Tinkering...

New accommodations for the Army of Ursaminor.

 Not a whale of a lot happening on the war games front chez moi.  One gets these blah phases, especially with the onset of winter, in which the motivation to do much of anything is lacking.  I ought to be doing a heck of a lot more with this blog spot.  It is not as if I haven't things to write or to show.  But I have been doing a bit of painting and a bit of trying to rationalise, sort out and accommodate my inventory of stuff.  One friend has been the beneficiary of a small cull of unpainted plastic Napoleonic and 7YW figures.  Seemed fair: he's sent stuff my way from time to time.

Four horsed regiments; four manufacturers: Italieri carabiniers;
Revell Dragoons, Airfix hussars, ESCI lancers.

 I also found these laminated cardboard drawer file thingies.  A good size and height for my plastic figures.  Pictured is the army I built about 20 years ago for my daughter.  Recent readers might recognise it as the Royalist/Loyalist side in my recent narratives on the Gatonegro War of Independence.

Ursaminor infantry until recently. 4 Line, 1 Grenadier, and
1 Jager battalion.  There's supposed to be an extra Grenadier
battalion HQ in there somewhere...

Several years ago I got hold of a job lot of Airfix French artillery figures, with enough of the included marching infantry to form almost two further battalions.  Then four more arrived to make up the numbers.  For some reason I'd find one lot (the 34) or the other (the 4), never quite remembering whether or not I had the other lot, never quite being able to recall what happened to them, until recently.  That's what happens when you happen to be fossicking around for something and run across what you weren't looking for.

Ursaminor artillery, a militia battalion, and two new Line
battalions plus a new Grenadier Bn HQ.

Finally and at last, I've got them together, with some Airfix AWI British Grenadier figures, to form the 5th and 6th Regiments of the Army of Ursaminor (or the Estrada and Friol Infantry of the Royalist Army in Gatonegro).  It was time to desist with the teddy bear motif (sorry - Ursus Theodorus or displayed), in favour of simpler designs - Azure with two bendlets or for the 5th, and Chequey gules and or for the 6th.  Standing in front of the brown-jacketed militia unit is the HQ for the Guadix Grenadiers (drawn from the grenadier companies of 4th - 6th Regiments).  It took me three goes to get a satisfactory lozengy vert and argent flag for that HQ.

Trying out simpler flag designs ... 

The distinctive blue coats of 5th Regiment were due to most of those figures having been semi-painted when I got them.  The crowns of the shakos having been painted red, they became all red.  And 6th Regiment got grey shakos.  Sixth Regiment also got the 2 extra figures to become a 30-figure, rather than the establishment 28-figure unit.

The whole army (excluding the militia) comprises 225 foot, 60 horse and 18 artillerymen - 303 figures, with 4 cannon.  I'll need to find some suitable Brigade or Division commanders as well.