St Angelo’s Ghosts

The last figures I painted for the May multi-player extravaganza at Ayton were a unit of Hussars. Having done exactly the same in 2013, I knew what I was letting myself in for – Hussars are not the ideal troop type to have to finish to a deadline, there’s always more detail to find just when you think you’re nearly finished! Still, despite the stress and fatigue of again finishing them on the Friday morning (the day I was travelling..) I now have another unit of Hussars in the collection.

I suspect that if I didn’t paint them to a deadline I would put off doing them indefinitely. Guess what I’ll be painting at the start of next May?!

I didn’t have an opportunity to post about the new unit at the time, but they galloped onto the table after the smoke from the recent battle at Spurlacco had cleared and posed for a few shots.

This unit is part of the Medetian army and was raised by the Cavaliere di St Angelo, a noble from the northern uplands of the country. St Angelo chose to dress his regiment in white and other pale shades and mount them all on greys (a common horse colour in the region) – hence their nickname, ‘The Ghosts’.

The figures are Perry plastic Napoleonic French Hussars, using the mirliton head option, the presence of which in the box is a real boon to people wanting to use them for the 18th century.

The flag is just a bit of clipart from the web, printed as a design onto paper and painted. As with my other Hussars, I want these to be available both for 18th century games (where standard base sizes are needed, hence the sabots) and for early 19th century games (where I need them on single bases for Sharp Practice).

This unit balances out the Fleurian Legion Hussars (Minden Miniatures) and I plan to add another similar sized unit of the same figures respectively to each side in due course (in time for the next two Ayton deadlines I guess!)

Battle honours have yet to be earned by this new regiment, although they didn’t lack for courage at Ayton. They were in the first line of cavalry that dashed itself to pieces against Iain Burt’s guns and infantry (fortunately his cavalry wasn’t on form that day or I’d have been thrashed) in front of Pescadrix. Our war correspondent’s mid-action sketch below..