Connaught Rangers Diorama. Battle of Fuentes de Onoro 1811

[longlance67]

Hi All

I've been sitting on this idea for some time and now I think its time I bit the bullet so they speak

The 88th Regiment of Foot The Connaught Rangers are somewhat of a household name in my house and those who like their history in Galway (Provence of Connaught) the Rangers play a big part in local history. Being one of the many Regiments raised by the British army in Ireland the 88th Regiment of foot would become of its most famous and respected.

History:

Formed in 1793 in the west of Ireland (Connaught) bearing a harp and Crown on its colours and the motto Quis Separabit - "Who shall divide us"
The Rangers first saw combat service against the French in Flanders 1794 and performed well for a fresh Regiment, they would later go on to fight in Egypt, West Indies, India and South America. However it was in the Peninsular Campaign in 1808 that the Rangers would gain notice as a fighting force. It was in this Campaign in Spain and Portugal were in great hardship due to the harsh natural conditions the Rangers would come to fore. Making part of the first Brigade of General Picton's 3rd Division it was he that gave them the their infamous nickname "The Devils Own" for their aggression in combat. However Picton had a love/hate relationship with his devils calling them at one point "The Connaught Footpads" over their love of plundering. However his misgivings over his Irish troops would be soon forgotten when battle was meet.


The battle of Fuentes de Onoro: 3rd May 1811

Having fought the french on the previous September at Bussaco (27th Sept 1810) the Rangers would play key part during the renewed French Offensive to retake Spain from the Allies. Meeting the French in a major engagement at the small village of Fuentes de Onoro the Rangers were placed in reserve with the rest of their brigade. As the French assaults began to drive the battered Highlanders out of the village. Colonel Wallace the Rangers Scottish commander sent word to Wellington that he would retake the village "I shall take it with my regiment, and keep it too." On this, the entire brigade fell in behind the advancing Rangers (45th Nottinghamshires and 74th Highlanders) as they passed the retreating scottsmen from units holding the town throw up a cheer as the Rangers advanced past, however the Rangers remained in a grim silence as they stormed into the town and pushed the French out with the rest of Brigade.

The plan:

My plan is to try depict the Rangers pushing the French out of the village and capture the "up close" nature of warfare at the time, also my aim to at the end of this project to denote the diorama to the Rangers museum in Renmore Barracks (the old home of the Rangers before being disbanded in 1922)
and were both my Father and I now serve in the Irish Defense Forces


sorry for ranting on a little but I am very excited about this project.


thanks for looking



Shane

[longlance67]

now with a brief history and background out of the way, I'll add more and more to the Rangers history as we go with the Project. But now I think its time we see some models

For the Rangers I will be using Perry Miniatures British Army box set which contains 36 line infantry and four riflemen and allows the modeller to either depict the mini's as Peninsular War or at Waterloo. I also picked up a banner set from Victrix with the Rangers colours

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I found this image online of a Ranger Sergeant from the time and got me all fired up to start there with the venerable NCO's

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the kit offerings are very sharp in detail and considering that they 1/56 they are full of character, I started on the sergeant first having been inspired by the image

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I wanted to show how rough the conditions were on this campaign, so I added patches to his uniform to show wear and tear. Bearing in mind that only one of every twenty soldiers who died on this campaign died as a direct result of the enemy, the rest were lost to sickness, sun stroke and exposure. Very rough indeed.

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A little scribing work was done to the scabbard which was molded to the leg and a little filler on his staff arm to hide the joint and his ready for priming. Just to show the size difference between 1/35 and 1/54

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now only 39 more chaps to prepare and thats just the British lol


thanks



Shane.

[spruecutter]

Sound like an interesting project. Those Perry plastics are really nice figures, will you be doing a firing line for the Rangers?

Nice tip using masking tape for the patches.

[Coen]

I hadn't realised that you were starting this right now Shane
Very cool.
I'll be watching this thread that's for sure.
Nice paint work on that 1/35 figure. That camo is really well done.
Tape patches... clever boy.!!

[longlance67]

Spurecutter - thanks mate been wanting to do this project for a long time, the plan is to have the rangers beginning to reform just on the edge of the village to pour fire on the withdrawing french, so it will be a rough firing line, its also due to the fact that no running figures come in the set too

Coen - I couldnt resist working on this project Glad to have you along on this one it should be alot of fun



thanks for the support my friends



Shane.

[longlance67]

Hiya All

day two of the Rangers build and the scene begins to take shape, I got the figures I intend to use all cut out and ready so the count for the Rangers is 17 figures which may changed as tweak the scene as I go.
The plan is to paint the rangers in batches of five to keep my sanity intact

So here's the first batch all ready for painting

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The Officer got a new head from a French set as the head dress is similar and his expression is more dramatic so a little filling work will be needed once I glue the head in place

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The Standard Bearers
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Drummer
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I've be doing some mock up positions trying to get a sense of posing and seeing how I well the scene will look, so here is the basic setup, terrain is absent but I'll be adding those elements shortly

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once I get some French Infantry I will do another mock up to get it right. But I am very happy with these two chaps, I wanted to get a pose that had a feel of "we survived another charge my friend" they are still WIP but this is what I got

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I'll be do some sketch ups of the Dio layout tonight so we can see what I am going for


thanks for looking



Shane.

[Radzy]

Nice subject Longlance!
I can't wait to see them complete (already ate all popcorn ).

This commander looks like T-1000 with this metal head

[Coen]

Whoa... this is really going to be an epic build.
Holy S&%#. Shane... this is going to be extremely cool buddy.

