'Miquelets' painted sample - and short guide!

[Lluís of Minairons]

I've taken advantage of these relatively calm days, at the end of year, for painting a sample of the Minairons recently released Austo-catalan Mountain fusiliers or 'Miquelets', whose pictures might be of interest of some among you. They've been painted accordingly to Archduke Charles' regulations, as described by F. Castellví, who was a contemporary Catalan military chronicler exiled to Vienna after the War of Spanish Succession.

Following Castellví's descriptions, the standard uniform for Mountain fusiliers was a brown or musk coat with regimental facings, a red waistcoat, blue wide-legged trousers and a particular kind of gaiters called calcilles, made of leather or some tough fabric. It was usual for them to wear a strong, light-weight footwear made with braided esparto fibers, known as espardenyes (sp. abarcas).



Figures from this set have been painted following such pattern, as if belonging to Ebro Riverside Regiment, whose facings were red. However, it wasn't that unusual for some regiments to use blue instead of brown coats, and other variations are known too. As for 'miquelets' in French service, the uniform pattern I've most often seen includes blue coats with red facings, red waistcoats and blue trousers; hat laces would be white rather than yellow, if worn. Spain only created regular 'miquelet' regiments later in 18th century - and these used that very same colour schema, albeit with red hat laces.



Horn blowers (or should I better say "sea shell blowers"...?) are known to wear a blue feather on their hat. Officers were expected to dress right as their men, and possibly most did so; although it is known for at least one to have dressed a red coat - a colour that regulations reserved in theory to generals only.



Following Vallejo's catalogue, base colours used in this particular job are: 70.985 Hull Red + a drop of 70.951 White for coats, 70.908 Carmine Red for waistcoats, 70.903 Intermediate Blue for trousers, 70.819 Iraqui Sand for gaiters, 70.950 Black for hats, 70.953 Flat Yellow for hat laces and 70.818 Red Leather for beltings. Otherwise, the officer wears red coat, royal blue trousers and white stockings.



As for what is known to-day, variations on the above described pattern were as follows: Guardian Angel, or Manuel Moliner's, Regiment: yellow facings, red trousers; St. Raymond of Penyafort, or Ermengol Amill's, Regiment: blue coat, yellow facings, red trousers; St. Vincent Ferrer, or Joan Vila's, Regiment: blue coat, red facings; Jaume Molins' Regiment: blue coat, red facings, off-white waistcoat and trousers, white gaiters; Segimon Torres' Regiment: unknown; Antoni Muñoz's Regiment: facings possibly yellow, rest undetermined; Joseph Marco's Companies, red facings perhaps red, rest undetermined.



Less can be asserted about irregular units; the so-called Aragon Volunteers Regiment was seemingly dressed in blue, with also blue or white waistcoats and trousers (no facings known); General Moragues' and Colonel Llirós' guerrilla troopers didn't seemingly wear any uniform at all, although some iconic votive offerings preserved at the Seu d'Urgell town's Diocese Museum do show some dressed in musk or red coats, red or light brown waistcoats, and brown or musk trousers.

Lluís Vilalta
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[jambo1]

Lovely looking miniatures, and a very interesting bit of background information.