I
have painted here three battalions of the Spanish Guards, in their
smart blue uniforms copied from the French Guards. A Spanish army
will be the opponents of the Piedmontese army (mostly finished) and
the key brigade in the Spanish army will be the Guards. I will do a
further three battalions of the Walloon Guards in due course. The
only difference in their uniforms will be a black cockade instead of
the red the Spanish Guards wore.
Here
are the first Spanish reinforcements sent to the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies in 1741.
Spanish
Guard Infantry Regiment (6)(2,20l)
Walloon
Guard Infantry Regiment (6)(2,l33)
Reyna
Infantry Regiment (2)(l,l00)
Lombardy
Infantry Regiment (2)( l,067)
Irlanda
(Irish) Infantry Regiment (2)(l,037)
Bessler
(Swiss) Infantry Regiment (l)(598)
Carabinier
Cavalry Regiment (3)(263)
Sagunta
Dragoon Regiment (3)(202)
Artillery
and Train (588)
Munitions
Transport (62)
Which
averaged out at about 420 men per battalion. It is worth noting also
that the cavalry went without their horses and that when they arrived
they scrabbled around to find mounts.
The
Royal Navy was supposed to be blockading the eastern Spanish coast
and the Western Mediterranean in general to prevent this happening at
all but this period was one of those rare times when the British
admiral in charge (Haddock) was not up to the job.
Finding
the correct figures for the Spanish has taken time because they wore
their coats buttoned-up at the chest while most Europeans wore their
coats open showing the waistcoats underneath. The only other nation
suitable for substitution is GNW Swedes. There are a couple of
companies who make Spanish WAS troops but either the range is
incomplete or I just don't like the figures. So here most of the
figures are from Ebor although a couple of old Capitulation figures (
a long defunct French company) have crept in. The Ebor figures come
with separate heads so you can get plenty of variety into the
battalions. I have added waist pouches easily made from balsa wood.
