"Help converting 1/72 infantry into Napoleonic Spanish" Topic

HäT makes a bunch of 1/72 sets of the early Napoleonic Wars Spanish (bicorns, tall gaiters, etc.). I love the figures, and I may buy a bunch, but they have limited usefulness for wargaming.

As far as I can tell, nobody makes 1/72 Spanish figures appropriate for the Peninsular War (1807-1814), for much of which they were wearing British-style uniforms. I'm guessing other people just convert British figures for this purpose.

Before I start down the long road researching all this myself, I thought I'd start a discussion to see how others have approached this. Conversions are common in 1/72 figure gaming (even an attraction for some), so surely somebody here has done this project before. I'd like to hear what others have done to convert figures. Which figures? What bits of the figure got painted out, painted on, carved, glued, pinned, or puttied?

Besides numerous British infantry sets, there are also a few sets of 1/72 Portugese figures that might be a good starting point. The Portugese and Spanish armies were both using British-style uniforms in the Peninsular War, but I'm not sure how similar they were to each other. Comparing Funcken to the Tim Reese Art of Wars book Uniforms of the Portuguese Army, 1806-1815, I can see a few differences at a glance (e.g. the Cazadores retained lace down the coat fronts, but the Spanish lights didn't), but I haven't started to exhaustively research the details.

This would be easier if I had more pictures of Spanish troops to look at. I just have Funcken so far, and the Funcken books only show 1812-1815 British uniforms, so will be of limited help nailing down the changes to British uniforms in Spanish use. References to other pictographic resources I can use would be much appreciated.

- Ix

A lot of the Junta volunteers actually wore FRENCH style uniforms. Get the Ospreys (three volumes – MAA 321, 332, & 334) by Rene Chartrand.

See above – I use the HaT Nassau set as well as French for mid-war Spanish

British Uniforms were more common after 1812 I believe, after Wellington was given commsnd.

Use the Netherlands Militia figures from HaT set 8096 Netherlands Militia and Belgian Infantry for Spanish line c 1812. Also the more military figures from the HaT Spanish Guerillas set can be useful.

Try this link:
littlewars.se/spanish/index.html

At the end of the Peninsular War there were still a couple of regiments in the old uniform. I'm afraid I no longer have the book I used building my army which listed all units in the army and what they were wearing. So, I can't tell you which units were still in the old uniform.

The Terio de Tejas also wore a uniform cut like the old uniform, but I blue.

I'm afraid I no longer have the book I used building my army which listed all units in the army and what they were wearing.

The name of the book or the author would still be a big help.

- Ix

what about the emhar spanish link

rmaker said:

Get the Ospreys (three volumes – MAA 321, 332, & 334) by Rene Chartrand.

Ordered, on your recommendation. I don't find Ospreys all that useful generally, so I rarely order them without recommendations anymore.

- Ix

Green Tiger said:

I use the HaT Nassau set as well as French for mid-war Spanish

The Nassau figures are a nice suggestion. Similar coats, no lace.

- Ix

what about the emhar spanish link

I forgot about the Emhar Spanish. Those sets were also absent from the market for the last couple years, but I just ran across them on eBay yesterday, so now some seem to be available in small quantities. Unfortunately, these are also early war bicorn troops, so don't help much to provide alternatives to the HäT miniatures.

- Ix

I based my Spanish Army on Blake's 1811 Army at Albuera. I liked the mixture of old and new uniforms at that stage, plus the organisation into French style 6 companies per battalion, including grenadiers and light.

You can see details of them here:

link

I used two main sources for uniforms:

The first was Steven Thomas' excellent website (Steven's Balagan)
showing all of the Spanish Army at Albuera and a tremendous amount of uniform information about them.

link

The second was José María Bueno Carrera's outstanding book "Uniformes Españoles de la Guerra de Independencia".

Rod

I based my Spanish Army on Blake's 1811 Army at Albuera. I liked the mixture of old and new uniforms at that stage, plus the organisation into French style 6 companies per battalion, including grenadiers and light.

You can see details of them here:

YES!!!! Thanks! That's delightful.

I am well aware of Steve Thomas' site (Steven's Balagan), I refer to it all the time. His research on Napoleonic Spanish uniforms is great, but I really need to see enough pictures to make sense of all his prose.

I'll see about acquiring a copy of the Carrera book. It's rare, so most copies are as expensive as mortgage payments.

- Ix

Vintage Wargaming said:

Use the Netherlands Militia figures from HaT set 8096 Netherlands Militia and Belgian Infantry for Spanish line c 1812.

Excellent suggestion, thanks.

- Ix

Yellow Admiral,

I was lucky with my José María Bueno Carrera's outstanding book "Uniformes Españoles de la Guerra de Independencia".

I was browsing in a second-hand bookshop when I saw it. Because it was in Spanish the bookseller only wanted £8.00 GBP for it, so I snapped it up. It has four pages of coloured schematics of Spanish uniforms and 71 coloured plates of uniforms, many with between 3 to 5 uniforms per page. My Spanish is good enough to read most of it, but it is pretty easy to follow, even if you speak no Spanish at all.

Rod

Yellow Admiral,

You might want to look at the New York Public Library Vinkhuijzjen digital collection, which is where several of Steve Thomas' illustrations on his website come from. There are over 400 prints of Spanish Napoleonic uniforms on the NYPL site organised by years.

link

Rod

What a brilliant resource that is!

Many thanks for the link….

As you may have noticed the NYPL collection has over 32,000 prints altogether from many different nations over hundreds of years of history.

Rod