This is the penultimate unit in my Russian Army of 1812. My phrasing of that sentence "...my Russian Army of 1812..." is deliberate because I have in the back of my mind to do a small number of units for a Russian force from an earlier period - with the flat top kiwer and the big bushy grenadier plumes - that can still be used in 1812 because many of the regiments did not receive their new uniforms until after the 1812 campaign. But for now this is pretty much it.
As I mentioned in a previous post these figures are from Front Rank. The figures are great castings: sharp with the usual highly defined detail that you expect from Front Rank, although the figures poses are a little stiff.
My disappointment with this set is with the guns. The wheels are just too small and the gun looks a little too squat - another three milimeters on the diameter would have made all the difference. But they are what they are and since the horse battery should not be brigaded with the line batteries, the difference may not show. Of course the day after I ordered the Front Rank figures the greens for the Perry horse artillery showed up on their Facebook page.
The final unit in this army, the hussar regiment, has been ordered and should be here within a couple of weeks.
Excellent, good job! I e-mailed the Perry's not so long ago asking where the Russian HA was, and Alan replied and said they were planned, good to see them shortly thereafter!
ReplyDeleteIf I had seen the posting earlier, I would probably have waited until they were released...but then again patience has never been a strongpoint for me!
DeleteFew units look as cool as Russian horse gunners. Great work!
ReplyDeleteAgreed that helmet is somerhing spectacular. In a way I wish there was a trumperter to dress the unit up just that bit more.
DeleteI have to say to me the guns look great, and the crew survive a macro close up too! Lovely work.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain. Don't get me wrong I like the unit too. I suppose I have grown accustomed to the animation of the Perrys.
DeleteLovely work again Mark. Do you remember the insane amount of points any horse artillery used to cost in the old WRG rules we played? One battery was roughly eguivalent to six or seven battalions of foot from memory. No wonder we never saw much of it on the table.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence. Yes I do recall that absurd figures cost in WRG. If I remember correctly a light-medium gun was worth 25 points, each gunner (you needed a minimum of three) was 20 points and the limber with four horses 7 points. So a Russian battery with six models, totalled 552 points! A trained line infantry battalion was worth 56 points. I actually owned a horse battery but never fielded it in a points game.
DeleteThe Russians were great under WRG. They could really take the punishment and those big batteries could dish it out too. I remember playing the late Peter Corbett at the Nationals in Palmerston North in 1983. He had a Saxon army with a brand new, never been on the table, regiment of eight elite cuirassiers that he insanely deployed directly in front of my battery of four guns and two howitzers within medium range. I guess he had plans of charging the guns early in the piece, but for my first shot I rolled six sixes so that was four hits with the guns and two double hits with the howitzers...the whole regiment was destroyed in the first turn. Then the next turn I inflicted about five hits on a dragoon regiment. The look on his face was priceless. The game was over - he had lost so many points that he simply couldn't recover and the game ended on turn three when my cossacks routed off his then shaken dragoons!
Another great looking unit Mark - and I personally like Front Rank just as much as Perry figures - but I suspect I might be in the minority!
ReplyDeleteThanks Keith. How was Christchurch? I bet you are pleased you are not there tonight - I suspect it will be pretty cold there tonight? Don't get me wrong I like the Front Rank figures and they have some of the best detail on the market, but that detail sometimes comes at the expense of animation. Some of the figures appear a little wooden as a result. I find the opposite with the Perrys - the detail is not as intense, but the animation and drama are fantastic. The one big plus with Front Rank is, of course, that you can buy individual figures
DeleteYes it was quite "brisK" down South Mark -5 at 0300 one night - mind you, its pretty cold here tonight - overnight low looking around 0 degrees
ReplyDeleteIt was -2 at our place today at 0700 and a very heavy frost, but it is going to be a glorious day.
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