Royalist Commanders

Lastly are a couple of command bases modeled roughly on the generals from John Fletcher's Liberators! book...

Here I've used Fantassin British generals with staff from Lancashire Bavarians. You can see the difference in size, most noticeable in the horses.

Royalist Artillery

Finally, got round to doing the artillery. These are Fantassin Spanish Artillery 4 pounders with the bicorne replaced with Mirage militia tophats.

The guns look very bluish in the pic but, in reality, they are more  greyish blue.

Dragoons and the Arequipa Sqn

The next cavalry unit is the Dragoon Sqn, made from odd Fantassin hussars, chasseurs and officers, with cut down  militia top-hats. I tried painting Spanish Pintos, again with mixed results, also tried brindled greys, but they just look dirty :(. Never-mind it's all good practice.

Also,  I have finished the Arequipa cavalry squadron, again using Militia top-hats on Fantassin French Chasseurs.

Arequipa Cavalry - Battle of Huaqui

Tinta Dragoons

Welcome to the Tinta cavalry, my first mounted unit for the Royalists, painted up from Bavarian Light Dragoons from Lancashire games...

Here they are.. Fantassin's finished Cotobamba and Paucartambo Regts. I've darkened the blue considerable to try and make it more correct, using Dark Prussian Blue with black washes.

Royalists Huaqui June 20th 1811

The South American Wars of Liberation saw the Spanish governed regions using units raised from the population stiffened with Spanish troops on colonial service. So here are the  1st Btn. Cuzco Militia, converted from Mirage 15mm Austrians. Note the  missing bayonets caused by rough handling of the sometimes brittle, hard metal figures.

I took substantial liberty  by giving them greatcoats for the cold nights up on the high ground around Lake Titicaca. The second battalion were not so lucky....

With the second battalion I tried cutting down some Mirage Austrians with round hats. Not ideal, so I will look for some Spanish top-hatted militia for  the future.

Again from Mirage -  the Royalist Ferdinand VII Regt..

And with the Abancay Regt. formed in front.

Last of the Mirage figures for the Royalists are the Puno and Royal Lima Btns.

Most of these are usually shown wearing top hats for the early battles but I figure the  bicorne is common enough to have a few of my regiments  wearing it. I've since purchased  a load of top-hatted Spanish Militia from Warmodelling / Fantassin which are primed and ready for painting.

Mapuche

Not quite sure what I was thinking! I was mulling over  whether native troops had any influence of the Wars of Liberation. There are Indian units around but  although I can't find them in any Orbats, I am reliably  informed that the Mapuche resisted colonization by anyone for  hundreds of years. If i remember correctly, the Mapuche  provided cavalry that were fielded against Chilean forces by the royalists during the wars for Chilean Independence.

These were quite expensive by my standards. There are two companies providing Mapuche, mine are the less expensive ones from Lurkio Miniatures. I must say they are very nice and come with pre-sharpened wire spears and four bases. The Principles of War rules allow me to base them on 30 x 40 mm bases ( deeper formations for irregular cavalry) which means I can also use them for DBX 40 x 30mm LC units if I fix them facing obliquely. I just had to provide a couple of extra bases to make 2 POW units and then watch  the great film 'Hidalgo' to get an idea of Spanish Pinto colours.