Maria Luisa Hussars

For a while I have wanted to add to my Spanish horse regiments and was inspired this fall to tackle that project. To date I had painted up some dragoons and line cavalry along with a small contingent of hussars, the Granaderos a Caballo de Fernando VII which you can see here.

Maria Luisa Hussars in Mirliton cap.

There are few (if any!) Spanish cavalry sets in 1/72 plastic, but fortunately hussar uniforms are fairly consistent nation to nation and the Spanish hussars are no exception. The major difference is the archaic Mirliton cap, which was eventually replaced by the shako, some sources saying by the time of the battle of Ocaña in November of 1809. As I was using the Italeri Hussars as my starting point I elected to leave them in shakos.

Maria Luisa Hussar in shako (November 1808 and later))

I did minimum conversion on the riders, removing the plume and swapping some heads onto some Chasseurs a cheval pillaged from the Italeri French Command set. These Chasseurs figures lacked the sabretache but this probably wasn’t worn on campaign anyway. The only major difference that I let slide was the fact that the pelisse of the Spanish Hussars had a red cloth collar rather than the fur collar more commonly seen on hussars and modelled on the French figures I used here.

The only other rider modification was an arm and head swap to make one of these into a trumpeter. I did a bit more work on the horses, leaving them with their sheepskin saddles (most references, with a few exceptions show Spanish hussars without them but I opted to leave well enough alone) but adding the shabraque that seems to have been used on most Spanish horse to make them more distinctive.

I hope you enjoy the results!

Original Italeri Hussars with a few small conversions

Horses with shabraque added.

The full regiment.

Command stand front view. The Spanish hussars did not take their standards into battle.

Command stand rear view

Trooper stand front view.

Trooper stand rear view.

A Bit of History

The Húsares de Maria Luisa were established in 1793, originally as the Carabineros de Maria Luisa until they were renamed in 1803. Their early record was not impressive, earning the name “run-away Marys” in the war of the Oranges against Portugal.

In 1808 they formed two regiments, the 1st and 2nd, which were reformed into one regiment and renamed the Húsares de Extremadura in 1811 when the Spanish cavalry, much reduced, was reorganized. After the war they became known as the Húsares de Bailén.

For more information on the Spanish Hussar regiments visit:

http://www.littlewars.se/spanish/hussars.html

Trumpeter with red Pelisse and blue dolman.

Voluntarios de León

A few months ago I posted some Nassau troops that I had painted up as part of the French allies' so-called German Division, (Laval's 2nd Division) that served in the Peninsular war. They were from the big box set put out by HaT and I had far more Nassau figures than I had use for in the relatively small contingent that fought in Spain.
So I went looking for a Spanish unit that might might be a good match for these and came up with the Voluntarios de León. Part of the beauty (and frustration!) of collecting Spanish is that there are as many uniform variations as there are towns and regions creating their own militiae post 1808!
In this case I was looking for bell-shakoed, single breasted uniforms and (with a bit of help from my Hispanophile friend Brian North) settled on this unit.
My depiction of the Voluntarios de León is based on their later war incarnation, 1812 and later, when they were rebuilt under Wellington. My reference was from that godsend for miniature painters, the re-enactment group - whose site can be found here.

One of many photographs of the reenactment unit I made use of from their excellent website! They wear the uniform circa 1812, after the reorganization under Wellington, that I based my own unit on. 

The conversions were pretty straight forward, shortening the plume and taking off the briquet and bayonet on the fusiliers and covering up the empty space with the ubiquitous Spanish bread bag which I modelled. Also, as I did with the Nassau troops, I created the standard bearer from the grenadier captain, with a simple head swap and small bit of modelling.
So here are the results - I hope you enjoy them!

The command stand. The standard bearer was the only significant conversion here, and even that was pretty straight forward. The commander's sash is probably suspect, as these indicated higher ranks in the Spanish army but I didn't have it in me to try and carve it off.

Fusiliers front view

Fusiliers rear view, with briquets removed and bread bags added to cover the surgery!

Flank companies front

Flank companies rear

And for a bit of history (again with thanks to Brian North)…

The earliest Voluntarios de León were those Cuesta had raised in 1808 for the Army of Castille. Regiments 1-3 were badly mauled at the Battle of Cabezon in June 1808, and also appeared at the Battle of Medina del Rio Seco in July. There was a second recruitment in August 1808, after Baylen, and on October they were on the Ebro, still in this 'Army of Castille' and survivors from this made their way to Zaragoza where they eventually surrendered.

The earlier unform, circa 1808, of the Voluntarios de León

There is mention of them at the siege of Astorga in 1810 (possibly from the 4th and 5th regiments) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitios_de_Astorga but they don’t really re-enter the history books until the retaking of Astorga under Wellington in 1812. They were rebuilt under the British and went on to fight with Wellington at Vitoria (1813), San Marcial (1813) and Paso del Bidasoa (1814).
A full list of their actions can be found here:

http://voluntariosdeleon.com/acciones-y-batallas-en-las-que-participaron-los-voluntarios-de-leon/