spanish american war starts afresh...

OK, I had my 25mm fix with the Gauls and Romans.  Working on a Master's degree has me a bit burned out on AWI stuff. So what's a guy to do? Well, I do have some BMC and AIP Spanish American War figures... and I did commit myself to running a SpanAm game in February, 2011. Better get painting!

Spanish uniforms of the period are rather obscure. First, I looked at my old standby, the Spanish American War Centennial Website . Not too much there (but join in the save the U.S.S. Olympia campaign, folks!). Then I found ¡Rayadillo!. Bingo!

My first attempt at rayadillo in 54mm was a simple light blue. Now, looking at the uniforms on the Rayadillo site convinced me that the blue/white stripes should not be visible at this scale. But I had to try. After bungling along creating a striped impression with fine tip pens I quickly reverted to the simpler light blue.

I haven't found any manufacturer who makes Spanish infantry figures for this period except BMC. Well, maybe they're actually figures of Mexicans since they also sell them in their Alamo play set. They're kind of OK for SpanAm. I wish they didn't ALL have bandoliers and cartridge belts, though. It's just not really appropriate for the Spaniards. Still, for BMC these figures are not too bad. Pity there's only 4 or 5 poses. I've got around 80 of them to paint.

DSG makes some pretty decent Spanish regular cavalry for the period. Might have to eventually add them into the mix. But now the search is on for a decent 54mm Krupp gun. Cool looking canon, that.