Russian His Majesty’s and Her Majesty’s Currasiers

 Here are the Russian His and Hers currasiers. All the figures are Essex Miniatures. I painted the “His” over 20 years ago. But they were a funny mismatch paint scheme originally. Now they are both painted as His & Hers Majesty’s with the latter completed a few weeks ago. 

(His photo to come)

French Guard Artillery

French Guard Artillery

 Finished my two batteries of AB French Guard Artillery. The guns are Blue Moon French 12 pounders. I also finished some odds and ends and made an Essex Guard battery. This will do as a 6lb battery. At a distance the three units look okay together. The Essex guns are a bit chubby looking but the figures are in great coats so they look fine. 

Battery 1

Battery 2

Battery 3

Russian Cossacks 2

 

Finished the main groups of Russian Cossacks. They are from three manufacturers, Fighting 15's, Essex and Totentanz.  

The Fighting 15's cossacks are originally by Oddzial Osmy. The lances are from Ancient and Modern Army Supplies (Donnington New Era - Equipment EQ09 50mm wire with 'leaf' shaped tip). The figures are sold as 15mm and stand okay next to the AB figures (not on the same bases). They are nice figures and needed hardly any prepping which is always a bonus. The two poses come in the same pack (2 of each), but I decided to split them into two Polks of Ural Cossacks. I "Ummed" and "Arred" for ages over the basing. Ideally they should be in 5 Sotnyas which meant I was looking at 5 bases of 4. But, this doesn't look good when double rowed. But then it would annoy me if they were not in the classic 5 Sotnya group per Polk. Eventually I decided to go for 5 bases of 4. I prepped the bases (varnished them, put the magnets on them) and then totally forgot and based them on 8 sets of 3 like most of my cavalry ! 

The Essex cossacks were painted first about 30 years ago. I originally painted them as a bunch of random irregular cossacks. But the arrival of Totentanz cossacks changed that and they were repainted to look like fairly generic Don cossacks. The reason for this can be found in the next set of comments. 

A few years ago I decided to get some Totentanz 17th/18th century cossacks to supplement my little Irregular Essex group. The figures looked really great on the website. when they arrived they did not disappoint. The detail and clarity was fantastic, I was soon encasing my finger tips in superglue getting the riders onto the horses, sticking MAS lances into their delicately sculpted hands, not to disimilar to those of Michelangelo's David. I got the old paints out and started happily slapping the colours on. They are really amazing to paint, but progress started slowing by the day. I was used to lining up a load of figures and doing 32 jackets all green. I was now losing track of my triads and really having to think of new colour combinations I had not used before. I then also realised that these figures were not really quite 15mm. In fact they were not really 18mm, they are almost closer to 20mm. There was no way they were going to fit on my 3 horse stand (36mmx30mm). Some of the figure bases were longer than 30mm !! I didnt know what to do. I had a about half painted and no plan for how to base them. So I made a decision, I packed them all into a box and stuck them in a draw and let the problem fester of a few years. Then a couple of months ago I decided to finish the cossacks. The only way was to stick them onto my 40mmx40mm bases. This way they could represent pretty irregular cavalry. This meant the Essex cossacks had to be made to look more like regular cossacks. But that was not quite the end of the story. The second group who are quite Kalmyk looking were 4 figures short. No problem I thought, I will order some more. But alas the website no longer takes orders ! In the end I bought some Eureka Seven Year Wars Kalmyks. A couple of them couldnt compete against the sheer size of the Totentanz figures, but by placing some thick card under their bases I managed to boost them and create an illusion of similar height, Tom Cruise probably uses similar thick card trick in Top Gun Maverick.

Russian Opolcheniye 2

 Finished the chaps in the felt hats ! I was in a bit of a twis over the basing of this unit. It should four bases with a total of 24 figures (working at 1:20 it gives a unit at 480). But the unit would have a very small frontage. So I am basing on only 3 bases. 

French 19th Line Infantry

 I currently have a job lot of Essex figures I picked up and am working my way through. This is the 19th Line regiment. The flags are TBW. I have applied some Vallejo Mat varnish on to take a little of the satin finish off. But to be honest Vallejo still tends to make my mat finishes a little satin in any case, maybe I am not applying it correctly ? 

