scenario.  Perry Miniatures make several packs, a couple of which are described as militia and do have a more casual look about them; so I might use those for the next unit.  The books I've read about the war suggest that the Paraguayan cavalry was excellent and, at least before shortages of manpower and mounts took hold, the best cavalry out of all the combatants.  The strength of cavalry regiments seems to have been between 400 and 500 men, so 12 figures works out at around 1:40, which is the ratio/scale I'm working on (in terms of full strength units).  As with the infantry, I intend to build up cavalry units of varying sizes to reflect battle casualties etc.

The cavalry's hats had a different design to those of the infantry - a sort of "fleur de lis" shape.  The spurs were quite large as well, called "nazarenas". All the figures have blankets and other bits of "furniture"; I probably should had added a few more stripes to these items, but I didn't was to overcomplicate the look of the unit.  I enjoy painting this sort of irregular cavalry, particularly with the more colourful horses.

12 figures.  Painted December 2020.  Flag and lance pennants by Flags of War.    

  

Paraguay: 4th Infantry

 

This is the first unit using Perry figures.  There are two packs of firing line Paraguayans in the Perry range, and of those twelve figures only two wear a chiripa and none have blankets.  The advancing and charging packs have many more figures in chiripas (or with blankets), so one senses a different approach with those later releases.  There are two painting mistakes with these figures.  The first is that I failed to do my research properly and assumed that the long curved object on the back of one of the firing figures was some sort of metal trumpet.  In fact, it's called a "turu" and it's a traditional musical instrument made from bull horn.  So not bronze or other metal in any way.  I only realised the mistake after I'd based the unit, so I didn't bother trying to re-paint it.

The second mistake is on the coloured cockade in the centre of the caps. This cockade should be blue, white, and then a red centre; but I've instead done red, white, and finally blue.  Most of the sources/pictures I've seen have the former, although I see the plate on Paraguayan infantry in the Esposito Winger Hussar book has the latter - maybe a mistake by Guiseppe Rava (he gets in right in the relevant Osprey MAA).  This is an error I've carried over to all units I've painted since this one.  To be honest, I find it's the decoration on the hats that's the trickiest part of painting Paraguayan figures.

20 figures.  Painted November 2020.  Flag by Flags of War.

The magic bronze turu

Paraguay: 3rd Infantry

Just a short post today, as this is the third and final of my Kingscarbine Miniatures Paraguayan infantry battalions.  The figures are those as used for the previous two units and are painted in exactly the same way.  I use Citadel paints for the red shirts - "Khorne Red", then "Evil Sunz Scarlet", then "Wild Rider Red".  I'm afraid to say that it's been so long since I last painted AWI British infantry that I can't recall what formulation of red paints I used for those - I think the final highlight was something different, as my earlier AWI British look a bit more orange than these Paraguayans do.  Like the second unit, this one looks more "militia" than "line", although I'm not really sure there was any practical distinction in the war, certainly in the later stages of it.  

With this unit I began to get my "chiripa mojo" and now I really enjoy painting colourful, funky designs, which I expect have no semblance with what these items of clothing actually looked like.  The trumpeter was one of the earlier figures I painted and I didn't really think the uniform through.  I'd read somewhere that command sashes were red - so I gave him a white linen shirt as if you give a figure with a sash a red shirt as well you're just left with an awful lot of red.  But nowadays I'd give him a red shirt and some sort of multi-coloured sash (like a lot of the Perry figures have).  

These are not my last Kingscarbine Paraguayans.  I'm currently painting a unit that utilises various "leftovers" and it has two Kingscarbine command figures with the balance being Perry figures.  They all look fine together.    

20 figures.  Painted October 2020.  Flag by Flags of War.

Obligatory back row chiripa and blanket shot.

Brazil: 1st Infantry

This is the first battalion from Brazil, which supplied the largest contingent of troops for the War of the Triple Alliance.  As with my Paraguayans, I'm simply assigning numbers to these units in consecutive order.  Brazilian line infantry battalions did have regimental distinctions up to February 1866, when the decision was taken to modify and simplify uniforms in light of the expansion of Brazil's army as a result of the war.  That expansion saw the regular infantry increased to twenty-two battalions, of which the first seven were fusiliers and the remainder "cacadores".  In addition to these units, Brazil could field a large number of national guard and local provincial troops.  The "paper" strength of each fusilier battalion was 882 men in eight companies; so I've modelled them as being 20 figures, which give a scale of about 1:40 (allowing for some battle casualties).  That said, the Allied order of battle for 1865/66, as provided by Hooker in his Foundry book on the war, gives strengths between 370 and 500 for the Brazilian regular battalions, which brings us closer to 1:20.  I'm still in two minds over unit strengths - I've already decided to drop the Argentinians down to 16 figures; I might do the same with the Uruguayans.

These are Perry Miniatures figures.  Their website shows the various options for painting these figures.  I've gone for the dark blue service dress tunic with white, summer trousers.  The barrack caps probably should have white middles to them.  I used the Foundry "Union Blue 111" palette for the tunic and the "Deep Blue 20" palette for the blanket rolls (to add a bit of variety between the blues).  For the flesh of all the troops in this war, I use "South American Flesh 119" palette.   The "Union Blue" palette has become my default dark blue, which I've also been using for Argentinian infantry and, naturally, ACW Union troops.

20 figures.  Painted November 2020.  Flag from Flags of War.

      

Paraguay: 2nd Infantry

 

This is the second battalion of Paraguayan infantry, again using the older Kingscarbine figures.  The only substantive difference from the 1st battalion is the different officer figure, who here wears a red shirt rather than a dark blue frock coat, and a couple of soldiers wearing white civilian shirts.  I suppose this makes the unit look a bit more like militia than regular army, but in my Paraguayan forces there isn't really any distinction between "line" and "militia".  One of things I've noticed about building Paraguayan units is that you end up with figures in the back row which are wearing the kilt-like "chiripa".  This means the colourful designs on the chiripas are difficult to see when taking photos of the front of the units.  

When I painted the first unit of Paraguayans I didn't really bother with fancy designs on the chiripas, but then Alan Perry put out photos of his figures sporting very colourful chiripas and I thought I'd better up my game a bit.  Also, the Paraguayan figures are all going to look the same, so the chiripa is the only way to add some variety to the overall look of the figures.  So now I make much more of an effort, which means each post will feature photos of the back row of the figures.        

20 figures.  Painted September 2020. Flag by Flags of War.