After completing the Russian cavalry it occurred to me that I have more regiments of cavalry than I have battalions of infantry. Now I know that I did the cavalry expansion simply to give variety, but I figured there was a need to correct the imbalance a little.
One of the features of the Russian army, and the Austrian army for that matter, was their use of grenadier and combined grenadier divisions. In general terms grenadier divisions were formed from the grenadier regiments, but the structure of the combined grenadiers is always confused me. A quick search on the internet turned up an explanation from by von Peter Himself, whose research I accept without question, that they were formed by combining the grenadier and carabinier companies from the depot (second) battalions of the musketeer and jäger regiments (only the first and third battalions served in the field) - if this is proved wrong it’s all Peter’s fault.
When a local retailer had the Perry plastics on sale I snapped up a couple of boxes and decided to make up some grenadier regiments. With the purchase of a couple of extra plastic command sets and an eight metal figures, I can build four battalions from those two boxes. I will add a couple of metal grenadier battalions to make this force six battalions strong.
The creation of the plastic grenadiers did cause some problems in that the boxed set does not provide enough grenadier heads, only one third of the number needed. Fortunately I had the foresight to keep the spare heads of the horse jägers when I was working on the Russian cavalry and with a bit of work with the scalpel and plastic cement was able to cut the plume from the cavalry head and affix it to the Kiwer…et voila a grenadier head…and I had just enough (with two to spare) of the horse jäger plumes to do the whole two boxes and the commands.
This is the first regiment of that expansion…although the command stands are not quite finished…there are still two metal figures to add to each battalion that are still enroute from Nottingham.
Very nice
ReplyDeleteThank you Neil.
DeleteSuper grenadiers. Those plumes are HUGE,
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are tall. I would have loved to do some of figures in the 1809 shako with the much fatter plume, but there would not have been many of those around in 1812, let alone 1813. Maybe if I do some combined grenadier battalions I could claim that the depot battalions were slow to receive the new plumes….I have kept this heads from the current sets for just that possibility.
DeleteThey look great Mark and well done on having just the right number of plumes for the mass conversion! I assume from the lack of AAR that you did not attend the Cruel Seas game today either?
ReplyDeleteI knew those spare heads would come in useful! Yes I played in the Cruel Seas game, but didn’t take any photos and while the game was fun, we spent more time looking up rules. It didn’t make for an inspiring post.
DeleteA fine body of men there Mark and a nice and relatively simple conversion:).
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. The only tricky part was cutting the plume off at an angle that matched the slope of the Kiwer.
DeleteExcellent.
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg.
Delete" At the angle of the Kiwer" made me smile, very authentic. Great looking units, 1813 is such a great year to use o.o.b.'s. They are so fluid.
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite an art to get the angle right because the Kiwer angles down from the front to the centre so if you cut it square the plumes leans back. And you have to cut it right first time because if you have to cut it again the plume could end up too short.
DeleteGreat job Mark, and again well done for keeping the spare heads. They look like they were manufactured that way.
ReplyDeleteI have boxes and boxes of bits now. One of the positive things about plastics is how easy they are to convert and a hand cut off one figure (even from another era) can be glued on with ease.
DeleteThere’s ALWAYS another expansion project…
ReplyDelete😀
Nice job.
Thanks Stew…never a truer word was said.
DeleteSplendid looking grenadiers Mark…
ReplyDeleteThe joy of plastics is the ease of conversions…
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly…I like that you can often mix and match spare bits from different manufacturers.
Delete