Sharpe’s Rifles

Starting this project gives me an excuse to delve back into a few different books for reference and inspiration. Obviously there are the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell, and the TV series, which I have in a lovely big DVD box set.

I’m also going to re-read Rifles by Mark Urban. I think this book is sadly out of press, but it is a very readable narrative history of the 95th Rifles during the Peninsula Campaign from 1809, and following them through to 1815 and Waterloo.

For reference images and visual inspiration, I will be looking at Far in Advance. This collects Peninsula War paintings by the artist Christa Hook, accompanied by a narrative of the campaign by Nick Haynes. There’s a lean towards the actions of the Light Brigade, and hence the 95th Rifles, as sales of the book help support the Rifles Charities Care for Causalties. The book is a superb collection of art, and I don’t really need a reason to pick it up again.

This was an inevitable project. Sean Bean’s adventures as Richard Sharpe were thoroughly enjoyed in my younger years, alongside Bernard Cornwell’s books. Whilst there’s a few Sharpe figure ranges available (Brigade Games has a particularly nice one), I have resisted buying any, mainly from a reluctance to double up a collection from one historical period as I already have a Peninsula War Napoleonic collection in 15mm.

My resolve broke with Wargames Atlantic announcing a new licensed Sharpe range. This range starts with some character models in both 54mm and 28mm, with the larger sized models an additional attraction, as it would be nice to challenge myself with painting something a lot larger than normal.

Wargames Atlantic will be releasing a game in due course, but this project starts with a bit of a slow burn, with the first released model, which is of course Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe.