Smartly Attired Russian Cossacls - 1812+

Regiment of the Day

Smartly Attired Russian Cossacks

A Russian Army needs a good supply of Cossacks.

In amongst my parts box, I found a number of old Minifigs 15mm lancer types, which I suspect are Russian Cossacks.

Bit hard to tell, since this lot of figures comes from another ebay-rescue, with a bag of unfinished bits and pieces covered in a thick layer of flaking black paint and broken parts.

After a ridiculous amount of work, the rescue is complete, and I now have some half decent Russian Cossacks to take to the battlefield.

Russian Horse Artillery 1812+

Regiment of the Day

Russian Horse Artillery - 1812+

New Project for May ... well, same old Project really, painting tonnes of 15mm Russians ready for battle, and writing software to control the whole game.

Thought I would start off a "May Day" Parade to try and get back up to date with the blogging and photography anyway.

So here we go .... welcome to my May Day Parade effort, concentrating on the Russian Army of 1813.

Will try and keep rolling through May to get all my Napoleonic Russians up to date on this blog.

Russian Horse Artillery

Russian Horse Artillery 

Some Russian Horse artillery to go with my Russian Cavalry Brigades.

Figures by Lancashire Games, and the guns are a mix of LG's Russian 6lb cannon, and some Eureka Russian SYW period battalion guns.

Polish Hussar - 1813

Polish Hussar - 1813

Following on from my last post about the Russian Loubny Hussars .... here are some more of the same figure, but this time painted up as Polish Hussars in the opposing forces at Leipzig.

Russian Hussars - Loubny Regt

Regiment of the Day - Loubny Hussars

 

Time for some Russian Cavalry ... and I need LOTS of Russian Cavalry.

For the start of my newer Russian Cavalry collection,  will get into the Loubny Hussars for 1812+

Russian Musketeers (1812+)

Russian Musketeers (1812+)

Another quick one .. some left over warrior miniatures later Russians in Kiver, enough to make up 2 battalions.

1813 Russians in field cap

Russians in field caps - 1813

Some later (1812+) Russians in a mix of uniforms and field caps, shown here advancing in Closed Column.


Picked up a few bags of mixed of OG Russians in field caps from the TMP marketplace. Ended up with about 100 figures in this lot.

OG always have a good mix of animations and poses in the bag, so they are quite useful to  create fill in bases to pad out a growing army.

Time to splash some paint on them and get them on the gaming table.

Russian Grenadiers

Russian Grenadiers (1813)

"Russian Month" is going so well, that I now have a significant backlog of Russian units to blogged about. A serious backlog !

Lets get rolling then ...

Russian Grenadiers for 1813.

Main differences for the Russian Grenadiers for this latter period are :

- Reduced unit size. Most battalions are now down to 2 bases worth of troops by the time they take the field at Leipzig.
- Reduced grading. 1813 sees the average Grenadier battalion drop from grade 'Grenadier' in 1812 down to 'Elite' ... not a huge change.
- Simplified uniform. All units in standard kiver, large but thin plume, and standard red facings.

Russian Jaeger - 1812+

Russian Jaegers (1812+)

I better get this thing Napoleonic before we get way off track.

Here is a quick one then - some 1812 Russian Jaeger Battalions.

French Infantrie de Marine 1813

French Infantrie Artillerie de Marine - 1813

Finally got some Battalions out for the French Infantrie de Marine for Leipzig 1813.

After digging around for resources on these guys ... and finding the usual mix of conflicting details from different sources, I settled on this "interpretation", which I reckon fits the feel of these units well.  See what you think.

All of the line troops have greatcoats, and are still equipped in bicornes. Note that all the leather cross belts are black as well.

All pompoms are red, and to distinguish them from regular troops in greatcoats, they have a little brass anchor insignia on the left sleeve.

Finally, the flag is standard French tricolor, with a gold anchor symbol. OK, I made that up, but it works for me :)

French Legere - 1813

Tour de France - Stage 16

Oh dear ... running well behind schedule now, and only just made it in before the next stage starts.

Here is a single battlalion of French Lights from Lancashire Games .. photographed without the aid of sunlight.

eeeks !

View of the climb up through the "Circle of Death".

Late war French - 1813

Tour de France - Stage 15

2 more battalions of late war French roll off the production line ...

French Division - 1813

Tour de France - Stage 14

Great stage race last night with huge amounts of drama ... sabotage on the course, killer hill climbs at 18%, death defying descents down wet slopes, chaos, drama, and sportsmanship.  Wiggo is a true British champion !

Good stage to pull out some masses now and look at a Division on the table, all based up on battalion sabot bases.

Here is what an 1813 Division roughly looks like at 1:60 scale.  This is modelled on the French 6th Division / II Corps on the Southern front at Leipzig in 1813.

Lucky for me ... the French units are quite 'understrength' for this campaign.

The leading brigade - 3 battalions of Legere with 3 battalions of ligne in the 2nd wave.  3 Battalions in column of divisions on each flank, and 2 batteries in the centre.

Note the lack of cavalry at the Division level.  Not much more at Corps level for this unit either.

French Brigade in Greatcoats

Tour de France - Stage 13

Here is the 2nd Regiment of French Ligne in Greatcoats ... paint is still wet on the basing !!  Only just made it.

French in Greatcoats - Regiment

Tour de France - Stage 12

3rd Battalion in Greatcoats ready for the storage box

That makes up the 1st Regiment in Greatcoats

French Line Grenadiers

Tour de France - Stage 11

Finished off some French Line Grenadier companies, as I watched the race unfold through the mountains for France last night

French Cuirassiers

Tour de France - Stage 10

Thank goodness for rest days.  Back into it now, with lots of big climbs to get over ..

4 Squadrons of mixed French Cuirassiers - bit of the old style uniform and facings, bit of the new . with a later period flag .

4 Squadron bases fit nicely on a 'Cavalry Regimental Sabot Base' ... which is a standard MDF drink coaster from the dollar store.

Struggling to keep up the pace at this stage of the race, and still a few weeks to go yet.

Lets see how we go tonight then ....

French line in Greatcoats - other Battalions

Tour de France - Stage 9

No time for a detailed post today  . which is quite suitable, as its a time trail stage.

Rush rush rush.

Greatcoats, representing a generic battalion of a generic regiment.

Done !

French Line in Bardin Uniform - Leipzig 1813

Tour de France - Stage 8

Great racing last nice with another long stage of over 100 miles, with lots of nasty hills ... and some more unfortunate accidents.

Was shocking to see Sanchez (defending Olympic gold medalist) crash out with a broken collar bone, so he is out for London 2012.

What we did see though was a memorable win for a young French rider in his first tour. It was one of these rare occasions where the risk of hopping onto the breakaway group actually pays off.

A memorable win for Thibaut Pinot - the youngest rider in the race !

What better way to capture that in miniature, than finish off a unit of French Ligne using some of the youngest (newest) figures available ... Eureka's own amazing late French in Bardin uniform in 18mm.

French Ligne in Greatcoats - 1813+

Tour de France - Stage 7

What a great nights viewing last night ... spectacular scenery into the Vosges mountains.

Took a few shortcuts myself, and finished off a single battalion of French line in Greatcoats.

The first real climbs of the Tour saw the real contenders come to the front and fight it out for the last 6km all uphill.

This last section is at 20% slope ... ouch !