And the new Perry Miniatures range is...

[carlos marighela]

Do you have a link for that online version? I tried Googling and there were lots of dodgy looking links.

Hmm I can’t find it either now.

Fortunately the Federal University of Santa Catarina has stepped into the breach.

https://www.literaturabrasileira.ufsc.br/documentos/?action=download&id=83415

They might be drastically underfunded but the universities are still going...just. Download it before Bolsonaro recovers his memory and cuts their funding.*

Slightly quicker loading version here:

http://objdigital.bn.br/objdigital2/acervo_digital/div_iconografia/icon53157/icon53157.pdf





*Of course given the subject matter and the fact that the original author was a fascist and notorious anti-semite Bozo might well approve and bung them some extra cash.

[Shahbahraz]

Thankyou for that!  Much appreciated.

[Atheling]

I'd wait a little before attempting to answer that question. Perry figures can vary in size and bulk even within a given range. Not long ago, I ordered a Perry Napoleonic French Old Guard Eclaireur command pack with the intention of using the officers as colonels and ADC's for both the Napoleonic wars and the 1st Carlist war. It turned out that the sculpts (Alan's) were noticeably bigger than the FCW figures (Michael's) and even some of Alan's earlier Napoleonics. 

Give Nuno a few weeks until the first batch of Perry figures is released and I am sure he'll produce some comparison pics.   

Sounds like a plan

[Cyrus the Great]

I'm hoping the Perrys will provide a more comprehensive range; one not dependent on previous sales to provide the next release. I have to confess that marching poses really don't do anything for me regardless of who is producing them.

[Codsticker]

I wonder who had heard of it before this?

I can say I had heard of it but only due to Anthony Bourdain's Paraguay episode which sent me off to Wikipedia.

[Von Stroheim]

 Must have been a while in the planning -this month's Wargame Illustrated has a large spread on the range including more painted examples.

[Macunaima]

Y’know, until about a decade or so ago, you could still see the Rio de Janeiro’s smokestack in a tiny little pond near the Curupaiti battlefield. A Brazilian documentarist shot some footage of it in the 90s, IIRC. Most of the ironclad is probably still down there, more or less intact.

[Macunaima]

The film is “ Guerra do Brasil - Toda a Verdade sobre a Guerra do Paraguai” by Sylvio Back, released in 1987. Here it is:



Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, thirty two years later, there’s a shot of what’s left of the Rio de Janeiro in there somewhere.

[Shahbahraz]

Thanks Mac.

[Macunaima]

Here’s a more recent documentary. Both give you a nice overview of the terrain, particularly the “hill” at Tuiuti, which like many similar elevations in the American Civil War, was very, very low, but absolutely dominated the surrounding terrain.

[Macunaima]

The best modern Portuguese history of the war is Maldita Guerra, by Doratioto. It puts to rest a lot of hoary myths: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3386435-maldita-guerra

If you can read Portuguese, the multivolume history of the war produced by the War Ministry in the 1980s will give you the history of every Brazilian unit that fought in the war. I have it, so if you want the history of a particular unit, I can ser if I can dig it up for you.

As for the Bahian Zoauves... they didn’t stay formed as a unit after Curupaty. They were disbanded — probably for political reasons. Eyewitnesses claim some of them were fighting capoeira style on the Paraguayan battlements during the failed assault, however.

One Brazilian battalion was armed with Dreyse needle guns, but they didn’t work so well, particularly in tropical climates. Eyewitnesses have Brazilian soldiers tossing them away after unsuccessfully trying to cock them by banging on the action with rocks. I thought this was a myth, but apparently the Dreyse DID have that problem when it overheated, ao that’s probably true.

For high drama, you can’t beat the failed Brazilian invasion of northern Paraguay through the Mato Grosso. Paraguayan cavalry actually broke a Brazilian square during one battle when the cattle in the middle of thr square stampeded in panic, frightened by the gunfire.

https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanha_do_Mato_Grosso

That battle was particularly interesting, because several of the Afro Brazilian prostitutes who were with the column fought the Paraguayan cavalry to pull the Brazilian wounded to safety under the wagons.

Think about the modeling possibilities...

[carlos marighela]

The best modern Portuguese history of the war is Maldita Guerra, by Doratioto. It puts to rest a lot of hoary myths: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3386435-maldita-guerra

That battle was particularly interesting, because several of the Afro Brazilian prostitutes who were with the column fought the Paraguayan cavalry to pull the Brazilian wounded to safety under the wagons.

Think about the modeling possibilities...

Well, I suppose the two options that spring to mind would be either a collection of wooden shacks perched on the edge of a steep incline, as a tribute to Mãe Preta‘s establishment on the Ladeira da Montanha or a selection of ladies perched on park benches between two statues, one depicting a bishop, the other Zumbi dos Palamares. 

Up there with the idea of using samba school bandeiras as military standards for the 1711 invasion of Rio. I could never work out which unit to give Mangueira’s colours.
 
I second Maldita Guerra as a decent read. I’d also recommend Paulo de Queiroz’s multi-volume Os Voluntários da Pátria na guerra do Paraguai.

For English language intros and primers, the Foundry book by Terry Hooker is the stand out work. If nothing else it has an extensive and useful bibliography. I haven’t seen the Ospreys but I doubt they are worthwhile judging by recent Ospreys.

[Macunaima]

Queiroz’s volumes are the ones I mention above. I just got one of the Osprey books. It seems to be written with a heavy Spanish-speaking bias, particularly with regards to Argentina. There are several factual errors I spotted out. Frex, a photo of a Brazilian company skirmishing which is labeled as occurring in Paraguay. My colleague’s photo volume on the war has it as occurring during training in Ouro Preto.

Not to be a Brazilian chauvinist, but the Argentineans basically took a powder during the second half of the war, so the Osprey books are missing a lot of useful stuff that is published in Portuguese.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

In English, you have a comprehensive history of the war in Thomas L. Whigham's two volume narrative. First volume, The Paraguayan War covers the precedents that lead to the war and the early operations. Second volume, The Road to Armaggedon, deals with the later part of the war, 1866-1870. Have been published by University of Calgary Press, in its 2nd edition. I bought them from Amazon -actually, were my 2018 Christmas presents!-.

One thing that I like of Whigham's books is that he explains the Paraguayan side of the story. Many other books, both in Spanish and in Portuguese, focus in Brazilian and Argentine experience and operations, while Paraguayans are secondary. Not in Whigham's. I haven't read Doratioto's yet, though, so maybe he has a wider approach to the topic too.

[Spooner6wa]

Thanks all for the research material.  I would love to get into this genre, but I have to echo previous sentiment.  I fear Perry’s will not make a reasonable comprehensive range.  I hold out hope they will, in which case you will see big Battalion games from me on this subject in 2020.

Chris