The French Armée de Portugal at the battle of Buçaco 1810, AOE rules and 20mm size

Another big plastic army made along many years. The good thing is that you can see Sula right on this video.

And a better YouTube version;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OzvWZrBDHQ&t=540s

Age of Eagles (AoE) - 1810 Battle of Bussaco in 20mm (part 11) - Armée du Portugal artillery and 8th Corps Cavalry

This post ends the French army for Bussaco 1810 and concerns the full French artillery and Saint-Croix cavalry division. 

The artillery is mostly Esci with conversions and Hat limbers. The cavalry is Italeri. The are also some very old Airfix guns and crews, some converted to horse artillery. 

The artillery gun of this foot artillery battery is Esci Guard artillery with shakoes from the line infantry. The officer is Ykreol. The limber is the very useful Hat model. 

The horse artillery crew is Esci from the British Horse artillery set, again with French shakoes. The limber and d rivers are Italeri. 

Saint-Croix cavalrymen represent the 4e, 9e, 14e and 26e Regiments de Dragons. All figures are Italeri with a trumpet from StreletsR (26e Dragons, top right). 

Next: The British- Portuguese army for Bussaco 1810. 

Age of Eagles (AoE) - 1810 Battle of Bussaco in 20mm (part 9) - Clausel's Division

The 8th Corps of General Junot was kept in reserve for the length of the battle. To the front you can see Taupin's and Godart's Brigades and to the back, Ménard's. I opted here to represent only two regiments per brigade and expanding them to the size of the full brigades, otherwise each regiment would be represented by an average of three stands as this Division had mostly the 4th battalion of each regiment. 

The veteran leader of the 1st Invasion of Portugal, Jean-Andoche Junot, the Corps commander can be seen here to the left. The basis of its model is an Italeri General from the Austrian and Russian command set. A few additions were made in GreenStuff and here is Junot probably cursing Massena for leaving him out of the battle. The ADC is Italeri. 

General Clausel is again Italeri with a StreletsR ADC.

Led by the 15e Legére here comes Taupin's Brigade. The General itself is the mounted Airfix French officer. With a sash and new head it was easily promoted to General!

The 15e Legére is a full Zvezda unit. Not the same for the rear ranks, the 46th de Ligne, with figures from Hat and Zvezda (elite companies), Italeri 1st and 2nd box, some Italeri veterans with bicorne from the 1805 set, and a mounted officer from Waterloo1815. 

One of the largest regiment of the Armée du Portugal was the 22e de Ligne with four battalons that on its own constituted the full Godart Brigade. 

The regiment is made of Italeri, converted Esci and a few Hat and Ykreol as Voltigeurs. 

                           

Ménard's Brigade has, to the front, the 19e de Ligne, with plenty of Esci and Italeri figures and a few Hat. To the back stands the 28e de Ligne with mostly Hat and a few Italeri. In this brigade I also included some sappers from Esci in the regimental command stands. 

The converted Esci figures I was talking about are the kind you can see in the first row of this stand. I took out the tail of the short coat (yes, those famous ones that left many people sad when opening the boxes in the 80s - Damn, these guys are not Line!!) with an X-acto and glued the longer tails of the Esci and Airfix Grenadiers. Like this I managed to use a few dozens of the Esci 'Line' infantry, otherwise only useful for a very few number of Guard units. 

Next: wrther Solignac's Division for Bussaco or more 1940 Dragons Portés.

Age of Eagles (AoE) - 1810 Battle of Bussaco in 20mm (part 7) - Loison's (AKA 'O Maneta') Division

Loison's Division after beating the Caçadores and British lights out of Sula Village turns left to face the British and Portuguese line infantry and artillery posted below the Bussaco convent walls...

Loison was one of those characters of the Napoleonic days. In Portugal he got a very bad name for a number of mass killings in places like Évora and Coimbra and plundering everywhere he went. As he lost one hand in an accident he was known here as the Maneta (one-hand person). Even today when  someone dies we say 'Foi para o Maneta' (he went to the one-hand).

I scratch built the ruined arm of Loison by cutting the right  arm of this Italeri figure and replacing it with a piece of GreenStuff.

The 66e de Ligne of Ferrey's Brigade has Grenadiers from Hat, Fusiliers from Hat and Italeri and Voltigeurs from Esci with Airfix Hussar heads. The mounted officer comes from the nice but stupidly expensive Waterloo1815 Napoleonic Line Mounted Officers.

The 82e de Ligne (also Ferrey's) is Hat and Ykreol. This unit should only be 6 stands as this regiment had 1236 men but I added two more instead of building the small 2 stand of the 2nd battalion of the 32e Legére (413 men) of this Brigade.

My favourite unit in Loison's Division is the Légion Hanovrienne from Simon's Brigade. The figures are mostly conversions using Esci and Airfix Grenadier bodies with Esci shakos. The Voltigeurs are Zvezda.

Small but with a nice brown habit comes the Légion du Midi.

All figures are Hat from three different boxes.

Last from Simon's Brigade is the 26e de ligne from the Hat coated French infantry box. I couldn't find any proof of the French still using in 1810 the white linen overcoat they used in the 1808 invasion of Portugal (Roliça and Vimeiro) so I painted the overcoats grey-blue and dark yellow as usual in the French Infantry. 

The Voltigeurs forming in front of the Division are a mixture of Hat and Ykreol. I use for their basing 1 euro coins... made of plastic and from superstores.

Next: Lamotte's cavalry Brigade to finish Ney's 6th Corps.

Age of Eagles (AoE) - 1810 Battle of Bussaco in 20mm (part 6) - Mermet's Division

Standing in reserve in the outskirts of Sula Village stands Mermet's Division, part of Ney's 6th Corps. Due to its reserve status in this battle I used all standing positions I could from Ykreol and Hat miniatures.

Ykreol figures capture very well the campaign look of these veteran units that participated in the 3rd invasion of Portugal. They also go very well with the Hat figures with the 1806-12 uniform.

The divisional stand (L) has a Mermet from Revell with added EverGreen plume in the bicorne; the ADC is Italeri. The Corps stand has an Italeri Ney (figure in the extreme right) with StreletsR head and another general from Italeri.

Labasseé's Brigade has in front the larger 50e de Ligne, mostly Ykreol with some Hat, and to the rear the 59e de Ligne , mostly Hat with some Ykreol miniatures.

Bardet's Brigade includes the 25e Legére (in front, Zvezda figures) and the 27e de Ligne (Hat and Ykreol figures. Both Brigade commanders are my usual conversions.

Next: Loison's Division, that great SOB.