British in Portugal 1810 - Stewart's Infantry Brigade

Regiment of the Day

Not a regiment in this case, but a Brigade. Today we time-travel to Bussaco in Portugal .. and the year is 1810.

We will now have a look at modelling Stewart's Brigade, which forms part of Hill's 2nd Division.

The British deployment here included several battalions from a number of different regiments. Other battalions from the same regiments were doled out to be brigaded in other divisions.

A little confusing perhaps ....  but then again, the battalion is the combat unit, and the regiment is merely an administrative unit. Sadly, for the wargamer, this means that modelling a real life combat brigade of the period means that the facing colours and flags are all over the place.




In this case, I have gone for a generic Buff coloured flag for the Brigade, since the majority of the regiments contributing battalions to this brigade have buff facings. Makes sense ?

Enough talking .. time for some pics :

4 bases of line, pulled from a variety of different regiments. Very British, Very Awesome !

Being set in Portugal, I have based these with a little extra sand and rocks, gone very lightly on the burnt umber stain of the sand, and used Army Painter light field grass. Hopefully it looks the goods.

All figures in the warrior miniatures British line infantry range come with Belgic Shako and semi shoulder wings that can be painted either way. If I was pedantic enough, I could hit them with the file and scalpel ... but then, this project will never get finished.  This represents a whole brigade, there is no need to model 'flank companies' etc at this Grand Tactical scale IMHO.

Union Jack is a little big on this flag - but I do like the way it looks. All flags are hand painted - best way to match the facing colours on the figures without spending a tonne of cash on hi-tech printing equipment. Besides, I am back to painting minis and gaming like this to get away from damn computers ...  If in doubt, ask yourself "What would Sharpe do ?".  He would paint the flags of course !

Underside of the bases shows which regiment number the battalion is drawn from ... OK, slightly OTT perhaps, but you need to be thorough these days. Cant afford to get sloppy - it might be Portugal, but some nitpickers in the chain of command have friends at Horse Guards you know.