Russian Guard Cossacks

                    

              

Have also finished the Boki Guard Cossacks. These were bought a few years ago. I think I was worried that mine were going to look pants compared to the Polk painted by Paul Alba. In the end I just went for it and am pretty pleased with the outcome (if I don't look at the Napoleonics in Miniature website). They are mounted on AB horses and include the Black Sea Sotnya. I really like painting the Boki figures. They are really characterful and clear sculpts and Sho even dug out some additional BSS figures when I found that I hadn't bought them originally (shouldn't purchase before researching). This also meant the unit has gone to whopping 30 figures creating 5 Sotnyas of 6 figures. The flag is from Maverick Models. 

French Corps Command Stand - Murat

 I have had the excellent Boki Sho Murats kicking their heels for a while on the pile. But as I have been focusing on increasing my French command stands, for one lucky figure their time finally came. It was the Borodino Murat because I just wanted a really over the top version. I had seen a few other versions online and the figure painted up really well. The problem was then what to pair him with. Luckily I had two Boki timpinast (or kettle drummers) waiting for such an opportunity. These figures are also very nice. They are very large figures and to keep them in proportion I placed them on the largest AB heavy horse I could find. Then as a final flourish I added a Lithuanian tartar trumpeter. He was proportionally dwarfed by the timpinasts, but with a little bit of card his height and self esteem were lifted. 

Lithuanian Tartars

 Have just finished on my Boki Lithuanian Tartars. I really like the figures from Sho. They have great character and details. These figures need a little pinching in to get them on some Wargames bases comfortably (ankles and lance hand need squeezing in a bit depending on your base size). Their numbers mean that for most Wargames you probably don’t need that many figures, but I’m building for 1818 and anything is possible!! The lance Pennents are from Essex miniatures, they will sell on request the lances so you can drill and stick them on the end of cut down paperclip or brass rod, I use a 0.8mm drill bit and brass rod.

Here are the first batch of lancers. Difficult to determine the uniforms as they seemed to have a lot of variants.

Have now finished the second lot. I did these in a different colour scheme to give some variety.

Russian Infantry Corps Command Stand

Maybe this is a little over crowded! I wanted to represent Raievski in the midst of battle with the Grenadiers. Raievski is a really nice figure from Boki Miniatures. He is giving some orders to a dismounted AB general (okay his plume is too tall, probably because he is an officer from the pre 1812 range from AB, but it probably got misshapen from the bullets whizzing through it). All the other figures are AB. The thing I like about this stand is that it has a real 360 feel to it. The problem with it, is that you have to handle it carefully despite the numerous raised parts I added round the side for gripping.

Russian Divisional Generals

I have also been completing some divisonal Generals. They are a mix of AB and Boki miniatures. All the horses are AB. There is also a Prussian staff officer painted as a Russian staff officer. My conversion was made by just smoothing the sheepskin/bearskin covering.

General Kutuzov Command Stand

All the figures are purchased from Boki including the horses. These are really great figures, they are in scale with AB but I did not try mixing them on this stand. The horses are also from Boki, which I was not so sure about to begin with compared to AB. But once painted I have been pretty happy.

The stand might be a little rammed full of people for some tastes but I wanted it to look really full like the paintings you see of the generals overlooking the battlefield. Plus the finished stand weighs a ton. It feels really solid and could be useful for holding down taupaulins on windy days or even gazebos.