"48th Foot - The Heroes of Talavera" Topic

Hi all,
I've just completed my penultimate battalion for my British force at Oporto

The 48th Foot (Northamptonshire Regt.) became a mainstay of Wellington's army in the Peninsular War.

If you would like to know more about this particular unit then just follow the link to JJ's

jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

Jonathan

Very nice!

Yes good brushwork!

For a particular insight into the 48th Foot at Talavera, read the eponymous book by Major Peter Edwards. He served in the 48th's descendant regiment (Royal Anglians – the Poachers) and so takes a particular pride in their feats at that battle…

What's the ultimate battalion going to be?

Thanks guys,

The ultimate battalion will be the 66th Berkshires which will complete the Oporto units

Nicely done. But I thought the South Essex led by the newly gazetted Captain Richard Sharpe were the Heroes of Talavera?

This is a great-looking unit, well done!

The Osprey series, the one dealing with Wellington's generals, as I recall, has an illustration of ?Daddy Hill? handing a flask to a drummer of a buff-faced regiment on the left side of the picture, and with the colonel of the same regiment on the right, with queue and powered hair and bicorn worn crosswise. I seem to recall he was old-fashioned, but a good leader.

The drummer had all buff appointments – coat, straps, cover of the backpack, overalls which buttoned up the side. The back pack has not straps, was buff covered, and had a red disk with white regimental number and other "stuff" as I recall. My books are all stored away, so this is from my poor memory.

We had this discussion recently about buff-faced regiments, and concluded that they even had buff musket slings! Their wings would have been red for the flank companies, for only the guards had blue wings.

Is the 48th different, shown in the other Osprey above with white belting and darker gray overalls?

I am always looking for unique unit distinctions!

GdeP

Thanks Gs49, should have been the other heroes.

Hi GdeP, thanks for your comment.
I think it is really interesting when it comes to analysing the look of individual units, and you find that illustrators like us humble painters are forced to take a view when it comes to pulling together the look of a unit.

I have posted the Osprey take on the 48th at Salamanca. However this is also a composite based on the various sources of descriptions. I think the truth is that a lot of Regimental distinctions gradually fell by the wayside as the rigours of campaigning took their inevitable toll. Thus buff slings might have been the regulation, but I bet the more common pipe clay version became just as common. The sources about backpacks is also interesting in that the British army was known for its variety of regimental codes, however it is also true that as the Peninsular War progressed the units more and more moved to plain black lacquered packs to prevent water damage. I take the view that the war being a very long campaign took more of a toll on regimental distinction, and thus give my units a very campaigned look with a focus on facings and colours. Thus my 48th have buff facings and straps with a set of colours that if you get really close up have the 48th in Roman numerals and the designs carried by the unit. I tend to refer now to CE Franklin's British uniform reference with Haythornthwaite and others as back ups and then allowing for various contradictions take a view based on the principles outlined to come up with a look.

Cheers
Jonathan

Thus buff slings might have been the regulation, but I bet the more common pipe clay version became just as common

I think the buff straps would have been easy to maintain, as buff is the natural color of the leather. Even if issued whitened straps, it would be easy to make them buff by either removing the pipeclay or failing to maintain it so the strap would revert to buff.

I have been struggling through the process of assembling and painting 32 Victrix 28mm plastic British at the 48th, all in an advancing position as in their counter-attack at Talavera. I "converted" a couple to add some variety, and painted the bodies and heads before adding the arms to do a better job with the straps, lace, etc. But I am at heart a toy soldier fan with little to no shading, and these just look odd to me! When I am done, I will "dul-cote" them, then use semi-gloss clear vanish for the shako brims and back flap; bullet pouches; bayonets and scabbards; shoes, etc.

I am doing the overalls in lots of different shades from off-white for a few to dark brown for almost half of them. Inking is helping make to straps look more realistic than just a "buff on everything, over worn red" look.

I am really messing up the back packs, for I am trying to get the look of that drummer above – no straps, buff cover, wider dimensions. I used a Henkel plastic epoxy, and it does not hold up well for filing. It does not bond well to the packs. Maybe metal epoxy?

I'll never be able to do the design on the pack!

GdeP

Very nice stuff as usual ……. Inspirational

Cheers
Losh

Thank you Losh

GdeP, I feel your pain, colour selection and shades can be tricky. I have a tutorial post on the blog if that might help, and if you want to drop me any queries via the blog, I'm happy to share colour selections that I have made