Russian Bus

Typical really, you wait years and years for 20mm Hinton Hunt Russians and then three units come along at once! I find myself in the position where I am simultaneously painting three Russian units - The Garde du Corps, Astrakhan Cuirassiers and Foot Jagers.

This is my test figure for RN/30 Russian Cuirassier (mounted) charging. I'm painting him in accordance with the Hinton Hunt painting instructions as a trooper of the Astrakhan Regiment. The black horse makes him hard to photograph when varnished but I do like the contrast between the black and the yellow.

The Hinton Hunt painting instructions. This version is one that Clive painstakingly re-keyed from the original flimsy copy because the original was too feint to scan or photograph well. I like to refer to these sheets whenever I can.

These are RN/15 Russian Infantryman, firing. I'm painting them as Jagers - or more accurately as Jager-Chasseurs because I didn't want to cut off the plumes.

This is not the sort of painting pickle I would normally get myself into so I will put the others aside and focus on the Cuirassiers for now.

 

Terrible painting finished

The 57th Les Terribles are finished. These have been a bit of a struggle to complete mostly because I kept getting distracted with other things on the painting desk. I was also putting off painting the flag as this is the eighth one I have done and the lettering is a real pain and my eyes aren't getting any younger. The figures used are:

1 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour bearer (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer

1 x FN/241 Officer (charging) - 1807/12 range

20 x FN/244 Fusilier (charging) - 1807/12 range

All my French units have the same battle honours inscribed on their flags as these were the ones Marcus Hinton engraved on them!

It was only when I based the figures that I discovered some of them were orientated at a slightly different angle which meant that lining them up was a right old faff. Interestingly (in a nerdy way) my other unit of this figure type (the Swiss) are all orientated in yet another direction. I know all the figures I used are genuine vintage castings but presumably they have come from different molds.

In other news I was very pleased to receive some Russian cuirassier castings from Don W. in the US last week. This was exceedingly generous of him and I have already stripped the figures and prepared them for undercoating also converting a trumpeter.

RN/30 Russian Cuirassier (mounted) charging - one-piece-castings.

These cuirrasiers together with my Garde du Corps will certainly catch the eye of the Czar once painted.

Russian Horse Guard - or is it?

Well, no this is actually a Prussian Garde du Corps trooper with a small modification and paint job conversion. The modification is that I have removed the canteen slung above the scabbard, apart from that the figure is unchanged.

PN.73 Prussian Garde du Corps (mounted), charging - painted as a Russian Life Guard.

So why have I done this? The simple answer is that I don't have any Russian heavy cavalry figures and as you know they are a bit on the rare side and this has stymied the growth of my Russian forces. I have infantry, artillery and some light cavalry in the lead pile but without the heavies you really can't fight Borodino can you?

The figure is similar enough to the Russian version to pass inspection. The saddle cloth is not square cut and the portmanteau is square not round but hey, who's counting?

What I do have are some recasts of Prussian Garde du Corps that were destined for Blucher's forces however last year's aquisition of Prussian dragoons and Cuirassiers means that old Marshal Vorwarts no longer needs them.

First though I must finish those French infantry.

Austrian parade and another drubbing at Goya's

Back last July I posted a review of the Austrian infantry but of course since then recruitment has continued unabated so I thought I would treat you with a full review of the complete Austrian army.

There are now 12 units of foot, 6 of cavalry and 6 batteries.

This brings the whole force (including generals) to 400+ figures which is surely enough?

I'm thinking even Bonaparte must be starting to take them seriously!

The map reading generals section - always good to know where you are.

On Monday I was invited to take in more seaside air at Goya's with a game billed as the AWI battle of Cowpens but as we were using his War of 1812 collection it had more of that sort of feel about it. The rules were standard Commands & Colors Napoleonic.

We played the game twice swapping sides. In the first game I was the Americans (on the left) and Goya played the British (on the right).

These are all Airfix British figures painted as US troops - they look great.

All the troops on my left flank were militia and once the redcoats advanced they seemed to melt away.

The result was a swift and decisive victory for Goya. These troops are of course Hinton Hunt so no wonder they were winning.

The second game played out in a completely different way as although the militia once again ran away it wasn't far enough to give me any VPs. Then somehow the US troops got the upper hand and before I knew it I seemed to have no army left...

It's always a pleasure to see Goya's troops on the table even if it results in a double drubbing!

Springtime in Paris (off Topic #41)

I've just returned from a week in Paris with Mrs S. This was the first time I've ever been unless you count Disneyland in the 90s with the kids (but I really don't think you can). I was very very impressed with the city possibly helped by the fact that the sun shone every day. I won't bore you with my holiday snaps other than I know you'd like to see the Napoleonic related ones!

Well blow me down with a feather if I didn't come across the great man's coat and hat at Fontainebleau. Nice satchel too!

And this was his austere camp bed.

While this is his bling real bed. I'd quite like steps to get up into my own bed these days.

Also at Fontainebleau (which incidently was much less busy than Versailles) is the room where he signed the abdication, although possibly not at that actual table.

Napoleon's tomb. I thought the whole site seem really uncared for, it was very dirty and dusty and generally had bad vibes - not what I was expecting.

I've always liked this picture so it was nice to see it for real - annoying that I was photobombed by an old git!

Franconi the circus rider - the original at the Louvre.

Another favourite picture of mine also on display at the Louvre - Napoleon at Eylau.

Would I ever go back - oui!

Some terrible painting

As promised, I've started work on a French infantry unit using the charging fusilier figure from the Hinton Hunt 1807-12 range. The first 'test figure' below is one of the ones Tony gave to me recently. The unit will represent the 57th Les Terribles because I just had to have a unit with that name.

FN/244 Fusilier (charging)

Stripping the old paint from the batch of figures turned into a right old chore. The ones Tony gave me were fine but the others I've used resisted the bleach soak. I eventually got them all cleaned up after two goes in a Dettol bath. I'm hoping to get the unit painted reasonably fast as I have cleared all distractions from the painting desk.

Austrian infantry done!

I finally got around to completing my 'last' Austrian unit that will represent the 36th Kinsky Regiment (because they have pink facings and I like the name). As I mentioned before, these are figures I've refurbished that were donated by US gamer Don W.

The infantry figure is AN/4 Musketeer, charging. Most of my work on these has been the lining of the straps, the very nice flag is original painting by Don.

I find refurbishing almost as time consuming as painting from scratch but I wanted to preserve as much of Don's original brushwork as possible.

This gives me a total of 12 infantry units for my Austrian forces which is way more than I ever expected to have. Next will be more French...