Tuesday 27 September 2016

The Great Crimean War Project Complete!

It is odd the way the mind plays tricks on you. Mine is telling me that the Crimean War project, that has been my main focus of late, was only begun late last year. But when look back through the posts of this blog, I realise that I completed the first unit way back in June 2014. It doesn’t seem that long ago.
 
This weekend I finished the last French Infantry regiment.


With the basing of this last unit the Crimean project has ended. So that is 27 months from start to finish (well finish is such a flexible term for me – I can see the “need” to get the Heavy Brigade when the Great War figures come out and some Turks if Foundry ever have another 25% off sale).
 
In some ways that is a long project for me (given that I have been known to churn out an army in three to four months), but then this is a big collection and my most expensive by a significant margin – the total cost amounted to just over £1900.00 (or around NZ$3870.00). It is worthwhile pointing out that I changed suppliers of the Great War Miniatures earlier this year to Caliver Books, who do not charge for postage on orders above £16.50 and this resulted in a saving of a surprising £338. I know this is a play-off against the VAT that can claimed back against exported goods, but it is a saving that is much appreciated.
 
The final tally is:

British Army
3 Guards Infantry Battalions
3 Highland Infantry Battalions
4 Line Infantry Battalions
1 Rifle Battalion
4 Line Artillery Batteries
1 Royal Horse Artillery Battery
5 Light Brigade Cavalry Regiments
9 Command Groups
 

French Army
1 Chasseur a Pied Battalion
9 line Infantry Battalions
3 Zouave Infantry Battalions
2 Line Artillery Batteries
1 Horse Artillery Battery
2 Chasseur d’Afrique Cavalry Regiments
4 Command Groups


Sardinian Army
2 Bersaglerie Battalions
4 Line Infantry Battalions
1 Line Artillery Battery
1 Command Group
 

Russian Army
28 Line Infantry Battalions
5 Line Artillery Batteries
2 Line Dragoon Regiments
2 Hussar Regiments
3 Cossack Regiments
1 Cossack Battery
13 Command Groups
 

In all that is 1,203 foot figures, 125 mounted figures and 21 guns.
 
Laid out on the table it represents a mighty array, but packed away in its plastic boxes in the garage it looks far less impressive.

25 comments:

  1. Marvelous project! The stack of boxes looks impressive too. Been fun following your progress on the CW project. Time passes so quickly when embroiled in an interesting task.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. It has been an interesting project. Thankfully the weather in the last couple of months has been pretty miserable and I have been able to justify the time at the painting desk. Next task is to get them to the gaming table.

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  2. Great project - love the labels on the boxes

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    1. Thanks, I have followed your own Zulu and ECW projects with interest. I have so many of those plastic trays now that the labels became a necessity!

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  3. Gorgeous! Wonderful minis and photos...and project!

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    1. Thanks Phil. It has been a great project get stuck in to.

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  4. That is some serious dedication! Absolutely fantastic project

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    1. Thanks Russ. It helps when you have a target fo work to.

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  5. Inspirational--not only the fact that you completed the project but also the rendering of the units. Wow. The stack in the garage is actually impressive, too.

    Did you say that all the figures were from the same manufacturer (Great War)? That would be doubly impressive--I find that I run into issues with any project of scale in the era and have to mix in figures from different lines, which invariably brings about problems with figure matching (Great War figures being particularly chunky compared to Foundry, for instance).

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    1. Thank you Ed. Most of the figures (probably 90%) are Great War. I had to use Foundry for three regiments of British cavalry (because Great War withdrew their light cavalry just as I was about to order) and a number of units Great War don't make such as the French Chasseurs d'Afrique, the Royal Horse Artillery, the Sardinian infantry and the Cossack Battery. I used Perry plastic ACW Zouaves and the Bersaglerie are my own design. The Foundry figures are certainly smaller, but ot is not all that noticable because I have complete units of the same manufacturer. The only fisappointment is that the wheels on the Foundry Russian guns were a little too small.

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    2. I thought those Chasseurs d'Afrique looked familiar! Good information, thanks!

      Ed

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    1. Thanks Bruce. I am looking forward to the day when they are all on the table!

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  7. A very impressive collection in such a short space of time - well done!

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    1. Thanks. I can already see more units I can add!

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  8. That's a fine collection . Well done

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    1. Thanks. It was a challenge at times, but I got there in the end, and inside my deadline.

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  9. Excellent! Great to see it all finished Mark!

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    1. Thanks Nathan. I must admit that there is a certain satisfaction to seeing the army finished. All there is left to do now is actually get them in the table.

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  10. Great stuff! And I thought Imhad a large Crimean collection!

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    1. ...and you do Colin! But they never really stop growing do they...there is always that one extra unit that you just "need".

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  11. This is really good work I have a small question though which you might be able to help me with. As far as the British are concerned I am a bit confused as to just what the difference between a regiment and a battalion is. As in the orders of battles from say the Partizan Press book on wargaming the Crimean War there seems to be no mention of Battalions but only regiments. There appear to be 3 regiments per Brigade which would imply the two are synonomous
    Best wishes Chris Finlay

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    1. Chris, thanks for your comments. The British Army has always had a different view on the regimental structure from its European counterparts. Although technically British regiments could consist of two or more battalions few, if any, took the field as more than single battalions. Certainly in the Crimea there were no multi-battalion regiments. The result of all of this was that British formations were substantially smaller than their allies and enemies. – whereas a British division might consist of six or seven battalions, a French division consisted of thirteen and a Russian division of sixteen.

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    2. Thanks for your reply I thought that was the case for the Crimean War You have given me an excellent model to follow although my troops wont be as nice or as accurate in regimental detail. For example for the British Line Infantry (Not the Guards of course) I will probably just use Peninsular Napoleonics probably sacrilege to you but my painting time is limited
      Did you see the Charge of the light Brigade over Christmas

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    3. I have my own copy of Charge of the Light Brigade on DVD that I watch from time to time...when herindoors is out. Having read the Atkins book on the Charge recently, the film is remarkably accurate historically.

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