Tuesday 21 July 2009

Rifle Brigade, British Auxiliary Legion (1)



In addition to "regular" infantry battalions, the BAL included a corps of riflemen. The man charged with raising this unit was Edward Costello, a sergeant in the Peninsular War who had been given the rank of lieutenant in the BAL's 7th regiment. Costello's recruiting was successful, and within 8 weeks he had 500 men. The corps fought in all the major engagements in which the BAL found itself. As with other infantry units, the riflement were dressed and equiped as per their regular army counterparts - rifle green coatees with red facings and black equipment. These figures are based on Napoleonic-sized skirmisher stands, measuring 40mm x 20mm. I'm afraid I don't know enough about Napoleonic uniforms to know whether the figures in forage caps would be suitable for that period. These are nice figures, though - full of animation and character. The paints used for the coatees were Foundry's "Russian Green" 69B and C (the A shade is almost black and so unusable) highlighted with "French Chasseur a Cheval Green" 71B and C. As they are skirmishers, I gave the figures a bit of a mud dusting on their knees and trouser bottoms.

10 figures. Painted May/June 2009.



1 comment:

Sire Godefroy said...

Really love those riflemen.
Apart from the shakos they are usable for the Napoleonic player methinks. (Though there are decent Perry sculpts for this period by now.)

Your choice of colours makes perfect sense. Personally, being a skirmish gamer, and not playing en masse I opted for stronger highlights. Dark green and black just looks a bit dull for single miniatures.

Anyway, great job!

Cheers
SG