Bavarian 15mm Napoleonic Artillery

 I had these figures knocking around for a while (25 years). Decided to get them painted up with some guns from Warrior Miniatures. The Essex figures always paint up easily. Maybe proportionally they are quite stocky, but I do enjoy the ease. Clear details, clean casts etc.

French Old Guard Grenadiers

 I think the manufacturing composition of anyone’s French Old Guard tells a lot about when they first got into Napoleonics! For me my figures are Essex first generation. This means I think they are dating back to around 1989? I decided to tidy a little bit of the old paint job (level of repaint was entirely dependent on my enthusiasm level) and a rebase. I thought these figures were going to look odd next to the newer 15mm/18mm figures, and to be honest they do. But I like them. Even though they are really short for Old Guard Grenadiers, they look more like a bantam regiment for those undersized for the main regiment. But I’m keeping them.

French Line Regiment

 I meant to post pictures of this Regiment a while ago. It’s the sister regiment to the other Essex one I posted a few months back. This regiment has 3 battalions, the third being the Essex French line in overcoats (“mostly”, also some odd left overs were drafted in, otherwise due to pack quantity constraints there would have been even more for the spares box)!! 

I thought the photos were pretty much the same as before so I jazzed things up by putting them walking through my small town building arrangement. I also focussed on the chaps in overcoats as these have some nice variety in the poses (unlike the bread and butter line infantry marching not in an over coat). Again Essex are so straight forward to clean and paint. Their stocky frames and stubby bayonets will still outlast any AB figure on the table, but they will never look as good! 

I regret to say they found no house with the kerb appeal they were looking for.

French Line Regiment

 This is a fairly generic French line regiment I Painted about a little while ago. It has a sister regiment that consists of another three battalions that I will put in the next post. All the figures are Essex. I still find these figures a nice easy paint. Very little cleaning and clearly defined detail. The folds in the uniforms make it easy to layer colour contrasts too. I understand some people don’t like proportions, but the stocky build and solid short bayonets make them good for handling. Plus I still have a fondness for them as they were my first 15mm figures I bought and painted 33 years ago.

Russian 15mm Napoleonic Artillery -

I have been wanting to make a manufacturer comparison on Russian Napoleonic artillery for some time. When I started building my current Russian army I already had a few Essex guns laying around. But I knew I was going to need a lot more guns but found it difficult to get a feel of which to go with.

I am no expert in Russian Napoleonic Artillery. I have to admit I don’t know the actual dimensions of the different guns (height of wheels etc) so this comparison is much more based on the look on the table and mix with the figures. 

I have taken 4 manufacturers for this comparison Blue Moon, AB, Essex and Warrior. 

I first did some rough measuring of the different parts:

 

This gives a rough idea of the differences, but to really get a feel of what a difference of 3mm means in reality I took a series of photos. I have used an AB Russian Artilleryman as the guide in each photo. This keeps each photo pretty much in proportion.

(The view from above shows the gun mounted on a 40mmx40mm base.)

Blue Moon

Firstly, the Blue Moon piece is a pretty big gun barrel, it dominates all the others in terms of size. However, the carriage is not as large as the Essex one. The Blue Moon carriage seems to have captured the distinct Russian carriage look (compared to the French hockey stick look, the Russian seems to be straighter and less bent at the end). The Blue Moon gun captures this look quite well. The wheels have good sculpting to represent the metal work on the wheel rims too. Overall I like the Blue Moon guns. On the downside there is no riveting detail or sculpting to represent the elevator apparatus for the barrel. 

Essex

I notice that Essex miniatures sometimes get a hard time on line. Maybe because these were my go to figures 35 years ago I still have a soft spot for them. Their figures are always clean sculpts and the bayonets are small but are not going anywhere, even after handing. If only my AB Russian infantry were the same! Merely sneezing could see an entire battalion looking like rifleman. The Russian artillery piece I am comparing is actually their 12pdr. This is partly as I have had this model for over 30 years and it looked similar in size to the 6pdr Blue Moon one I had bought. The barrel is a little shorter and the detail is suffering as my example involves a number of layers of repainting. The carriage is more "Russian" like than the Blue Moon one, but it flares more when viewed from above, more like the French Gribeauval guns. The wheels have a some sculpting of the metal work around the wheels but not as defined as the Blue Moon gun, but it does have some simple depressions to represent the riveting.   

