So what's come off the painting table this week?

Why its more Crimean Russian's of course!

The first task was to finish off the bases of the Odessa Jäger Regiment and the Ingermanland hussars that I painted last week. This took a couple of hours over two nights.

Then it was the Ukraine Jäger Regiment, the sixth of seven I am building.

Then it was the Archduke Ferdinand Hussar Regiment, number 8. Readers of my last post may have noted that I said I was determined not to do a unit of Russian horse on all white horses, but I relented and I am pleased I did.

Since the rest of the French infantry that are on order cannot be expected for another couple of weeks, I am not sure if I can face another regiment of Russians in their dull greatcoats just yet, so I may have to work on a unit of Carlist War figures just to get some varirty in colour.

Speaking of the Carlist War a few weeks ago, when I was waiting the the lead mountain to arrive, I scratch built a rocket cart for the British Auxillary Legion rocket troop (when I evenutally get around to buying it). I got the idea from a photo on Phil Robinson's blog. The basis of the model is a Foundry British artillery carriage that I had laying about on which I fixed the boxes and their contents that I made from plasticard and some plastic rod.

Rolling off the Painting Table

That I haven't posted anything on this blog for the better part of two weeks should not be construed as a lack of activity. Quite to the contrary, the frenetic pace of painting has prevented me from presenting complete units for display. 

The first unit I completed - two weeks ago in fact - was an Isabelino National Militia unit. I had completed the command stand for this unit a week earlier. This unit is the second of two militia unit that I intend to do for this collection.

No sooner had the glue dried on the bases of this unit than two significant orders arrived for the Great Crimean War Project. This included two regiments of Russian infantry, one of French, a Russian artillery battery and a regiment of Russian dragoons - in all 206 foot figues, six mounted and two guns. Then two days later another Crimean War order, containing another 72 Russian infantry plus another six dragoons and twelve hussars arrived. Unpacked from shipping boxes and repacked into a box that can be kept away from the eyes of one who might question why so many pieces of lead are in my study, they look a mighty array.

Now normally I am quite reserved in my purchases and only buy just what I can paint in a given period. Until now this "just in time" process has worked just fine, but this project has a deadline and that deadline is looming. Plus with BREXIT having such a dramatic effect on the value of the pound against the NZ dollar, I decided to take advantage of the situation to accelerate my purchases.

First off the painting desk were the last twelve Russian Infantry figures needed for the Dniper Regiment I started back in early July. I had made an error back then and short ordered these twelve, that meant that five stands of infantry have been sitting on the painting table awaiting the final recruits. Well here are the five stands, followed by the completed regiment.

Next I powered into the first of two full regiments of Russian jagers. Now I doubt that jägers carried standards, but since the Russians used their jäger regiments pretty much as line infantry the command packs come with standard bearers I decided to give them standards and live with this inaccuracy. This regiment, as with the other two (the second of which will be a line regiment) that I have on hand, are in the firing line poses as opposed to the march attack pose of the other four regiments already completed. The regiment is just needing its bases to be finished.

Next up was to be the French infantry in shako. I started to do these because I needed to work with some colour - the Russians in their dull greatcoats become very tedious to paint very quickly. But, having started painting the command pack, I noticed that the figures should all have separate packs to be glued on, but the packs were missing. I contacted the supplier and the packs will come with the next order of French in a couple of weeks. That shot down my plans to escape the tedium of Russian greatcoats. So I moved on to the Russian cavalry starting first with the Moscow (red facings) and then the Finland (yellow facings) dragoons...more greatcoats.

One of the pleasing things about the Russian cavalry of the time is that they maintained a consistency of horse colour within the regiments. The Moscow regiment has chestnut and the Finland black. I was tempted to do a regiment that had white horses, but thought better of it.

At the same time as I painted the dragoons, I worked on the Russian battery.

Next to be done were the two regiments of hussars, the Ingermanland and Kiev regiments. The former is painted (below), with just us bases to be completed and the latter should be completed by Monday night.

Then it is back to the Russian infantry. All of the Crimean troops that are finished by next Saturday, will have their first outing in a game on Sunday 14 August.

Still waiting in the wings are two units Carlist and two Isabelino infantry units that are unlikely to see any paint until September.

