pre Carronade

Looking forward to going to Carronade this weekend.  It's my first trip to the Falkirk show so I will be very interested to see what it's like compared to small and friendly Targe in Kirrimuir,  busy Claymore in Edinburgh and the vastness of Salute. Not only that but the sun shining and the sky clear so I'll be able to scoot down in the Spider and have a weekender with my better half too. It doesn't get much better.

I am looking forward in particular to catching up with Crann Tara. Graham output of late has been some of the best figures out there in terms of pose and sculpting form. I am slowly putting together the Spanish for my next Caribbean project and will be making much use of the naval landing party, pioneers, marines and other wonderful goodies that are being added to Graham's stable. 

I have got about half way through another regiment of Spanish,  I am pretty pleased with the results so far. The next unit will be in blue, much easier than white to paint!

CT Spanish

I've also been working on some 19th century figures. I have been slowly putting together a British force for the Crimea and have Coldstream Guard, Hussars and a load of character officers which make a nice little force for using with The Men Who Would Be Kings. I will also try Rebels and Patriots too as I like the scale and feel of both sets of light hearted rules. 

My other 19thC project is Rome 1849. I have some rather nice vauban walls and Italian buildings and a decent amount of  red-shirted Garibaldini. To face them I need French and Neapolitans and luckily the two forces shared the same tailors, so my 1860's Naples troops can stand in for Oudinot's men. The defenders of Rome need some support however.  In addition to the redshirted volunteers there were regulars facing the French; ex papal troops and Bersaglieri volunteers from Rome and northern Italy. Several squadrons of cavalry also fought the invaders - reformed papal dragoons and a unit of Lancers. 

Ive been looking for illustrations of these men and found some excellent online resources which builds upon the info given in the Osprey on Risorgimento Armies covering Papal, Roman and Neapolitan troops.

Here are some illustrations of Republican Roman regulars.

As I want these to look different from my Gringo 40s French/Neapolitan figs (also lovely sculpts!), I've chosen 1st Corps as their Mex-American and ACW ranges provide figures which are contemporary or shared similar uniforms. They are also chunky enough to (just!) stand next to Ged's big figures. 

The Roman line will be early ACW volunteers in frock coat shako. I've started to paint a sample below. 

I think he's a pretty decent match.