Bossman John latest hobby project returns to the Napoleonic Wars, this time Russians. Compiled constructed and painted during lockdown, John’s assembled three regiments as well as two artillery batteries.
John managed to speed paint a regiment, from undercoat to varnishing and flocking and adding tufts to the base, in four hours and twenty minutes. That’s pretty good going there John.
To make the artillery, John used the existing models from our Crimean range, simply snipping their heads off and replacing them with some taken from the Napoleonic Russian infantry sprue.
John looks forward to bringing these miniatures to the battlefield soon. He intends to combine them with some of his Prussian collection to take on the dastardly French forces.
John used three boxes of Napoleonic Russian Line Infantry and one box of Pavlovsk Grenadiers. The grenadiers were particularly tough, having distinguished themselves at the Battle of Friedland in 1807.
Inspired?
Brave, stubborn and resilient, the Russians of the Napoelonic Wars had to cope with poor conditions, worse supplies and a cadre of mostly incompetent officers. Whenever western observers spent time with the Russian army they were constantly amazed by the sheer tenacity and good humour of the average Russian infantryman in the face of adversity.
Many thousands of men were pushed through the Imperial war machine to take to the fields of Europe in defiance of Napoleon. Often they were on the receiving end of awful punishment but rarely wavered. French officers were in awe of their ability to withstand artillery fire, cavalry charges and the famous French attack columns. It was said that only when you bayonetted them could you be sure you were dealing with mere men.
Explore this fascinating conflict with our Napoleonic Russian range, and to delve deeper into the history of Napoleon’s Russian campaigns, consider ‘A Clash of Eagles’, which in addition to providing background contains addtional resources to lend your tabletop battles even more of a Napoleonic feel.
Tom Mecredy
