Back to the Russians

Last April I was painting Napoleonic Russians. Then I ran out of steam.  I suspect this happens when tackling big Napoleonic armies.  Now I’m back in the Tsar’s service for a while at least.

Another battalion of Old Glory grenadiers. 

Musketeers from Capitan.

More Dragoons from Old Glory.  I've one more to go for a total of three.

Huzzars from the same outfit.  I think I want another of these.

The Astrakhan Cuirassiers here from Campaign Group Miniatures.

Some Old Glory Horse Artillery.  I'll be doing a second battery.

Hopefully I can get at least two batteries of foot artillery done while my Napoleonic enthusiasm lasts.  Then I simply have to paint another two battalions of Musketeers and one each of Grenadiers and Jaegers.  Oh, and one more unit of Cuirassiers and one of Dragoons.  

Being pretty much confined to quarters I might just be able to do it.

I've got a load of Bashkirs to paint too. They will do service as Russian light cavalry and with my Ottoman /Tatar army using With Talon and Claw.

Russian Napoleonic Jaegers 15mm

These are all Old Glory 15mm with the exception the command figures from Capitan leading the formed battalions.  As you can see I've gone for the winter uniform to partially enable ease of table top visual recognition.  The green is Vallejo Russian Green should that be of interest.  Here we see the elite companies detached to skirmish in a 'double chain' with formed support.  

Some Russian commanders favoured a single chain.  It's hard to be prescriptive about what Russian commanders did, there seems to have been a fair bit of latitude.  Whole regiments could be put to skirmish with no supporting reserve and sometimes jaegers were even used as shock troops-straight in with the bayonet.  I'm advised that a Russian Division should have 4 units of Jaegers and the same of Musketeers with two of Grenadiers.  Effectively that's what I've done in collecting this army.

The elites were straight forward to paint, not so the line jaegers.  For the look I wanted I had to take some care.   

I think they look better in the all green winter uniform.   

I think painting attention needs to be given to the detail of these figures.  There’s lots of it, key areas are collars, cuffs and kivers closely followed by buttons and muskets.

Historically these boys need to be backed up by two attack columns of Musketeers or Grenadiers and that's how I'll use them.

Next up the Grenadiers and Musketeers.

A 15mm Napoleonic Russian Project

A couple of weeks ago I decided to put together a Russian Division for Over The Hills.  It was a whim, triggered by an eBay bargain that turned out to be half Russian and not all French.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea.  I took some advice and began to collect images.  This post is about how I set about collecting and painting the project.

I got a break, two thirds of the infantry at a knock down price.  The figures were Old Glory and I had seen too many badly painted examples of them to feel particularly enthused.  Fortunately, I came across a blog with some very nicely painted examples of the same figures.  Heartened I went ahead and so secured 32 Jaegers with command and 64 Grenadiers ditto for a third of their retail value.

For the cavalry and Horse Artillery I went to Campaign Group Miniatures and Timecast Old Glory 15mm.  I'm waiting for some from Capitan too.  You can see what I've painted so far here, GCM first two pics.

I’m happy with how they came out.  It feels like a good start. I've one more unit of Dragoons  one of Kuirassiers and a unit of Hussars to do.  That's it, though I'm tempted to add a unit of mounted Jaegers too.

Next up formed and skirmishing Jaegers.

I sometimes play Napoleonics

I have a smallish collection of armies for the Peninsular War, mainly French and Spanish.  They don’t get out much.  Today being a sunny day, I thought I’d take some pics and post them here.  I want the pics to make unit cards for Over the Hills Napoleonic rules.  The latter turn out to be a splendidly straight forward confection produced by fellows who love the period.  Just what I needed and with the aid of unit cards ideal for pick- up games. 

The idea being that the front of each card shows the unit and the back it’s capabilities.  Cards aren’t required for the game but I think I’ll find them useful.

My collection is based for Piquet Field of Battle and handily there is no need to re-base for Over the Hills. If I could be bothered I'd go for 6 infantry to a base but as yet I really cannot face the scale of the task.

So, here are the Spanish infantry. First up the Irish, Hibernia and Ultonia and the Valencians from Fantassin as was, now trading as Capitan via Stonewall Miniatures.

A lot of Old Glory Spanish infantry (sadly the Musketeer bayonets easily break) with a smattering of Fantassin.

I've two battalions of Light Infantry, another two line battalions and the Walloon Guards but they have failed to report for duty having been put away in the wrong box.

The Spanish cavalry and guns all from Old Glory.  Dragoons here.

 I'll be adding another Spanish cavalry unit once I've decided between Hussars and Heavy cavalry.

The Spanish guns, I have three batteries.

 The French infantry and guns.

The infantry are from Fantassin now Capitan from Stonewall Miniatures, Black Hat now Fighting 15s, Old Glory from Timecast 15mm and best of all Xan which are splendid.  I think they fit together nicely enough.  I have rather a lot of foreign units mainly because I was taken by the Fantassin sculpts, the Irish and Swiss are from Xan.

There are a few more line infantry units enough all in all for three brigades. 

The French cavalry starting with my sole regiment of Dragoons from Campaign Group Miniatures.

The work horse of the army two regiments of Chasseurs a Cheval.

Once again these are from Old Glory and I find the whole range very nice indeed.

As are the deadly Vistula Lancers.

I could do with another regiment of Dragoons perhaps from AB and somewhere there is a bag of Hussars.

I've enough for a game once I've done the cards.