15mm Wargaming Figures for the First Carlist War

You can now buy specialist figures for the First of the Carlist Wars from a variety of companies.

• Fantassin Miniaturas in 15 mm
• ERM do British Infantry for 1820 – 40 who would be good for the Royal Marines.
• Blaze Away Miniatures & Models in 28 mm (figures are ex QRF Miniatures ex FreiKorps ex Helion ex Valiant; very nice they are too)
• Perry Miniatures in 28 mm – superb

But you couldn’t when I first got interested so my figures are predominantly converted from 15 mm Essex Miniatures.

If anybody wants more details, send me an email and I can try and dredge up my notes.

Carlists

I used American Civil War figures with a beret and belly box added (My mate Wayne Turner did the conversions). The Essex Mixed Confederates are perfect = very scruffy. I threw in some converted Napoleonic figures for variety, for example, the British Rifles officer in Hussar jacket makes a fine Carlist officer once given a beret. I tried to maximise the number of figures in frock coats – typical Carlist attire. The main problem is the lack of turn backs on the great coats. But overall I think the effect is quite good.

Cristinos

I predominantly used post-1812 Napoleonic French figures – the Essex Old Campaigners are excellent, a scruffy bunch of chaps with good figures and lots of variety. The shakos aren’t quite right, but on the other hand the Old Campaigners have a fair number of guys with forages caps which are pretty close to the forage caps of the Cristinos.

British Auxiliary Legion

The key thing about the British Legionaries during this war is that they wore a forage cap, not a shako. I only know of two ranges which are suitable:

• 1845 British from the Maori Wars range of Wildly Inspired Miniatures,
• The British in peaked forage cap from LKM/QRF: Freikorp15: History of India: Maharatta Wars and Sikh Wars

Legionnaires: I originally purchased the 1845 British from the Maori Wars range of Wildly Inspired Miniatures, but Roland convinced me to use LKM/QRF: Freikorp15: History of India: Maharatta Wars and Sikh Wars, specifically:

• HI69 British Infantry Advancing, Peaked Forage cap
• HI68 British Infantry Command, Peaked Forage Cap

6th Scotch Grenadiers: I used Napoleonic Scots from Essex Miniatures. This unit almost certainly didn’t wear kilts but they did have distinctive Scottish features and I couldn’t find Scots in campaign dress in 15mm (i.e. trews) so I went for the full highland dress.

Rifles: I used standard Napoleonic British Rifles for the Rifles.

Regulars (Marines and Royal artillery): I used standard Napoleonic British Line Infantry and Artillery, respectively. Napoleonic British Line Infantry actually had the wrong shape shako and if I did it again I’d probably use 1820 – 40 British Infantry from ERM instead.

British Lancers: I used Napoleonic Polish Lancers

French Foreign Legion

The Franco-Prussian range provided the French Foreign Legion (I should have modified their Kepis into tall thin shakos, but I was sick of the whole conversion exercise by the time I got the figures).