Spanish General de Brigada and Staff Officer

Hello everyone!

I've been busy as of late, but I was able to complete a couple more Spaniards in the meantime. Departing from my usual procedure of painting up units based on actual, historical Orders of Battle, tonight I have a generic command stand representing a Spanish Brigade commander, or general de brigada.

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

The uniforms depicted here are based on a number of different uniform prints. The (mounted) general is based on two paintings: his horse furniture is drawn from Francisco de Goya's painting of General Palafox, while his white uniform coat faced in black, with red breeches, is derived from the famous painting of General Castaños accepting the surrender of French General Dupont at the Battle of Bailen in 1808.

Goya's General Palafox

The Surrender at Bailen by Jose Casado del Alisal. Castaños is tipping his hat in the painting's center.

The standing figure is a member of Spain's Cuerpo del Estado Mayor, or the General Staff Corps. His uniform is pretty much directly copied from the prescribed uniform (as shown below), with dark blue, single breasted tunic faced in light blue, with a light blue sash and gold trimming.

 

Uniform of Spain's Cuerpo del Estado Mayor

However, carrying on in the long tradition of Spanish officer's generally ignoring "prescribed" uniforms and wearing what they pleased, I gave the staff officer a pair of buff breeches instead of white. I noticed in researcing these uniforms that many contemporary painting of officers pictured them wearing buff breeches, and decided to give my staffer a pair as well.

Both figures are Italeri 1/72 plastic figures taken from the French Imperial General Staff set #6016. The staff figure is a standing French Marshal with the mini's original medal and shoulder cords trimmed off. The General is a mounted French Marshal,without any modifications.

Coming soon: Probably not a whole lot of battalions until the semester ends. With only a couple of weeks left in school and lots of final projects due, I won't have a whole lot of free time. I do have a couple of other brigade commanders that I can work on in the interim, as they are quick to paint, being only two figures to a stand. We'll see what I can get done.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck