Mustering Into Service: Rostovski Regiment (SYW Foundry Figs)

Marching out of the basing depot and mustering into the Czar's service is this new regiment for my Russian Seven Years War army.  These are 28mm Foundry figures, Russian infantry in red waistcoats, and they fly the banner of the Rostovski Regiment (flags by Adolfo Ramos).   They are mostly painted using the Foundry tri-tone system.

The Rostovski Regiment was formed under Peter the Great and fought in several of the big battles in Eastern Prussia, including Gros-Jagsersdorf and Zorndorf.

I always try to add Foundry's character packs to my large units and there are some tucked into these bases.  On the left below, Fyodor still wears his servant's wig that he felt privileged to wear as valet to young Sasha Grigorevich Solovev.  Now that the master is a lieutenant commanding the colour party, Fyodor is his self-appointed bodyguard. 

Private Gervasi Stepanov is mindlessly cheerful and always does his best to improve morale.

Private Morozov is getting a bollocking from his corporal for picking his nose in ranks.

Isaak Osipov is boasting about the rabbit he shot while on picket duty, "Clean through the skull, like that Jager I potted at Gros-Jagersdorf, remember?"  Looks like I need to revisit Isaak's bayonet with some silver paint!

Captain Sergei Kovalev inspects his men before they go on parade.   The good captain is on a single base for games using Sharp Practice.  I like how the Foundry Russian officers in this set all carry carbines, it gives them a business-like look.

Father Mikhail Mikhailovich blesses the regiment's colours.

Good opportunity to put all of my Russian SYW army on parade.  I definitely need more light cavalry!

Many thanks for looking, and blessings to your brushes!  Happy Easter.MP+

Prussian Musketeer Regiment Mustered Into Service

 I'm very happy that this large Prussian regiment for my SYW project is complete and now mustered into service.   These are Foundry 28mm figures, and since they are sculpted wearing jackets without lapels, I painted them as Musketeer Regiment No 3, Anhalt Dessau.  This regiment had a mixed war record, but redeemed some earlier fumbles and won back Frederick's regard for its performance at the Battle of Liegnitz.

Here we see the entire regiment drawn up and practicing its musketry drill, under the watchful eye of Der Alte Fritz.  That parade ground looks quite idyllic!

The uniform for this regiment was fairly utilitarian:  dark blue coat with red collar, cuffs and turn backs, white waistcoat and breeches, and black gaiters.   As usual, I used Foundry tritone paints over a black undercoat.  There are 36 figures in this unit, so I developed a kind of zen-like detachment to the painting.  It helped that the core of the unit is in two poses, so that broke the monotony a bit.  I think I started this project in September, or possible earlier this summer.  It's been a while.

I'm of two minds about firing poses.  They add some variety to the army, and look good in game photos (the thin blue line making an heroic stand) but the bases look a bit strange when in march column formation.   I wanted the second rank to look like they were ready to step forward and fire once the order was given.

Command stand,  the poor drummer getting that fife right in the ear!  The flags are by Adolfo Ramos in Spain,  I think he's the best in the business.

Two hard bitten NCOs.

A closeup of the firing line.  The entire unit is 6 stands of six figures each, plus the two single mounted NCOs.   I wanted to see what a smaller unit of only two or three stands would look like for larger scale games such as Sam Mustafa's Might and Empire, and it doesn't look too bad at all!  Of course, not every two base regiment can  have it's own standards, but the command stand would perhaps serve as the centre regiment of a brigade in the larger scale battles.

Hard bitten NCO training his troops to fire three rounds to the Austrian's one.  His can will be liberally applied.

Rear view.  I like the look of six figures to a base, it conveys the closely packed formations of the period, but I sometimes wish if they were four to a base, it would be easier to play SYW Sharpe Practice games, as the SP size for a group is eight figures.   I have tried playing Sharpe Practice with six figure groups and it works, but troops are more fragile.

Well, thanks for looking.  Next in the SYW queue is a regiment of Foundry Russians in their distinctive red vests, which is a good look.  Prussian reinforcements in 2025 will include a grenadier regiment (I should make it a colourful one), von Kleist's Freikorps lancers, and some Friekorps or garrison infantry.  Hopefully I can master the same zen like detachment to paint more of these large units.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Perry Brothers ACW Union Cavalry Muster Into Service

"Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon ...and if you asked her, why it was she wore it, she said it was for her lover who was in the cavalry."

I might have been whistling that tune as I finished flocking these troopers the other day.   They represent the contents of a Perry Brothers box of plastic 28mm American Civil War cavalry, assembled and painted as Union cavalry.  I could have assembled the figures with carbines or pistols in hand, but the look of the sabres is iconic, even though probably not very common in the later war period.  At any rate, I'm very happy to muster this new unit into service.

Not a huge complaint, but after painting the three mounted Roman gents I showed here recently, these Perry figures felt like a slight step down in quality.   To be fair, the Perry brothers were fairly early adopters of injection plastics, a decade or so ago now, whereas Victrix is probably benefiting from newer design and production technologies.  the Victrix human faces are sharper, and the horses have much more texture in muscles, manes and tails.     However, when you paint a dozen of the Perry figures, the overall impression is still impressive.

This batch was mostly painted using Foundry paints.  The tri-tone system gives good results for the horses, and the Union blue for the tunics and kepis looks especially good.  I free-handed the yellow piping, and some came out better than others, especially the tunic collars.  The flag is by Adolfo Ramos.

These gallant lads, together with what's already in my collection, gives me two brigades of Union cavalry, or three groups of eight, depending on the rules and game scale.   There are many mounted actions that would make great games, such as the cavalry encounters before Gettysburg or actions in the Valley, so we may some rebel riders in the painting queue at some point.

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Front Rank 28mm SYW Prussian Cuirassiers Swell the Ranks

 A bunch of Front Rank swells swell the ranks.   Trotting off the paint bench are these 12 figures, representing the 5th Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg Cuirassiers.  They been consuming my time off and on since just after Christmas and I'm happy to get to the finish line with them.

As noted, the figures are Front Rank, and I'm so glad that this venerable line of figures was picked up by Gripping Beast.    I just chose the regiment because I like the number 5, and liked the blue on beige uniforms.  I used this page from the invaluable Kronoskaf website as a guide.  The flag is from Adolfo Ramos and the paints used are mostly from the Foundry tri-tone system.

The newly mustered regiment passes in review in front of Der Alte Fritz and are cheered lustily by their cavalry colleagues.

Some shots of my completed Prussian army thus far.   

Next in the Prussian Painting Queue  (PPQ) is another musketeer regiment (No 3 Anhalt-Dessau) and some pesky friekorps, including Von Kleist's uhlans (very pretty, but can they fight?).

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+ 

Painting Styles: A Thirty Year Journey

This week a new unit was mustered into my 18th Century Russian army, and a suitable parade was organized. The First Grenadier Regiment’s new banners (flags by Adolfo Ramos) were blessed by the Czar’s preeminent mad padre, Father Mikhail Petrovich.  

Then, the Grenadiers passed in review before the commanding officer.  So why is this the First Grenadier Regiment?  Because it is the first such regiment that I ever painted, some thirty years ago, sometime around 1990 as I recall.  

Here below on the front of the right-hand base you can see three of the original figures, Front Rank Russian SYW grenadiers advancing which I purchased from the long defunct and legendary Emperor’s Headquarters, which I once visited on the south side of Chicago (I think it was the south side, it was a long drive).  I was a starving graduate student at the time, on a tight budget, so I think I purchased sixteen figures.   I was working from black and white drawings in a book on SYW Russian uniforms that I was lucky enough to find, and used whatever paints I could lay my hands on.   The green of the tunics was from a bottle of FolkArt craft paint (I want to say the colour was named Clover??) which wasn’t as dark as the traditional Russian Green of the period but I thought maybe the coats could be faded?

The other figures with the upright muskets are recently purchased from Foundry, which as I’ve said here before is now my go-to range for 28mm SYW.  Once I started rebasing my SYW figures six foot to a stand, I realized that I needed more Russian grenadiers to flesh out the unit, so I ordered another 18 of these figures from Foundry and got to work on them last month.   

In thirty years I’ve learned a few things about painting.   As you can see on the old Front Rank figures, I was fairly ignorant of layers, shading and washes.   The skin was very pale, and I had an idea that if I mixed red with flesh for their cheeks, they’d look a bit like toy nutcrackers,   I did my best with the eyes, but hey have that starey look to them.    I think I mixed some red with a bit of yellow to try and give some highlights on the red turn backs, but highlighting was something I didn’t really understand well.

 

 

The difference now, besides thirty years experience, is that I can afford better materials and brushes, which offsets the slight deterioration that my eyes have experienced.  The Foundry figures are painted using he tri-tone Foundry paint system in the school of Kevin Dallimore, and as someone kindly said on Twitter the other day, these new figures are done at a good tabletop standard, a compliment I’m glad to take.   

It gave me great pleasure to fold these old and new figures into a composite grenadier battalion, and to give them spiffy new flags.   It’s a small tribute to thirty years of trial and error and slow improvements, but I love them all.   These figures and the rest of the Russian army are rumoured to be preparing to march against Turkey.   More on that soon.

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Victorian British and Canadian Brigade on Parade

After my last post here, I thought it would be fun to take all my completed Victorian  British and Canadian troops and put them on the table for a group shot.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Perry figures in the foreground, British regulars and behind them a regiment of Canadian militia.

Perry Canadian militia cavalry in the centre.

Perry command figures in the centre.

Two Perry Armstrong Whitworth cannon and crew.

Most recently completed Warlord regiment, British regulars, in the foreground, and a second regiment of Canadian militia behind them.

Flags by Adolfo Ramos.

I found this an encouraging exercise to see the fruits of two years’ work on the table.   Now to dig out my US American Civil War figures and put them to the test.