[longlance67]

Radzy, thanks mate, the officer was sent back in time to kill John Conner...Que the terminator theme song

Coen, thanks Micheal for the support my friend


Today I spent some at the the bench today to start some paint work on the sergeant
I base coated the model in flat black and stared work on the flesh areas before I started blocking in the main colours: The skin was based in Vallejo's Dark Fleshtone, then a wash of brunt sienna, followed by highlights of Sunny Fleshtone. I added stubble by adding a thin layer of Neutral Grey then a light stipple of dark flesh was added to the grey. Finally to add some grime a very light wash of GW earthshade

The Uniform was based with Citadel Mephiston Red, the trousers were based in Vallejo Neutral Grey, the Shacko, shoes and scabbard were based in flat black and the collar and cuffs in Citadel Averland Sunset. The webbing was a mix of Vallejo Buff and Sky Grey to get the canvas look right. The gold was Citadel Gehenna's Gold.

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Once the blocking was set, I gave the uniform a thin wash of Earthshade to add shadows in preparation for highlights

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Then it was onto the make or break stage of the painting process
The reds were highlighted with Citadel blood red. The trousers in Vallejo sky grey, the sash was highlighted too blood red and edge highlighted with Citadel blazing orange to set it apart from the tunic. the shacko badge was picked out with Gehenna's gold. The half pike was washed in various brown and buff shades to get a wooden grain effect. The spearhead was picked out with Vallejo oily steel

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so about five hours of painting I was left this, now just have to seal it with varnish and begin weathering process


thanks for looking



Shane

[Coen]

Whoa! and how many are there... this is a hobby all in itself Shane.
He looks great dude. I'll look forward to seeing him all weathered.
Very cool!

[longlance67]

Whoa! and how many are there... this is a hobby all in itself Shane.
He looks great dude. I'll look forward to seeing him all weathered.
Very cool!

He is one of 17

[Coen]

AHHHH!!!
Yer a Looney!

[longlance67]

AHHHH!!!
Yer a Looney!

Im not Looney...I'm Irish hahahaha


I sketched up some basic layouts for the diorama, I find it very useful to always draw or mock up your dio layouts to help visualize how the dio will look and how the various elements will interact, I'm no Picasso so please forgive the crudeness of this sketch

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the terrain will focus on a ruined farm building depicting one of the buildings of the Village. My research shows that General Masséna commander of the French forces used his 38 cannon to bombard the village so the the buildings would have been heavily damaged by round shot. I was gonna scratch build the dwelling until I found this from warlord games

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the plan is to use this and add some scratched details to bring it to life. To add some visual interest to the diorama a stepped element to the terrain by adding a ditch and maybe a small stream or water feature (which i also make a balls of )

Also I found a nice feature to help fill the empty space on the side of the base, a lovely laser cut wagon from 4ground

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so these will make up the elements of dio


would like to hear your thoughts on this any advice or ideas ?



thanks for looking



Shane

[Rob]

Great stuff Shane
Just love the ambition of this project. Judging by the top modelling so far, It is going to look fantastic when done. I bought myself a box of these figures when I returned to the hobby and was mightily impressed with their quality, the variety of poses available and the overall value for money. I built and painted 16 of the figures, enjoyed it hugely.
Looking forward to seeing more
Cheers

[longlance67]

Hi Rod, thanks for stopping by mate,

Perry minis are lovely models great detail and character, I've have another box of theirs too, French heavy cav which are jammed packed with details and you cant beat their value either

the build goes well, I'm still working on my first batch of figures, Its slow going but very enjoyable I just have to be careful not to rush which is always a temptation when your trying to show your progress :p

I think red will become the source of my nightmare hahaha



thanks for looking



Shane

[EpoxySniffer]

Really like the paint job on the figures so far mate. They are really great.

[CrackedCubes]

Nicely done! Always amazed at what you'all can do with paint at these scales! Great stuff!

[DC87]

Great project and undertaking Shane. Figures are looking great so far. I love Napoleonic /18th c uniforms and tactics so I will be glued to this.

Best of luck

[Lee]

Those figures look ace Shane - Really nice dude

[longlance67]

Epoxy and Cracked thanks for the comments mates, they are a fun scale to work with, with the right ratio of scale and size for some very large diorama opportunities......could be a thought for something bigger to come


DC and Lee, glad to have you along and hope you enjoy it


thanks lads



Shane

[longlance67]

Howdy All,


a quick update for you, been painting away over the last few days and I got another little chap done, I really want to take my time with this build and make sure I do it right so its slow going but its worth it in the end

The Standard Bearer:

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also have this chap under WIP at the moment, he proved to be a tricky little bugger to paint, which all the fine detail the drummers uniform but he just waiting for his highlights and thats anther chap in the bag

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the pile of figures is going slowly working it way down


thanks for looking




Shane

[Coen]

Holy crap Shane! I love that red buddy. It's freaking awesome.
The detail on that drum and the shading is amazing.
Wow!!

[longlance67]

thanks mate,

its one of the nice things about modelling this era is the chance to work with bright, rich colours that you come times just dont get the chance to work with in WW2 projects


thanks buddy


Shane

[modeller]

Any more updates on this fasinating build...

[UKscalemodeller]

ohhh, starting to feel all historical watching this.

Great work so far and loving the idea, almost makes me want to start up my 1:1 (by unit at least) Salamanca!

[longlance67]

Any more updates on this fasinating build...

not at the moment have another chap based and am beginning to block him in, the thing with Napoliancs is to take lots of breaks as they are well for me at least very demanding subjects to paint up. So I take my time to avoid any burn outs

ohhh, starting to feel all historical watching this.

Great work so far and loving the idea, almost makes me want to start up my 1:1 (by unit at least) Salamanca!

a 1:1 project ? you mean reenacting your unit or some amazing model project ?


will have updates on this project again very soon lads



Shane.