Russian Napoleonic Cossack Artillery Limber

 Small conversion needed on these AB figures. The lance was removed from one and some lace removed from the officer figure. The limber horses are Austrian as the Austrian set does not have the riders moulded on. The gun is from Warrior miniatures. The limber itself is probably incorrect, the harnesses are likely wrong for a Russian set up. But I have a lot of limbers and didn’t have time to build the correct set up. 

Serf and Turf

 These figures came when I got the other Tontenanz horsemen. They are really nice figures but not really Napoleonic so sat in a draw for some time. The other week I thought I would get them painted and added as some sort of serf artillery unit. To be honest they are very smart looking serfs. The gun is a Russian 3lb Blue Moon gun. 

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)

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. 

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.

Cossacks !

 I have been having a Cossack blitz. I had a number of stalled projects:

1. Totentanz Cossacks half way painted  (the sheer figure size was making basing a nightmare and made me give up)

2. Boki Leib Cossacks (have been primed for some time but lacked the Black Sea Sotnya). 

3. Essex Cossacks that were painted as irregular Cossacks 20 odd years ago (now the Totentanz will be irregular and make the Essex lot look like hobbits)!

4. Fighting 15’s Ozil Cossacks need painting.

5. AB Cossacks do not make a full unit and need lances replaced.

6. Eureka Cossacks do not make a full unit and need lances replaced.

It’s a lot to do. But the Totentanz are completed. The Boki Cossacks only have the BSS to finish. Half of the fighting 15’s are done and the Essex are repainted as Generic Don type Cossacks. 

I will get them photographed and posted soon.

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. 

Russian Napoleonic Jaegers

 Finished the last three battalions a few months back. All the figures are AB. Some of the casualties were modded from the Russian early Napoleonic range. It was a real squeeze getting them all on the bases and as for the bayonets !!! C’mon AB, I have seen real Christmas trees 6 months after Christmas with sturdier needles than some of these bayonets. But still lovely figures. 

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.  

Russian Guard Horse Artillery

Current project is a small group (3 guns, 12 crew) of Russian Guard Horse Artillery. It should probably still be larger but I cannot bring myself to cut up more figures for the headwear (still traumatised with the 12 I’ve done). The guns are AB for this unit which are a bit smaller than the Blue Moon guns I have been using. Unit came out okay, a bit of squeeze fitting them all on. The guy on the end with the ram rod looks like he is ether giving the end of the Unicorn gun a last minute polish or is trying to get the end shot off for a laugh.

Russian Forge and Apothecary Wagons

 Some more Russian wagon train additions. Wagons are Blue Moon, horses Eureka SYW and the seated chaps modified CGM. Probably a couple of things wrong with these, firstly I don’t think they rode on these wagons in this way and secondly have no idea about the uniforms. But, pretty sure that from time to time the wagon train drivers would shake things up and maybe get a rest on the wagons.....

Russian Horse Artillery

 Russian AB horse artillery with Blue Moon 6lb guns. 

Painting Russian Infantry

 I find the thought unlikely that anyone would like to use the same colours that I used for my Russians. I have found sources like Loki’s Great Ball, Napoleonics in Miniatures, JJs Wargames and McPhees Miniature Men invaluable for helping me with painting information (links below). That I thought you never know. Maybe just maybe, someone has hit rock bottom in Russian napoleonic infantry paint selection, comes across this site and thinks, I cannot look no further, this will do me. 

The paints I use are all Vallejo apart from the use of DarkStar paints “Pewter”. Dark Star do a really nice metallic paint and it’s available from SNM Stuff, https://www.snmstuff.co.uk/. I  use Pewter for the canteen thing on the backpack as it helps it sparkle a bit. The other note on this paint guide is that apart from the musket I use no other metallic paint. Instead I use Beige Brown then Ochre Yellow for the gold/brass fittings. The Ochre Yellow had a good pigment content and helps for the buttons, badges and  chinstrap to stand out. Maybe the most controversial part is the green for the uniform. I start off pretty dark green, the Luftwaffe green at this scale is not a big step up but starts to give some levelling up. The final green looks really bright on the palette, but it dries darker. It should used for top highlights and helps the green pop a little. 

Russian 7th Division

Finished the line regiments for the 7th Division a few months back. This was pretty intense work! It was around 320 figures including the grenadier battalions (still a few figures short on the second grenadier battalion). Frustratingly the camera is making them look much more shiny then they do when I look at them on the tabletop.  

Moscow Regiment

Pskov Regiment

Libau Regiment

Sofia Regiment

Jaegers (more to come)!

Close up, sorry about the thumb

Russian Army Generals

 After using the Boki set for Kutuzov I was left with the AB Kutuzov figure spare. I had also picked up additional command figures that I have been converting from the Prussian sets. I wanted to produce a version of General Fabian Gottlieb Von Sacken. He was a bit round like Kutuzov and the AB figure seemed a good start for conversion. My modelling skills are very limited so I went for the bare head look, apart from a lump of milliput stuck on top of his nogging. 

The end result I thought looked okay. Mostly as it did not rely heavily on my modelling skills, more on the skill of Anthony Barton. Then it was splish splash bosh with the Vallejo’s and voila! 

Now some keen eyed People might say, hang on a minute why is Von Sacken wearing his sash like Kutuzov? It’s on the wrong way round (some might also say it just looks like Kutuzov)! Well, firstly my crafting skills are not good enough to erase the original sash and create a new one. Secondly, the photo was probably taken at a distance and it makes them look similar. Something like that.