Spanish Peninsula War Project Update - Fall In

 

Hopefully everyone will concur that this table looks like Spain.

I wanted to post an update on my 40mm Spanish Peninsula War project that I am building for this year's Fall In Convention on November 7-9, 2025.

British and Allies

South Essex Regiment (20 figures)             - Colonel Henry Simmerson

South Essex Light Company (20 figures)    - Captain Leroy

Sharpe & His Chosen Men (7 figures)        - Captain Richard Sharpe

95th Rifles (13)                                           - Richard Sharpe

La Aguja Spanish Guerillas (21 figures)    - Theresa ("The Needle")

23rd Light Dragoons (3)                            - Major Hogan

French and Allies

French 8eme de Ligne  (20)                              - Major Dubreton

1st Chasseurs a Cheval   (10)                            - Major Pierre Ducos

Evil Spanish Guerillas (20)                               - El Metarife and Father Hacha

French Voltigeurs (15)                                       - TBD

Other Evil Bastards

The Army of Deserters (1)                                - Obadiah Hakeswell

Captain Richard Sharpe and his Chosen Men (95th Rifles)
Sash and Saber 40mm figures.

The center companies of the South Essex Regiment are on the march.
Sash and Saber 40mm figures

French 1er Chasseurs a Cheval
Sash and Saber figures

Spanish guerrilla leader and Sharpe's wife, Theresa.
Theresa is a Steve Barber model and the Guerillas are Sash and Saber figures.

The Bad Guys: Pierre Ducos and Father Hacha
Steve Barber Models 40mm figures.

Summary

The above table indicates that the British and Allies forces are largely painted and completed. I plan on increasing the cavalry contingent of 23rd Light Dragoon up to a total of 10 figures.

The French will get another 5 Voltigeurs. I might combine these into Ducos' command of cavalry as one command in the game. I have the figures for another 20 French line infantry, but they are not really needed for this particular game. Other than the Voltigeurs, the French forces are close to completion.

The Army of Deserters has no figures, other than Hakeswll and these will be a mix of British and French soldier figures, totaling 20.

So the total number of figures left to paint stands at 32 figures as of today.

Terrain Construction

I could go to war with the terrain that I already have on hand: see pictures in this posting. I can use Cigar Box Battle Mats and put some styrofoam boards underneath the mats to create some land elevation. I am using my existing 28mm Herb Gundt buildings for the town of Mondego, two other small villages and one small farm house. The central terrain piece, the Monastery of Santiago (Battle Honours) of 40mm buildings, is painted.

The Monastery of Santiago
Battle Honors 40mm 3D printed buildings

The approach to the monastery, crossing the Coa River

A close up view of the bridge that spans the Coa River
Hovels bridge

This is a mock up of how one of the olive groves might look. This is not what
the finished product will look like.

This is the second game table that runs parallel to the main table.
Windmill made by Herb Gundt

The Coa River, downstream from the main gorge.
Novus Designs river sections. Rocks made by Mother Nature.

Other nice-nacs to make are some vineyards and several olive groves and some stone walls.

However, that would be too easy, so I plan on making some terrain boards measuring 4ft by 30-inches that will serve as the higher elevation where the Monastery will be. I have the pink insulation foam already on hand and I've starting gluing the 2-inch thick pieces together to create some 4-inch high and 6-inch high areas on the table. I want to create a river gorge with a couple of stone bridges and that is why I am considering some 6-inch deep boards.

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I've Entered My Fall In Games

 

This evening I submitted two events for the HMGS East Fall In convention, November 7-9, 2025. Both games will feature Richard Sharpe scenarios played with 40mm miniature figures. There will be 8 players in both games. If for some reason my games get sold out (doesn't seem to happen for me very often) I can probably add one or two commands to the game.

The first game will be on Friday November 7th at 10:00 AM. The game is called "Sharpe's Treasure"

The second game will be on Saturday November 8th, also at 10:00 AM. This game is called "Sharpe's Rescue".

Sharpe's Treasure

Legend has it that the Sword of St. James (or Santiago in Spanish) will be wielded by a person who will unite the Spanish people and expel the foreign invaders. Napoleon's master spy, Pierre Ducos, has conveyed the story of the legend to Napoleon and the Emperor has ordered Ducos to find the Sword of Santiago before the British do.

On the British side, Lord Wellington has assigned the task of securing the relic, before the French can steal it, to Richard Sharpe and his band of Chosen Men. It is inevitable that Sharpe and Ducos will cross paths at the Monastery of Santiago. 

Sharpe's Rescue

Lady Farthingale was kidnapped by a ruthless gang of deserters from all of the countries fighting in the Peninsula War. British, French, Spanish and Portuguese soldiers, among others, for the army of deserters. They are commanded by Sharpe's mortal enemy, Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswell. Lord Farthingale is a VIP in British political circles and so Horse Guards has turned up the heat on Wellington to find and rescue Lady Farthingale. Wellington knows that there is only one person who can do this task, and that person is Captain Richard Sharpe.

