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.

The Greek War of Independence

A while ago I saw a few clips on youtube from a Greek language film "Papaflessas"on the above.  Very enjoyable and tempting.  Boys in the know on Lead Adventure Forum pronounced uniform and costume details to be correct.  I poked about a bit to see if I could get a hold of a DVD of the whole thing-but no luck.  The seed of a project had been planted all the same.

Then Konstantinos over at the wargames website posted a link to "Exodos" another Greek film set in the period and this time with English subtitles.  Watching it proved to be a rewarding and unusually moving cinematic experience, not least because it’s a true story.  I’d go as far as to say if you don’t feel a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye when the woman messenger reveals her name, you’re either not human or you don’t speak Greek. 

I’d post a link to both these films but the original ones are now dead so I cannot oblige.

All to the good but what about the toys?

In 28mm you can pretty much get everything you might want.  I do 15mm, and there you have to do a bit of lateral thinking and perhaps some fairly gentle conversion work.  The good news first, for the Ottomans Minifigs will do you proud from their Napoleonic range.  You want the Egyptian figures and very nice they are too. 

The Greeks can come from the same range, and from the Greek Volunteers in the Crimean Russian range.  That said the long shirts of the suitable figures could do with some more distinct pleating.  I intend to accomplish this with Green Stuff, and scalpel and my newly acquired Magnivisor Deluxe. Most of Irregular Miniatures Caucasus range have high Greek conversion potential too.

Here is the lead pile, enough for both sides.

Anyhow, early days but a start has been made.  Here is a stand of Turkish troops, lovely little castings.

Here are some conversions of Irregular Caucasus figures into Greek Mounted Infantry/Light Cavalry -the lad in black is a priest. The two other lads are Klephts sometimes bandits sometimes heroic liberators.   

If you have ever enjoyed a dish of Kleftiko it’s named after these boys.  Some decades ago I ate it in the mountains, prepared and cooked in the old way in a hole in the ground with a fire on top.  Appropriately, I then had very long hair and  a droopy 'tache. Precisely the look favoured by every respectable Klepht back in Byron's day and by most young men in my youth.

The troops are based for Rebels and Patriots as you can see.

This project might be a bit of a slow burn as I’ve recently fallen under the spell of the Third Rome* and have a galloping Russian fever of the Napoleonic sort.  More of that in another post.

* "Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth.” So said the Russian Orthodox monk Philotheus of Pscov in 1510.  It's an interesting thought and I often muse on it.

Manchu Mania

A while back I became interested in the Tai Ping and their Heavenly Kingdom.  I wanted to game it (and as a consequence contracted Manchu mania and prolonged Tai Ping preoccupation). I read the books. It’s a hell of a story and it triggered the biggest war the world had seen prior to the world wars 1 and 2.  

In the end the Tai Ping failed and the Manchu survived to stagger on from disaster to disaster as predatory Imperial Powers carved up China.  Today the Han have re asserted themselves and China is a super power. The Manchu Dynasty is gone and beyond academics and gamers I doubt most non-Chinese folk know much about the Opium Wars and the Tai Ping.  For those who do its fascinating stuff and great for the table top.

For about 10 years or so I’ve wanted to do a mini campaign provisionally called ‘With Li in the Valley’ in which a Manchu force seeks to fend off the Tai Ping and contain the foreigners.  The figures proved to be a challenge. 

The best 15mm range came from Falcon Figures which are now very hard to find.  I persevered and with luck, tenacity and a bit of judicious buying from other ranges managed to put together an acceptable Manchu Army. I’ve now added flags to the units and I can say its job done for the moment.  Militarily they need to be very lucky to win but they are a lot of fun.  Here they are, I hope you like them.

General Li and escort in full Banner Man armour, often worn to denote rank.  His banner reads as Tiger*.

 Manchu infantry from Falcon, if you have any you would like to sell do get in touch.

An Irregular Mandarin with this Falcon unit.

Manchu infantry from Khurasan Miniatures.

Khurasan swordsmen and Irregular Jingals.

Irregular Miniatures here.

An Irregular Tiger and Khurasan Jingal combo, a popular formation used to break up enemy formations.

Jingals from Khurasan Miniatures.

Guns from Minifigs with crews from Irregular Miniatures.

Banner Man cavalry from Outpost Wargames Services.

Tatar Cavalry from Museum Miniatures.

Irregular Tiger Men.

It is one of my favourite collections. 

* Although he had never been to Louisiana.