More 28mm Napoleonics for Sharp Practice

I've finished the next batch of troops for my Peninsular War project, and they are going to be part of a small but pretty elite skirmishing force. Like the 95th Rifles, these are all from Front Rank and they represent three groups of Atiradores (sharpshooters) from the 3rd Battalion of Caçadores, with three leaders. One leader is not a Caçadore, he will represent a Portuguese officer from the Light Division staff who has been seconded to lead the force for special missions, rather like what happens in some of the plots of the well-known Sharpe novels. Of course, my 95th officer isn't Richard Sharpe, I've already decided that his name is Lt. Barnaby Thorne, a former volunteer Gentleman Ranker who gained his commission because of battlefield losses.

I've chosen to use figures with the British-style stovepipe shako rather than the earlier Barretina model, but I've also represented the 3rd battalion with their older colours of yellow cuffs and brown collars rather than the black collars and cuffs that were adopted after 1811. I'm justifying this on the basis that troops might have continued wearing older uniforms while they were in the field, not being issued new ones until they were back at their depots. Also, the yellow cuffs look nicer, to my eyes. As these figures are from the sharpshooter company they have black plumes on their shakoes and green wings on the shoulders of their tunics. I've also given them a mixture of different coloured trousers, on the basis that uniforms wear out and soldiers on campaign had to improvise.

First, here are the leaders;

Because of the shortage of NCO figures in the Front Rank range, I've decided that the Status I leader is the bugler. The officer in blue is Status III and the Caçadore officer Status II.

Here are the three groups of Atiradores;

And finally, here they all are together;

So, these troops have finished off my initial force for 28mm Peninsular Sharp Practice, with a total value of 81pts, but I do have some further figures to paint up once I am back home after after my summer holiday.