 

Warrior

Warrior miniatures are company from Glasgow and I think been around for 40 years, I am sure I bought some figures from them in the 1980's. Their site has some interesting models on it, unfortunately they dont have pictures of the whole range so it is hard to determine what all the figures are like. I think they are also on the real "15mm" size. However I was drawn to their artillery pieces as they looked pretty good on the website and I wanted to see how they sized up. The carriage is Russian in look, very little hockey stick curving at the end. The carriage is also a good size, smaller than the Blue Moon one, but larger than the AB one. The barrel is the only standout negative, it is the smallest one looked at. Dimensionally not far off the AB one, but as it lacks dome detailing of reinforcement rings, it seems to look more like 4pdr rather than a 6pdr. The carriage also has no flaring at the end which oddly seems to make it look a little too straight compared to the others. It does however come with a ram rod sculpted on the side that adds a nice detail and overall you could probably get away with blending this one in. Also the gun is a really nice clean sculpt, hardly any flash or misalignment on the wheels (a big relief).

 

AB

The AB gun has by far the most detailing. Rivets, sculpted elevator, accurate metal work all over it. But the carriage is the smallest of the four. The carriage also seems to lack that Russian look, from the side it really looks French (but I'm no expert). It is also probably the easiest to get the figures around if you basing on 40mmx40mm.

 

Overall you could say all four are good, depends what aspect you are keenest on. If cost is a driver then there are also some big differences. (time of writing 26/04/21)

The Blue Moon gun works out at £2.67 per gun (based on a £16 pack of 6)

The Essex gun comes in at a rather hefty £3.50

The Warrior gun is an amazing 63p (based on a £2.50 pack of 4)

The AB gun is £2.70

 

The Blue Moon guns can also be frustrating as you will need to buy the howitzers (Unicorn) guns also in a pack of 6. This is okay if you need 3 batteries, but adds to the cost if the howitzers just end up at the bottom of the lead pile.

For me, I am using mostly Blue Moon (you can get a good discount if bought at shows). I am also using the Warrior guns to represent abandoned artillery pieces (as all my guns are glued on the bases). At 63p a gun you cannot go wrong and John at Warrior is really helpful.  

French Napoleonic Hussars

 A hefty slab of a regiment this one, 32 figures in total. Now why 32? Well it’s a long story dating back over 30 years. Before the internet ordering via Mail was a real hassle. Popping to the local Wargames shop was a lost easier. Problem with the shop popping was that it was like lottery. I wanted some French light cavalry and the shop had plenty of elite company hussars and not many packs of the regular ones. Because of the imbalance they were never painted and sat packed away for 30 years. When I looked over them again I decided to order more of them to balance the elite company felllas out. I should have made two units but decided to just base them up as a mammoth 32 figure unit. The elite company is still too large but I no longer care, it’s not keeping me up at night for some reason (although the wrong shoulder strap colours on my Russians would drive me nuts still). I also replaced the swords with some flattened wire. These are not great but are nice and robust. There also a figure in there from  http://warriorminiatures.com/ . It’s from the Gallia Little Gems range and is the Chasseurs a Chevalier officer (the chap on the horse rearing up). Warrior also do some nice guns that I will try do some more detailed post about at some point (very reasonably priced and a nice fit for 6lb guns).

Russian Opolcheniye

 I bought this unit about 30 years ago. I actually mixed the guys with the caps with the guys with big felt hats. This led to a real rabble look. So I have repainted just the chaps in caps. I made the flag myself. 

Russian Guards

These figures were painted in the very early 90’s. I have a feeling they were bought when Russian 15mm Essex figures were a new range. I seem to remember that I was really reaching a point of speed painting with them. I had some technique where I would spray the figures with a Matt  car spray. I woul then paint them un mounted. Meaning each one would be lain down side by side on some kitchen roll. Then each would be picked up and painted. When there was a simple brush stroke I would leave them all on the paper towel and just dab them in record speed with no handling at all. The result was okay. Fast forward 30 years and In the last few months I have taken them off their old bases. Added a few more dabs of paint and some flags from GMB. Although I didn’t have much clue what I was painting 30 years ago, I can now identify them as the Lithuanian and Pavlov Guard regiments. The Pavlov flag said on the GMB site it was good up to 1814. Please if anyone disagrees don’t spoil it for me.