The Cast

All of the usual characters in the Sharpe novels will be present in both games. On the British side:

(1) Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, Hagman, Harris, Perkins, Tongue and Cooper

(2) Sir Henry Simmerson and the South Essex regiment of foot

(3) Commandante Theresa and her Spanish Guerillas 

(4) Major Hogan and the Light Company of the South Essex regiment.

On the French side we have the following:

(1) The French (infantry of course)

(2) French voltigeurs and light cavalry commanded by the evil Pierre Ducos

(3) The Bad Spanish Guerillas fighting with the French

(4) Father Hacha and El Metarife

Figures and Terrain

Most of the figures will be the 40mm Sash and Saber figures, although I have a small order of Perry 40mm figures that are in transit from the UK to the USA.

It looks like I can use my 28mm buildings made by Herb Gundt for this project. I also bought some 40mm 3D printed Spanish buildings from Battle Honours in the UK and these look very nice.

I am working on several purpose-made terrain pieces made from pink insulation foam board. I will be showing work in progress pictures over the next several weeks.

The Bots

I guess that I will keep on blogging on the Blogger app rather than suspending operations or moving the blog to another social media platform. What with the Bots descending in the thousands on my site, I no longer have the ability to tell how many real people are viewing my blog content. Thus I have no way of knowing whether or not anyone is reading my content because the view count of visitors is meaningless now that thousands of visits are being made by the evil bots.

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Blog Attacked - I'm Not Happy

 

My blog is getting overwhelmed by bots since mid-August 2025. My posts generally get around 200 views each depending on the topic. Sometimes as high as 500. However, my posts have been getting 5,000 or more views with the most recent post getting 10,500 views.

Now I'd like to think that my blog is very popular, but I know that this is garbage traffic and it has made the view counter useless. I am really surprised that Google, the owner of the Blogger app, doesn't have a fix for this. There should be one of those "I am not a robot" boxes that need to be checked before entry into my blog.

I have tried to hook up with Cloudflare, but I get nothing but "page will not load, try again" responses when I tried to sign up for this service.

Needless to say, this is all very discouraging and I don't really know what to do about it. I don't know if I should keep on posting new content or just give up and post nothing at all. Or maybe I set up a Facebook Group to serve as my blog. 

I don't know, any suggestions?

Another problem: now blogger won't allow me to upload pictures onto my blog. I have to click and drag from my iPhotos app and drop the picture into my blog. This works ok, but it is a bit clunky to do.

New Game Room Expansion

The new two table set up.

In the picture above, the far back table has two new LED light banks installed to improve the lighting over the table. It is hard to tell from this picture, but the back table adds more light and I am pleased with the results.

I had taken down the back table and stored it away to create space for the electrician while he was installing the new lights. See below. So to the left of the center table you can see that there is no table. Compare to the picture at the top of this page to see the difference.

The one table set up.

The tables are currently set up for my 40mm Sharpe in Spain game that I am contemplating running at this year's Fall In convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The original plan was to stage the game on one 15ft by 6ft table. I wanted to get an idea of what the terrain would look like if I used two 15x6 tables. See below:

Here is a view of the second table and looking towards the main table in the back of the photo.

Here are some closeup pictures of some of my Sharpe in Spain terrain.

Sir Henry Simmerson leads his South Essex regiment on a mission.
Does Simmerson actually do any leading?

A river runs through it. The river runs across the width of two tables.

Commandante Theresa leads her Spanish guerrillas across the open terrain.

Sharpe and Harper cross the bridge of the Coa River. Rifleman Harris provides covering fire.

The Monastery of Santiago. All parties are headed to this location to find the treasure.

A smaller Spanish farm

The main town of Montego.

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Sash & Saber 40mm Spanish Guerillas

 

Theresa "The Needle" leads here band of guerrillas into the town of Montego.

I have been basing the 40mm figures for my Richard Sharpe skirmish game and now have the Spanish guerrillas ready for their photo shoot. Nearly all of the figures are from the Sash & Saber 40mm Napoleonic figure range. The characters representing Sharpe's wife, Theresa, and Sharpe's nemesis, Major Pierre Ducos, are from the Steve Barber range of 40mm Napoleonic figures.

Here they are, below, with the backdrop provided by the 40mm Battle Honours range of 3D printed buildings.

The Spanish figures have a lot of variety and character to them and I found them to be very much fun to paint. I wanted to have a lot of variety in the clothing colors so I sorted the figures into three batches and applied similar colors to each batch. For example, one batch of six figures might have three wearing dark green coats and three wearing dark green trousers. The next batch of six figures might have brown as the common color (three brown coats and three brown trousers). The third and final batch were predominantly grey in color. 

