Sunday 6 October 2019

Crimean Commanders

A part of this week’s effort has been to complete the command stands for the British cavalry division for the Crimean collection.

First of all, to finish off the Heavy Brigade that featured in these pages a few week back, is the figure to represent General Sir James Yorke Scarlett.


Despite being described by a superior as an officer of 'limited ability, lacking initiative and nearly useless' and 'that damned stupid fellow,” Scarlett was one of the few British commanders in the Crimea who managed to enhance his reputation positively.

Born in London in 1799 he was the second son of the 1st Baron Abinger and was educated at Eton and Cambridge before joining the army in 1818 as a cornet in the 18th Hussars AMS sent to India.  Promotion as slow and not until 1830 did he receive his majority in the 5th Dragoon Guards. A full ten years later he was appointment as Commanding Officer of the regiment in 1840, a post he held until 1854.

When the war in the Crimea broke out he was given the command of the Heavy Brigade and led it in the successful Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava. After some time back in England he was made Lieutenant General in 1855 and returned to the Crimea where he succeeded Lucan as commander of the cavalry. He retired from the army in 1870 and died a year later.


As a recognition of his time with the 5th Dragoon Guards Scarlett wore the helmet of an officer in the regiment in the field and since no one makes a single figure like that a bit of conversion was in order. In preparation for this I had carefully decapitated a dragoon officer figure a few weeks ago when I was finishing the heavy brigade. Next I took the staff officer  figure from one of the Great War Miniatures command packs and removed his head. The dragoon head was then pinned and glued in place then finished with a small amount of Greenstuff to finish of the collar of the coat. I added a sword arm in place of the hat wielding arm that comes with the staff figure, and cut away the sword hilt from the scabbard. Done.



Next was the divisional command. Lord Lucan was already completed, so I added a mounted officer and rebased accordingly.


Also leaving the painting table after lingering in the basing tray for too long ate another two Russian Napoleonic limbers. Two more to go.



16 comments:

  1. Inspiring post Mark, nice historical background and wonderful painting on these command stands!

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    1. Thank you Phil. More Crimean troops to come.

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  2. Good looking officers and artillery train!

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    1. Thank you Jonathan. The last of the train is rolling through the equipment store now, then I will move on to something a different.

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  3. A nice little conversation Mark...
    Not that I want to seem picky but I think though that Scarlett’s helmet should be black leather with brass fittings... he apparently designed it himself and it was described as unconventional at the time....
    I sometimes think that you have got more limbers than I have toy soldiers... they do look good.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. I found the question about the helmet colour very confusing and my first thought was to paint it black with brass fittings as shown in the Francis Grant painting. But when I Googled to find Scarlett’s bio, my search turned up an article in the “Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research – Spring 1978” that piqued my attention called “Helmets of General Sir James Yorke Scarlett, G.C.B.” that wrestled with the very thorny question of whether the helmet was black leather with brass fittings or gilted brass - how this passes for serious historical research escapes me, but it is great wargamer’s question (almost up there with a Miniatures Page question some years ago whether Napoleon was a cat person or a dog person). The article extends across seven pages, discussing all of the commonly quoted sources, and came to the conclusion that Scarlett may have had three helmets in the Crimea: one was definitely brass, one may have been blackened brass and one may have been of black leather. The blackened brass idea seems to be the thought of the article’s author (and assumes that the blackening was rubbed off with polishing), while the black leather helmet is not held in any known collections and may have been lost. So you can see why I was confused. What led me to paint it brass in the end was that there was a photograph within the article that shows one of his helmets, a brass one, on display in the Burnley Town Hall Gallery and titled “General Scarlett’s Special Pattern Helmet”.... Either way I think I got his “drooping white moustache” correct!

      I agree that I have gone a little crazy with the limbers, but I will finish the last of the Russian models tonight. There will be some more of limbers at some stage – Bavarians for example, and no doubt I will be tempted to go back and do the French limbers at some point…but there are soooo many of those, and maybe a couple the Spanish limbers can be commandeered for use with the Carlists.

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    2. I think I read the same article...
      I wish I could remember where I read about the helmet being of his own design...
      You are possibly right in your assumption that there may have been more than one... my thinking is one for dress and one for campaign...
      Whatever... he still looks damn good.

      All the best. Aly

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    3. It gets confusing because it is mentioned as “his own design in leather” in the glossary of “Sharpshooter in the Crimea” but credited to Christopher Hibbert’s “the Destruction of Lord Raglan”.

      Nonetheless I am sure you will see Scarlett appearing in some adventures soon.

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  4. Thanks for the detail in the article. Another well thought out post. Your speed with limber teams is awesome.

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    1. Thanks. The limber odyssey is coming to and end with only one to go.

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  5. Nice conversion and attention to detail. History loves a winner no matter a general's limitations it seems.

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    1. Thank you. I have another converted officer coming up in the next few days who will be commanding a new infantry brigade.

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  6. Very nice work. I suppose cavalry charges either work spectacularly well or fail miserably, and you can either come out of them looking like a hero or incompetent, and Balaclava had both.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. At least I can replicate both charges now.

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  7. Great job, especially fond of the limbers! :)

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    1. Thanks Mark. In truth I am over limbers now...just finished the last of eight last night. Bavarians next.

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