Cheers and thanks for looking, MP+

Prussian SYW Fusliers: IR 41 (Wied)

The latest unit of my 28mm SYW project is complete and is mustered into Prussian service.    These are Front Rank Prussian Fusiliers, and may have been one of the last shipments made by the now retired owners of that company before it was acquired by Gripping Beast.  I’m very pleased to see that this venerable product line is now available again on the GB website.  While most of my SYW figures in recent memory have been purchased from the extensive Foundry line, I began the collection in the 1990s with Front Rank figures, ordered from the legendary and now defunct Emperor’s Headquarters in Chicago. 

 These figures came as a Front Rank battalion back, and while I should have ordered a few more of the chaps with muskets, I think it’s fine and realistic to have units of slightly different sizes on the wargames table.  I chose the paint scheme for the Wied Fusiliers, a regiment which takes its name from its commander, who rejoiced in the name of Franz Carl Ludwig Count von Wied zu Neuwied.   According to the Kronoskaf website, the regiment, which had existed since 1716 as “ Erbprinz”, was purchased outright by Frederick II in 1741 from the Duchy of Wurtemberg, which obviously needed the cash for pressing reasons, and became Infantry Regiment 41.

 The unit is painted in Foundry paints using their tribute-tone system on a black undercoat, which I’m slowly becoming more comfortable with.   I chose Foundry’s Ochre paints for their trousers and waistcoats, which to me looks very Prussian, though it was noted to me on social media that Von Wied’s troops wore white trousers.   Kronoskaf notes that as of 1756 the trousers were of a yellowish hue, so I think I’m on firm ground, and honestly, in games where these figures could be any Prussian fusilier unit, does it really matter?

Likewise I was told that the flags should be reversed, as the Colonel’s flag should be on , and I will remember that when they pop off and need to be reglued.  Someone else told me the flagpoles were two tall.   Whatever, they look good to me.  The flags are from Adolfo Ramos, who in my opinion does stellar work.

 That the troops with muskets are all in one pose gives this unit an old school look, which I rather like, and seems in keeping with the Prussian mode of drill.

 I am currently working on a regiment of SYW Prussian dragoons, so soon I should have a modest sized Prussian brigade ready for the table.  Cheers and thanks for looking.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

 

New Troopers for the Czar: Foundry SYW Russian Cuirassiers

There was much excitement here last week as a small package from Madrid arrived in my post box.   I’ve become a tiresome convert to Adolfo Ramos’ flags, I think he’s simply the best in the business, and his presentation flags mounted on poles with the tasselly things are the bees knees, if you don’t mind paying a little more and waiting a little longer.  This is my third order from Adolfo and I’m a huge fan.

All of these are for SYW units in the painting queue, starting with the newly finished Kievsky Regiment of Cuirassiers.    Seeing as the standard bearer is cast holding the standard pole, I ordered the 25 and 15mm versions to be cautious, and was pleased that I did so, for it was the 15mm flag that fit.

 A warm spring day on the parade field as the newly raised unit is mustered into service under the watchful eyes of several generals.

 Father Piotr Mikhailovich blesses the banners and prays that they will fight well for their God and for their Czar.  The Orthodox priest is a figure painted and given to me years back by my friend and podcast partner James Manto.

 “May God bless you with good dice rolls!"

 The regiment passes in review.   These are Foundry figures, I purchased six of them years ago in a bring and buy, and recently bought another six to make up the unit when the SYW bug returned.     I think Foundry SYW figures are even better than Front Rank for the detail and animation of the faces.

 

This regiment gives my Russian army some badly needed hitting power in its cavalry arm.  Now back to the Prussians who have several regiments and a battery in the queue, along with impatient Alte Fritz and his staff! 

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Perry Brothers Command and Artillery Figures for Upper Canada/Alt-ACW

I’m happy to have finished another batch of figures for my alt-ACW project, all from the Perry 1860s British Intervention Force range.   

Command figures from set BIF 44, which are modelled on figures of the period such as Garnet Wolseley.  They’re painted using the Foundry tri-tone paint system, which I may slowly become a fan of.  The blue of the uniforms came out quite glossy, but the dullcote finish toned it down nicely.

 

“I say, chaps, it says here that we lost the Euro Cup to Italy!  Damn bad news, what?"

Bossy foot types.  Chap sitting on the stump is writing “Dearest mother, Canada is full of swamps and mosquitos.  Any chance Uncle Bertie can get me back to Horse Guards?"

 

Command stand for a second unit of Canadian militia.   The flags are from Adolfo Ramos from his Crimean War range.  The battle honours might seem a bit spurious for a Canadian unit, but I can always say that this is a militia battalion affiliated with a famous British regiment and therefore entitled to carry its colours.  Or something to that effect.  At any rate, Adolfo’s flags are brilliant.

 

Finally, the Royal Artillery expand their presence in Upper Canada with a second Armstrong Whitworth gun and crew.   I think this uniform is incredibly smart, though the pillbox cap doesn’t look very useful for keeping the sun or rain off one’s hand, or for staying in place while operating a cannon.  Fun fact, Royal Military College of Canada cadets still wear this type of headdress as part of their ceremonial uniform.

The barrel looks a bit odd elevated off the carriage but I can’t figure out any other way to assemble it.

 

Hopefully I’ll get these chaps into action soon.   Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!