Then I would go back to each batch and add a second color. The green batch would see the green coats getting buff trousers or vests; the brown batch getting some blue or grey; etc. Next I would take some grey/white colors and use them in all three batches. At the end of the day you wind up with no two figures having all of the same colored clothing items.

Once the basic colors were blocked in I started adding a highlight color to each figure, although in some cases I left well enough alone and kept the shade color "as is".

When I paint figures, after applying the basic colors, I then open up the jar of black paint and paint all of the equipment bits (cartridge pouches, belts, muskets, pole arms, water bottles, etc.) black because it is a color that is a good foundation for some of the darker colors such as brown, grey, blue and green, and of course, gun metal and bayonets.

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Sash & Saber 40mm British Center Company Figures

 

A company of the South Essex Regiment on the road, preceded by several
riflemen from the 95th Regiment 

The past week or so has seen a few more additions to my 40mm Napoleonic skirmish game armies. Today I want to post several pictures of a British Center Company unit comprised of 20 rank and file and some command figures (1 captain, 1 drummer and 1 NCO). I might also add a color guard so that Sir Henry Simmerson can lose the King's Colours once again.

Remember, "a man who loses the King's Colours has no friends at court".

I am using Litko skirmish bases that hold ten 30mm round stands of individual figures. They can be removed from the movement base as needed. Shown above we see one group of ten rank and file soldiers and the captain of the company. The other stand of ten figures will be commanded by a Sergeant. These are all 40mm Sash & Saber figures.

The Characters:

Some of the characters from Sharpe: Sir Henry Simmerson, the evil colonel of the South Essex regiment that he raised from his own pocket. The figure wearing the blue coat is Major Hogan, who is one of Wellington's "exploring officers". Hogan also bails Richard Sharpe out of trouble several times during Cornwell's series of books. Both mounted figures are also Sash & Saber figures. The Hogan officer is simply a British officer that I painted in a blue coat with no facing colors on the cuffs and neck. Were I to do this again I would have cut off the shoulder epaulettes and maybe have the figure holding a spy glass or a valise holding important papers.

The church in the background is a 40mm building made by Battle Honours UK.

I also have character figures of Sharpe and Harper from Sash & Saber, and Steve Barber Models provided the Pierre Ducos and Theresa figures shown below. Steve Barber also makes character figures that look like Jane Gibbons, Lord Rosendale and a priest.

Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson (left) - Boo Hiss! and
Major Hogan (right) - Huzzah!

Sharpe (left) and Theresa (center) get the drop on Pierre Ducos (right).
Theresa and Ducos are Steve Barber figures and Sharpe is a Sash & Saber figure.

Here are some other figures that I painted, using the Battle Honours buildings as a backdrop. The cobblestones are from the Lemak collection of Christmas diorama figures.

Several of Sharpe's Chosen Men confront one of the locals with a donkey packed with contraband.

A closer view of the donkey pack train set from Sash & Saber.

I have also finished painting a company of 20 French line fusiliers and officers that I will show and tell in one of the upcoming blog posts. I also have 18 Spanish Guerrillas and three French Horse Chasseurs (which will eventually be a 16 figure cavalry unit plus on officer).

My resupply of Litko bases arrived in today's mail so I will be able to get more of my figures based over the Labor Day holiday weekend. I also have a large order with Sash & Saber that will add another British and French regular units, French horse chasseurs to top that unit up to 16 figures, more Spanish Guerrillas and several other Nicknacks for the game.

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No Tariffs For You!

 

Another Fife and Drum Miniatures order successfully sent to a customer.
(British 16th Dragoons from Fife and Drum Miniatures)

Let me get right to the point: Fife and Drum/Minden is still shipping orders to customers in North American and all over the world during the current uncertainty of new tariffs and administration of the same. We have never stopped shipping products anywhere in the world. And we are not going to be raising our prices.

My Closet O' Lead is chock full of metal inventory that is available and ready to ship immediately.  (my accountant might opine that I have too much inventory). I stocked up on castings well before the current tariff regime came into effect so I see no need to increase my prices.

The point is: Fife and Drum and Minden AWI and SYW products, respectively, are available and there will be no price increases to offset my cost of shipping castings from the UK to the USA.

The current US tariff kerfuffle ( I like this word) or turmoil is very confusing and many countries have announced that they are temporarily suspending all postal shipments to the United States. Since Great Britain is the epicenter of of war game figure manufacturing, this has put many American customers of UK-based companies on edge. When will shipments resume; or will they ever resume?

Presumably this will all shake out as companies and countries figure out how to handle the collection of tariffs that the United States is charging on all imports. Until then, always know that Fife and Drum Miniatures ability to ship orders nearly anywhere in the world is unchanged.

As always, I am grateful for your patronage and support of Fife and Drum Miniatures and Minden Miniatures.

Cheers,

Jim