Russian 9th Division

These figures are all Essex miniatures. Some people are not always so keen, but these figures are always very clean casts, easy to paint and really robust for the table top (each guy has a low centre of gravity and a fabulous stubby no nonsense bayonet). A lot of the figures here have been rebased with a tiny paint touch up, but are probably nearly 30 years old !! I started off on Essex miniatures in 15mm and it means I always have a fondness for them (despite some weird poses that do crop up on some figures). On a closer inspection there are many painting mistakes and horrible touches, like the copper looking buttons and metal work on the old units. But back in those days I was really speed painting and didn’t care much (oh to be young and care free again). The pressure of completing the 9th Infantry Division meant I didn’t spend much time improving this lot. I did do a conversion making two standard bearers out of two musketeers. This saved me buying another command set and the musketeers are closer to the NCO’s that carried the flags than the Essex figures, which look more like officers. All the flags are GMB and really make these units look better than they are.

Nashebourg Regiment

Apsheron Regiment

Riazhsk Regiment

Ufa Regiment

Russian Napoleonic Brigade Generals

A mixture of Russian Brigade Generals.

Essex Russian Generals

AB Russian General and Mounted Officer and a Russian Jaeger taking a quick nap.

AB Russian General and Mounted Officer. The Russian General is from the Prussian staff set. I think I added the frills to his epaulettes.

Essex Russian Generals. I think the fat guy was discontinued. I’ve had him around 30 years. He had a spruce up in this new round of painting.

AB Russian General and another modified officer from the Prussian staff set. I think this one had his fur saddle smoothed over so he looked less like a Russian General. The Russian General also had his sword replaced by a paper clip. As the paper clip is mightier than an AB sword pointing up in the air like that.

AB Russian General and Officer. The Officer donated his head to another project. He has now become a mail man dressed as a dragoon. Maybe a letter calling for less hat waving and more action ?

Made a vignette command stand. The horse was originally a French Dragoons horse and the casualty is from the early Russian casualty set. Adds a bit of interest, I guess.

Napoleonic Essex 15mm French Campaign Dress

I have had mostly Essex Napoleonic's kicking around for 20-30 years. I seemed to think at one stage I was quite pleased with the paint job I had made. Eventually I think I became disillusioned with my overall paint job and truly hated my basing. In fact all of the figures were based according to "The Sound of Guns" rules. This meant 0.75mm per foot figure. That is tight by any standard, even at the time trying to squeeze an already plump Essex figure onto a base giving only 0.75mm was going to make them look like people heading through the doors of a Supermarket on Black Friday. Plus the fact I was just going crazy with the scatter grass. It all culminated in me throwing in the towel. But, the Napoleonic itch was always there. Eventually after 20years I started reading the blogs of people like Paul Alba, Loki's Great Hall, Furphy's Brush with History and Mac Phees Miniature Men (apologies for all the other great blogs that have inspired me) I knew I could learn the lessons and give it another go. So I got out the old miniatures....

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress

 I thought I would do a before and after shot. This old paint job was getting very messy.

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress with a bit of new paint

 The figure were ripped off their old bases ready for a spruce up (this photo is after the spruce up by the way, please do not raise your hopes too high).

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress rebased too

 On a figure by figure basis the painting was not great, but overall I was pleased, like an X Factor contestant that has got through to the "lives" they were looking smarter with more purpose. I followed the basing tips from Paul Alba's blog which helped a lot. Although I was bit nervous of raiding my local golf course for sand so opted for a bag of kids sand from Mother Care (I think that one bag is going to last me 30 years).

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress looking a bit better

In fact at some point as I got into the rhythm of the painting I bought some extra figures and swelled them to 3 Battalions (very easy to go a little megalomaniac, I guess without any checks and balances  I can see why Emperor Qin Shi Huang ended up with over 8,000 figures in the Terracotta army). The command figure I based separately. I think I was going for a "realistic" Battalion look in a fit of pedanticness. But when you have 36 figures representing 700 people I later felt a bit ridiculous. Now the officer based separately has to rattle around the storage box and get in the way of everything. But at the time I was felling quite smug, Then I had a glance back at Paul Alba's blog, I was totally crushed !