Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 6 - Real Terço da Armada

The  Terço da Armada Real ( Royal Fleet Terço) was a famous military unit built during the Iberian Union.

 Around 1621 it sported this uniform under Filipe II rule:

but during the War of Restoration the uniform changed to green and yellow facings. The sources from 1664 show them with black feathered hats...

... but I have more boxes of helmeted infantry and so helmets they have. 

 

The flag bearer is a pikeman and the flag itself it's an absolute invention as I could not find any one from the Terço da Armada of the time. 

The drummer comes from the plan of uniforms of 1667...

... already after Montes Claros but once again I could not find a better one. 

 

Now let's go for some Landsknecht under Spanish pay. So as these guys dressed very strange it will take some time before next post. 

But meanwhile maybe I add some extra 4cm and another row of miniatures to each terço. They will be 12cm x 12cm like Impetus orders. 

Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 5- First clash

 

First Spanish squadron with the usual Revell figures. 

The painting scheme is based on the standard equipment and colours of the Spanish infantry as, for instance, George Gush states. 

The third Portuguese squadron. More or less the same as the previous ones with a different flag. 

Don't worry, nowadays this scene below wouldn't happen... But even so don't exaggerate with that request for more Atlantic sea close to the Selvagens Islands, ok? 

The big Impetus bases enables true dioramas which makes more visually appealing figures. 

Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 4 - Flags

These flags came from several web sources, while other are rough acrylic compositions of national and specific  symbols. 

Portuguese: 

Spanish: 

German (for Landsknecht. These are the same for Mohács-1526. Forget the top flag as it is Ottoman). 

 

Resize and use them freely if suitable. 

Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 3 - Sources and bibliography

These are the main references I used for the War of Restoration project. 

First I started with some reading on the late XVI century style of warfare which was clearly influenced by the Spanish school. In the mid XVII century the Spanish had changed very little of its military doctrine and so did the Portuguese that were just coming out of a 60 year period of Spanish rule. 

These two books by Luis Costa e Sousa will guide you through the previous period of the War of Restoration where the main aspects of this war will be prepared, like the Terço organisation or the combined work of pikemen and arquebusiers. 

Next and into the war itself, two invaluable references from one of the best authorities on the war itself, Jorge Penim de Freitas, dealing with organisation, life, equipment  and even uniforms of the soldiers of the period.   

The two books are offers of my friend José Miguel Mendes. A true rare book archeologist with a degree in Law. 

Our sort of Osprey campaign. Nice books and a good start. 

Jorge Penim de Freitas blog: guerra da Restauração. A fantastic source of information on campaigns, battles, daily life and whatever you may find on the period. 

 

Specially the battle of Montes Claros is very well covered also with the help of Google Earth and on several chapters. 

Jorge Penim Freitas also have two nice articles Miniatures Wargames magazines, number 188 and 189, dedicated to the wargaming of this conflict. 

Also for specific armies go to George Gush,  Renaissance Warfare. You can find these old Airfix magazines articles in the web. 

 

Many more sources exist on the web, you just need some time and you are into this fascinating period of history.

Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 2 - First two Portuguese Squadrons/Terços

This is the first Terço units made for Impetus. I made two esquadrões prolongados as they were apparently more used in the second half of the XVII century. 

The Impetus Baroque rules want big bases and these ones are 12cm x 8 cm. The Tercio base should be a 12cm square but the shape of Tercio could also be the prolongado.

The pike squadron has on both sides the arquebusiers with a total of 6 pikes, 3 command figures and 12 arquebusiers. 

 

This white flag was used in each squadron by the time of Montes Claros as was the green flag in the beginning of the conflict (so called "Restoration flag").

 

 

Some figures had a lot of X-Acto cuts and lighter flame on them. Of course some lost there beautiful design but in the middle of three ranks the damage can hardly be seen.

 

Two squadrons up to now.  I intend to make all units, both Portuguese and Spanish, present at the battle of  Montes Claros (1665) one of the last of the war and the biggest.

 

Next: Spanish and Landsknecht serving Spain. Latter on, English and French serving (and being served of) Portugal.

Impetus, 20mm - Portuguese War of Restoration, 1640-1668. Part 1 -Revell 30 YW figures in use.

Sooner or later I was told this thing would happen. After many years of Wargaming... better, making Wargames armies, from distant countries and wars one gets to the point of using most of the figures you have for your own history and wargaming armies.

Excluding WWII, whenever a period of history pops out in our head there would be the portuguese army ...

 

Once again my stock gives me most of what I want as I stored over the years some dozen of these boxes of Revell 30 YW infantry, cavalry and artillery.

In fact I was collecting them whenever I could with that funny feeling that one day it will be the day.

Well the day came when I saw a great diorama (this one)⬇️

by the modeller Francisco Furtado in a modelling exposition in the city of Maia, close to Porto. Impetus big bases and the possibility of placing a full squadron of 24 pikemen and arquebusiers in a sole base made the rest. 

All figures were from the Revell sets and they represent a terço of the portuguese restoration army. 

Hooked...Once again...

 

The Revell sets are just superb. For me the only problem is a small ratio of pike in relation to arquebus. The solution was the conversion of arquebusiers to pikemen (3rd and 5th figure above and last three below).

The pikes are the trusty broom threads heated and cut to spear point.

 Same happened to this flag bearer ( 2nd figure). The 4th figure had its original flag cut and replaced by a printed one. 

This is the figure from were the flagbearer of the previous picture is coming. 

 

More arquebusiers turned into pikemen with the help of Mrs broom and Mr GreenStuff.

All for now. Stay tuned and a happy new year for all of you. 

AOE 28mm French Waterloo army in video

I'm getting lazy with pictures... 

This Napoleonic French Waterloo army is almost complete but became too big to present pictures. So I present you a short video you can see by clicking the link below:

http://youtu.be/nbopWZfS9Vk