) Another period I knew little about, but got drawn in by the rather nice figures from Gringo 40.Following the War of Italian Unification, Italian independence from the rule of Hapsburg emperors was partly complete - but only partly. The Papal States, Naples and Sicily remained under the old regime. But on 11 May 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi landed at Marsala in Sicily with the famous ‘Thousand’ (actually 1,049 men and 1 woman) and within two months had conquered the island against vastly superior numbers and proceeded to invade the Italian mainland.
It seems an eminently suitable campaign for Sharp Practice and I get a chance to finally use some special terrain that’s been lingering in the lower basement for 15+ years. But more of that later, here’s the first painting:
The man himself:
The first trial unit of Redshirts:
And a water carrier/medic for a support unit. Technically its the Mary Seacole figure that was a Partizan giveaway a year back, but the costume looks similar to some pictures I’d seen of Sicillian women from the period:
The building in the background is a Grand Manner Peninsula model, but fairly indistinguishable from Southern Italian buildings and I’ll be using these to represent Sicily.
An alternative Garibaldi to the last one with new ‘go faster’ option:
A Red Shirt unit (yes I know, but there weren’t that many red shirts to go around at first!):
Another Red Shirt unit:
And there’s a new backdrop, the Grand Manner windmill. It’ll get sails when I work out how to do them and a little hilly base to raise it above the mundane hovels.
More red shirts:
This one includes Col. John Peard as a ‘Big Man’ - the Garibaldi’s get quite a lot of these:
And the last unit has a Boothill lady, actually Mexican for my TWI game but as I’d just finished her, she looks suitable for a Sicilian farmer’s daughter waving her brave boys off:
I was going to include a Picotti (Sicillian bandits - think camorra/Mafia) but I had a nightmare painting them (don’t ask, I’ll only cry) over Christmas so I reverted to another red shirt unit:
and the final ‘Big Man’ Ninio Bixo:
Here’s the ‘whole’ force:
Technically finished, bar a flag, and only slightly late. Now I’ve got the Neopolitans to do and some more terrain.
Speaking of which, the 'special' terrain from the basement:
This is the Bussaco Convent made by Grand Manner in their Peninsula range. I bought it in a mad impetuous fit about 20(?) years ago when Dave Bodley first released it.
I then hid it in the basement on the grounds that it’s a bit scary is what it is.
Firstly it’s bloody big and complex and, with all due respect to Dave (as some of the moulds for this must have been incredible and the design is intended to be quite flexible) not an exact fit.
Secondly, from the bits I’ve got it seems there might be a bit mislaid over the years as there’s a gap in the overall ‘square’ and it doesn’t quite look like the pictures on the site or in the war-game press. So I’m adding an extra building and converting a bit of wall to fill in the gap.
Thirdly, it’s now OOP and the moulds have gone, so if I screw it up I’m photobukkit’d.
Oh, and it’s got to be ready for Salute.
Looking forward to it
