Tuesday, 24 December 2024

From LeeH: Russian Line Grenadiers 1812 [40 Points]

My first EVER unit of 28mm Napoleonics is completed. Let's be more specific.. my first Napoleonics in any scale! It’s all Ray’s fault. He rang me a few months ago and suggested a collaboration and about five seconds after suggesting The Retreat from Moscow in 1812 I was online and making my first order! My first impression…28mm is waaaay more expensive than my usual 6mm projects! I often paint single 28mm figures for the challenge, but it has probably been three decades since I last painted units of 28’s so I had no idea how long these would take to complete to a standard I was happy with. Fortunately, I had quite a bit of time during the opening weekend of the Challenge and I rocketed through this first unit. 


These are 1812 Russian Grenadiers, but they are wearing slightly out-of-date equipment. They still wear the 1808 pattern ‘stovepipe’ Shako with its enormous plume. From February 1811 regiments started being equipped with the new ‘Kiwer’ style shako with a much thinner Plume. Still, many had not received these before the French invasion in 1812 and some regiments didn’t fully change to the new regulation uniform until 1814. Fortunately for me most of the models I have chosen for my Russian army are wearing Greatcoats making painting them a lot easier. (Ray keeps mentioning this but I don’t feel guilty at all. First, he should have started the conversion by bagsying the Russians first and second he’d just cost me £200 I wasn’t planning on spending!)




One of the reasons I so quickly agreed to this project was that I felt the hand of fate on my shoulder. I have most of the Blandford Colour Series books and just a few weeks earlier I filled a gap in my collection when I found a copy of Uniforms of the Retreat from Moscow in a charity shop for the ridiculous price of one pound. So when Ray suggested the period for our collaboration project I knew I couldn’t ignore the obvious hint from the gods of wargaming. Serendipity had spoken and I had to go with the flow. Besides, being a bit of a butterfly my will was too weak to resist. 

(Scoring: 8x28mm Foot = 40 points)

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First, welcome to 'The Beautiful Game' Lee. Your first unit of Napoleonics... Wow. To me it's like some one announcing the arrival of their first child. Fabulous work my friend. I love that you've done them in the earlier stovepipe brush shako - literally over the top stuff. Good call on the greatcoats and I also like your snowy bases which really highlights the intended setting. Lovely stuff. I look forward to the next installment in this project.

Speaking of which, where is Ray's contribution? You're barely of the gate and he's already shirking his responsibilities.. :)

40 Points to you Lee, well done.


10 comments:

  1. Beautiful work Lee. Napoleonics are beautiful fun, and any post that includes the words "it's all Ray's fault" will be, by definition, excellent!

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  2. They look great Lee and the snow effect worked really well!

    Christopher

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    1. Thank you. Ray and I have been experimenting with different ways to do this. This is Woodland Scenic's snow mixed with PVA into a paste.

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  3. Yes very nice and snow basing is great!

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    1. Thank you. We've been champing at the bit to get started on this.

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  4. Wikipedia: "Jung stated that synchronicity events are chance occurrences from a statistical point of view, but meaningful in that they may seem to validate paranormal ideas" - so the fates had spoken when you bought that book!!!

    Lovely models too - and it still takes modern militaries YEARS to roll out uniform changes so I don't think the Russians did too badly!

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  5. Nice models, Lee! I like the snow bases and good to see some progress on your duel, some pressure on Ray, too.

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  6. Very nice - very atmospheric unit that captures the setting marvellously. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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  7. Excellent work in those Russians Lee. Great work on the faces, they look cold! That Uniforms book is gold.

    First Napoleonics? Wow I’ve been painting them for 50 years, starting with Humbrol enamels on Airfix floppy plastics.

    I’m with Greg, any project that can be blamed on Ray is worth doing.

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