25mm Russian Napoleonic Infantry

With the continuing wet weather and the COVID restrictions the weekend provided a perfect opportunity to finish off a number of painting projects. In all I managed to clear over 100 figures off the workbench.

First off are these splendid vintage Minifigs S Range Russian infantry, made up from ebay purchases and some figures from the lead mountain.  They will join my slowly expanding Russian napoleonic army:

Next up will be an American Civil War Union artllery piece with crew, followed by some Bavarian infantry and a unit of Nassau grenadiers.  Finally ther are some Airfix WW2 French.

Hinchliffe WW2 Russians

The second very kind gift was of a quantity of Hinchliffe 20mm Russian infantry and gunners.  There are sufficient figures to make up a useful force with support weapons.

The infantry come in three basic poses - an officer, an infantry man with a sub-machine gun and a rifleman:

Here is the whole infantry force:

In addition the batch of figures contained enough crews to man four support weapons. First off, I used three to man a mortar:

Two further crews were used to man a couple of 76mm guns by Irregular Miniatures:

The last crew were used to man a seriously large anti-tank gun, again by Irregular Miniatures:

Finally, I also finished this German Pak 40 by Hinchliffe, with a crew:

Getting a grip - Warrior Russians

Well having had a good 'ol sulk about the loss of vision in my left eye, I thought it was time to get a grip and plod on.  Armed with new specs, better lighting and magnifiers, as well as an eye patch! I have had a go at what I really enjoy - painting model soldiers.  It is amazing how the brain adapts to working with one eye.

Anyway, during a figure swap some weeks back I ended up with a complete Warrior miniatures Russian Napoleonic army. I thought as a test I would attempt to paint some them. I had already finished off a group of Minifigs, started before my eye problems with some success.

So, here is the result:

Warrior Miniatures Russian line infantry

Not as easy as before, but just as enjoyable.

Russian Infantry Columns - ESCI

I have had a heap of unpainted ESCI plastic Russian infantry, that are from the Crimean War artillery set, sitting in a box for many years and I have never had the urge to paint them. The other day I bought a load more; enough to form four Battalions in the same pose. During a marathon painting sssion over the weekend I managed to paint and base nearly 100 figures. I converted some drummers and standard bearers and gave the officer figures greatcoats, rather than the incorrect frock coat.

Here they advancing in column:

 Here Russian infantry advance screened by my recently finished Strelets skirmishers

Russian Skirmishers

I spotted these figures on Ebay. They are Russian Cossack infantry by Strelets and they were nicely painted. All up there are around 50 figures, so I varnished them, touched them up and based them to form two Battalions of skirmishers. 

They are great figures, with some lively (and some odd) poses that remind me of the skirmishers that were portrayed in the film Charge of the Light Brigade, as the British began their assault over the Alma.

Battalion one:

 Battalion two:

The lot:

Russian Grenadiers - Minifigs S Range

Minifigs S Range recasts of Russian Infantry in helemet and greatcoat, painted as line grenadiers.  The officer is by Hinton Hunt, as I did not like the pose of the S Range offering.

More Russian Line Infantry

Over the past few  weeks I have been slowly working on another Douglas Miniatures Russian Line Infantry Battalion. These are the advancing figure in soft caps. The officer and standard bearer are conversions from the helmeted originals by swapping heads. The colour is from Adolfo Ramos, which required the removal of the original flag and pole and replacing it with a slightly longer one made from a large paper clip.

In the pipeline is a Russian Lancer unit and a Turkish artillery battery.

R3 Russian Infantry in Helmet Firing  

This is the last model in the Russian infantry range in the Douglas Miniatures series to be added to my collection. The figure is a line infantry soldier in greatcoat, wearing a helmet and in the firing position. I have decided to paint this unit in the fawn colour, rather than grey, that seems to have been used more frequently by the Russian forces in the Crimea. I have done this just to break up the sea of grey in my Russian army.

This unit marks a milestone for me as I have painted all of the bare metal in my Crimean war figure store. That said another order is with Old John, so the brushes will not be dry for long.

Russian Infantry - Grenadiers

Russian grenadiers wore exactly the same uniform as line and light troops, except for minor embellishments to the uniform, and of course the standards that they carried. This unit is made up of R1, officer in helmet, R2 infantry in helmet advancing and R14 infantry standard bearer in helmet. They are also wearing white summer trousers, just for a change! The standard denotes a grenadier regiment of the 3rd Division.

Russian infantry columns on the move:

R17 Russian Infantry Firing - Soft Hat   

Painted as Jagers, the latest addition consisting of Russian line infantry in greatcoats and soft hats in the standing firing position. Jagers were distinguished by their black leather straps. I have also converted the officer figure and standard bearer by removing the helmeted heads and adding soft hat heads. I also added a spike to the flag pole. This was made from the top of a cocktail stick:

More Russian Infantry           

Here are the Russian infantry in firing poses:

R3 Russian Infantry in Helmet Firing:

R17 Russian Infantry in Soft Hat Firing:

Russian Infantry in Soft Hats

The final figure types in the Douglas Miniatures Russian infantry range are line infantry depicted wearing the soft field caps. There are two figures, R16 Russian Infantry Advancing Greatcoat and Cap and R17, which is the same figure but in the firing position. This latter figure will be covered later.

R16 is quite a nice figure and in my view is a better casting than the line infantry in helmet model and I believe it is a completely different figure and not just a head change.

Unfortunately there are no command figures in soft hats, so you either have to find an alternative or use helmeted types. John Cunningham thinks that some additional figures may exist in the Russian infantry range, but to date none have surfaced. As an alternative, I have tried the offering from Tumbling Dice. Here is the link to their website:

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/

I like the Tumbling Dice figures and they work quite well with Douglas Miniatures, but there are a couple of problems. The first is that all figures are in winter dress, which means they are in greatcoats. This is fine for the Russians, but not so good for the British. The second issues is that they come as mult-part kits, which is fine for a few command figures, but would be a chore for complete units. That said the castings are excellent and the figures do fill a gap in the Douglas range:

Russian Light Infantry

  R13 & R15 Caucasian Riflemen

Douglas Miniatures represents Russian light infantry or skirmishers in the form of R13, Caucasian Rifles. Dressed in the distinctive green uniform, with black facings, piped red and the fur trimmed headdress they add a colourful change to the normal drab Russian grey brown greatcoats. There is an officer figure: R15, Caucasian Rifles Officer.  Here is a view of a battalion formed up in line:

In the centre the officer figure can be seen armed with a sword:

Russian Infantry in helmet advancing. 

Here are painted samples of R2, with R1 and R14 at their head:

 Russian Infantry

R1 Russian Officer in helmet - This is the only Russian infantry officer figure in the range and he wears the standard greatcoat, with the tall spiked helmet of the period.

R2 Russian infantry in helmet - advancing.

R14 Russian infantry standard bearer in helmet. This appears to be the same casting as the officer, but with a standard added. The standard is moulded into the helmet and unfortunately does not include a spike/spearhead on top of the pole, which makes it look a little odd.

There is also a firing figure (R3) to be added later.