The Light Brigade Complete

This post celebrates two things. The first is the completion of the Light Brigade for my Great Crimean War Project, but second, on a larger scale, this completes the British Army component of that project. I have no doubt that I will find the need to expand the army with the inclusion of the Heavy Brigade at some point, but for the great game scheduled for later this year, this force is what is required.

 

That said, the celebration of the completion of the Light Brigade is tinged with a bit of regret. I wanted to get a level of consistency with these armies and my plan from the outset it had been the plan to use Great War Miniatures for this project, with the exception of the Cossacks regiments (because I wanted to use them for both the Crimea and the Napoleonic armies, I chose the Perry Cossacks) and the Cossack artillery (because Great War don’t do any). The regret I have is that when, after I had completed the 17th Lancers and 11th Hussars, Great War withdrew the Light Brigade cavalry from production while the figures are redesigned. Since my deadline is well before any redesigned figures will hit the ground, I was compelled to choose another supplier, of which there were two; Warlord Games and Foundry. There lay a quandary…the Warlord figures are the most compatible for size, but they don’t make any light dragoons…Foundry does. So Foundry it was.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the Foundry figures are very nice and in my opinion stand the test of time (given that they were probably designed twenty-five years ago), but they are a bit smaller and 20% more expensive.

Above is an example of the difference in size of two stands of hussars, Great War on the left, Foundry on the right.

 

And now for the pictures of the brigade...

17th Lancers - Great War Miniatures

11th Hussars - Great War Miniatures 

8th Hussars - Foundry

4th Light Dragoons - Foundry

13th Light Dragoons - Foundry

And the whole brigade, in the formation of the Charge: front rank 17th Lancers on the left, Cardigan front and centre, the 13th Light Dragoons on the right; back row, the 8th Hussars on the left, 4th Light Dragoons in the centre and 13th Hussars on the right

One item that really did please me with this batch of figures was the completion of the Foundry Royal Horse Artillery. Adding this unit has a bit of personal connection for me because my great uncle served a driver in the RHA in the Great War in France and in Palestine. I can recall that my mother had a large photograph of him astride his horse in full dress uniform, which was a great inspiration for me as a child. Sadly that photograph is lost.

Meanwhile the Great Crimean Project continues and the lead mountain grows with the arrival today of 132 Russian infantry figures, 54 French infantry, six Russian Dragoons, plus two guns and eight crew. Another 90 Russian infantry and 18 cavalry are on the way. 

Action in the Vendée

In 1989 we played a game based on the rebellion in the Vendée against the French Revolutionary Government. We reprised the game again in 2004 and today we played a variation of the same game.

The basic scenario is a seek and destroy game in which the Republican representative from Nantes, Jean-Baptiste Carrier, a particularly vile individual known for his wanton cruelty, has been sent to subdue the Vendean rebels. He has come into town with his guillotine, rounded up a number of locals, including a supposed distant relative of the recently executed King and prepared to execute them. To clear the area of the rebels, and in an attempt to capture the local leader François de Charette, he has called in eight battalions of infantry, a squadron of dragoons, another of hussars and a battery of guns from the nearby Revolutionary Army garrison.

We commenced the game with four rebel units hidden on the stunning looking terrain. Charette's objective was to free the King's relative and three units deployed south of the town and one to the north.

The Revolutionary forces approached from the west and marched to the town. They then swing north on Carrier's order to clear that end of the table, before they were to swing back south to clear the ground there. 

As the hussars scouted the woods north of the town, the first unit of Vendeans struck, driving the hussars away before they disappeared back in the woods. Then Charette gave the signal for those rebels to head south (the signals were given by the rotation of the windmill sails). By the skin of their teeth the Vendeans escaped and went to ground in the woods and bocage south of the town.

Meanwhile the Revolutionary forces turned south and began an advance that looked as though it would systematically sweep all in front of it.  The Vendeans surprised and broke a battalion of Revolutionary infantry, who decided they had had enough and dispersed to the wind. Again the Vendeans slipped back into the bocage.

Then when it seemed unlikely that the rebels would be successful, they were able to slip into town and occupy the church yard. Then when a unit of sans-culottes approached the rebels charged out, drove them off and occupied the barn in which the prisoner was held. After beating off an attack by the Revolutionary infantry, the rebels, with their now freed captive in tow, exited the town.

The rebels swiftly retreated south to the woods and then attempted to make their escape off the eastern table edge. The Republicans came up quickly and a charge by the dragoons destroyed two Rebel units and captured