Saturday, May 19, 2018

Militia Honrados de Coruna - Eagle figures


After the French evacuated Galicia in 1809, this unit was among many such troops raised for maintaining local order and self defense. 


Properly, the facings should be piped in white and the belt work black. I did my unit a bit differently. 


There is a detailed article on The Napoleon series about this unit. Flag is a generic one printed from Warflag/Napflag. 


These are Eagle figures, a new manufacturer for me. Their service was excellent. 



Dark brown coat and pants, Medium green facings piped white. Pewter buttons.


A little mood music, Maestro!
This 1947 film about the inquisition and the conquest of Mexico by Cortez is still well worth watching; it was shot on location in Mexico, and the smoking volcano in the background on many shots was completely real. The score by Alfred Newman is outstanding. The USC band uses the "Conquest March" from the end of the movie as one of their signature pieces. At UConn , we had our own fantastic arrangement of "Captain" based more upon the first part of the opening Title theme. I will have to see is I can digitize my old mid 1970's  vinyl recording of it some day, as it is an extremely stirring piece of music... especially when played by 160 musicians! 


ADD: Marco from Chile was kind enough to send me a photo of some Spanish standards from the museum in La Coruna. Now I will have to do a replacement flag for this unit to match! Marco assures me my unit will fight much better with the proper flag to inspire them!  :-)



Marco says that the flag on the left of the picture is that of the Militia of Santiago; he notes that flag has the complete Royal arms in its center. The middle, dark blue flag is an artillery flag of the 4th regiment (see the flag carried by my 12 pounder battery). The flag on the right is that of the Militia of La Coruna. Surprisingly, it appears to have a red field (although not as red, at least 200 years of ageing later, as that in the lining of the crown). Marco comments that he has seen originals of the white flags of the Spanish units, and none of them have aged to a color anything like this. 


The central device of the Coruna flag is the "reduced' (simplified) Royal arms, with the red Lion of Leon quartered with the Tower of Castile, and the fleur-de-lis of the Bourbons superimposed upon them, as seen above (image also supplied by Marco). This is surrounded by a "trophy" of flags, etc. 


In the typical style of Spanish standards of the era, the four corners of the Coruna flag bear the arms of the city - a heraldic "Pillar of Hercules". Image once again supplied by Marco. 


24 comments:

  1. Elegant and beautiful uniform...and great painting!

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  2. A very interesting unit, Peter, and I enjoy seeing your brushwork on them.
    As for Eagle figures, I had some of their SYW figures twenty years ago when Modeler’s Mart carried the figures. The figures were HUGE and as well sculpted as these. I have seen recent releases of their Napoleonics and many look very good, including these.

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    1. The size of these figures is very consistent with Three Armies, Perry, Brigade games, etc. The sculpting is very nice. I have a few more examples of Eagle figures to post in the coming weeks. Some, presumably older sculpts, are in a different, much slimmer style.

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  3. Ver nicely done. Your Spanish army collection is getting impressive.

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    1. Thanks, Joe. It looks like it will wind up with something around 430 figures!

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  4. Wonderful looking unit Peter. Your Peninsular collection is going yo be sensational.

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  5. Thanks, Carlo. It is nearing completion. I expect it to be done by Historicon.

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  6. Hi Gonsalvo: In the included link the description of the flag appears: "The original flag is presently preserved in the Regional Military Museum of La Coruña . The shield, with the reduced royal arms in the centre, is garnished with flags and trophies and has the Tower of Hercules in each corner. The standard is on a wooden staff and cased in a worked velvet cover, trimmed with bullion braid". I found a photo. How can I send it to you?. Perhaps you, or some friend of you could do a drawing of it.

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    1. Hi Macota; thanks for the offer! I saw the description, but didn't feel up to modifying the Warflag version, but it wouldn't be that hard.
      You could send it to me as an attachment. Gonsalvo AT aol DOT com

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  7. Another excellent unit seldom seen in a Wargame

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    1. Thanks, Garry. The Spanish raised an astounding number of units over the course of the Peninsular war, although quite a few of them were ephemeral!

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  8. Lovely looking Spanish unit! I've got some Eagle Austrian artillery, they seem totally compatible with Perry etc.
    Best Iain

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    1. I would suggest a bit of caution and inquiring of the owner when ordering, as there are clearly different styles and sculptors at work within the range. He seems most helpful; and I am, quite sure that he would happily answer such questions. You will see what I am talking about in a few future posts involving Eagle figures.

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  9. That's a sweet looking unit, and I'm sure it's a lot of fun to paint all these one-off uniforms.

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  10. Thanks, Scott. Aside from the artillery and Cazadores, I haven't painted 2 units in the same uniform yet for my Spanish troops!

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  11. Looks great Peter. One of the great aspects regarding the Spanish army was the variety of uniforms.

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    1. Thanks, Jon. Yes, the variety within the Spanish army is impressive. Of course, I am doing their uniforms a lot ,ore "uniform" than they likely were in real life, but hey, they're toy soldiers!

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  12. Nice looking unit Peter, even if they have brown uniforms!

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    1. Brown uniforms are probably a wise choice for Militia... -)

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  13. Great job on the militia Peter. I completely agree, Eagle figures are superb to deal with.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. Yes, first rate service from Eagle!

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