HOME MADE RUSSIAN HUSSARS, RUSSO TURKISH WAR ERA

 

Post-Napoleonic (Russo Turkish War Era) Russian Hussars Complete

 

In this post, dear readers, we report on the completion of the previous work in progress post:  two units of Russian Hussars for my Russo Turkish War Era Russian Army.  For full particulars of this project, please follow the link to the previous post. By way of brief summary here, this was an almost 100 percent conversion, with all bits either modified or coming from different kits/manufacturers:

The figures began life as Perry Carlist War Polish/Foreign Legion Lancers (above), with their headgear modified into small form kepis with plume, hussar details painted onto the uniforms, rearmed with swords from Gripping Beast, and mounted on spare horses (probably Perry Prussian napoleonic) from among my bits box.  I'm not sure if "kitbashing" is something limited to plastics or not, but it would probably apply here, I'm thinking.

I decided on representing the 11th (left) and 6th Hussars.  I used the NYPL uniform collection and paintings by Pyotr Balashov as primary guides. 

 

Here is a study of the finished units.  As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post. 

 

11th Hussars 

I was drawn to the 11th by the combination of yellow distinctions and white kepi.  

Given that the figures are in short jackets, I painted in the part of the hussar attila that would extend below the belt.  The figs are in lancer girdles, which I painted in as hussar barrel sashes. The rest of the hussar rig was painted in, to include my Home Made Hungarian Knots.

 6th Hussars

I was quite taken by the 6th's unique combination of dark blue uniform, white distinctions, and light blue kepi. 

  

I was a bit concerned about how the Gripping Beast swords would work, size-wise, but in the end they turned out fine.  The original swords, being medieval, only had cross hilts.  I painted over the ball of J-B Qwik Weld used to hold them in place to represent the full cavalry hilts.  

 

Both Units at Table View Distance

Another set of conversions joins the lists of my Post-Napoleonic collection.

 

Next up: Russian Uhlans!

 

Excelsior!

 

RUSSIAN HUSSARS OF THE RUSSO TURKISH WAR: WORK IN PROGRESS

 

Detail showing Russian hussars from the Pyotr Balashov painting of the 14th Cavalry Division found on the Ruznikov Fine Arts Site.

In this post, dear readers, we continue on with a report on the progress of the Russo Turkish War Russian Army project.  Given a confluence of events, I've decided to continue on from the Guard Cossacks and complete all the cavalry before doing the infantry: get the challenging stuff done ahead of the easier. Following from this concept, I've decided to start with the Russian hussars, which are not only the most elaborate in terms of uniform but which will require the most extensive conversion work I've done to date.

Full Balashov painting of the 14th Cavalry Division (above).  Below, officer of the 11th hussars (from the NYPL Vinkhuijzen Collection).

 

As can be seen from the above images, the Russian cavalry of the era was splendidly outfitted in keeping with the best traditions of "Chocolate Box Armies" of the era.  Each cavalry division consisted of four regiments: one hussar, one uhlan, one dragoon, and one cossack.  According to Quinton Barry's excellent text, War in the East,  there were eight cavalry divisions in the Russian OOB of the Army of the South in 1877 (and this doesn't count the Guard Cavalry Division which arrived later--there were two cavalry divisions at Plevna: that's eight regiments).  Yet if you go by the miniatures available--and most of the references--what you get is a cartoon version of the Russian cavalry consisting exclusively of cossacks (this is particularly the case with the Osprey book on the Russo Turkish Armies--they have tables of distinctions for the Russian hussars, uhlans, and dragoons, but leave out little things like--everything else!).  Now, granted, there were lots and lots of cossacks in the OOB, above and beyond those in the regular cavalry divisions. However, these other splendidly turned out cavalry were also a major part of the force (and who would leave these out of any Russian Army that they were doing for either the RTW or for more general purposes for the mid/late century)?  Well, I can't for one.  So I decided to take up whatever necessary conversions would be needed to do so (surprise!). In the end, I'll have two cavalry divisions (two hussars, two uhlans, two dragoons, and two cossacks, total). Cavalry that, aside from the cossacks, nobody actually makes figures for. Which brings us around to the first endeavor: the hussars. For anyone who shares my mania, I offer the following as a guide (and if you don't share my mania, as a cautionary tale). As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post...

I started with the Perry Carlist War French Foreign Legion Polish Lancers in early uniform.  I liked the clean lines of the sculpts (helping to facilitate the fact that I would have to free-hand in the hussar details), the fact that the headgear was a good start on the kepi, and that the saddle furniture was a close match.  This would require me to alter the headgear and arm them with swords (from among my bits) as opposed to lances.  An aside: the first rank of Russian hussars were lance armed, but mixing lances in the unit in some way would have been confusing--and the same is the case for the Russian hussars of the Napoleonic era, but nobody ever puts them on the table with the lance (at least not that I've seen). So I stuck with the conventional representation: sword-armed. 

 

UNFORTUNATELY, the figures I actually received had the correct riders but the wrong horses. From what I can tell, they were the horses from the Perry Carlist War British British Auxillary Legion Lancers (above), with a sheepskin!  Given the expense and the time it took for the figs to arrive from the UK, I was not going to deal with the delay in trying to get another set of the correct horses.  Painting the sheepskins like lumpy shabraques would just not do--not only would they look bad, but they wouldn't come close to rendering the important effect that the Russian hussar shabraque has, the border in particular.  Fortunately, I found that I had some partially painted Perry Prussian Napoleonic cavalry mounts among my bits and spares--where the riders went, I can't recall: very odd.  These have similar lines to the Russian hussar horse furniture, and there were just enough of them to get me through (the three figure command set that I received, I should mention, did have the correct horse furniture).  So now I was confronting a task that riders aside, was composed entirely of nonstandard bits from other places.  Here is how I progressed...

I first cut down the tall French Foreign Legion kepi (right) to regular kepi height (left)...

...I then took my trusty dremel and bored a hole in each kepi, into which I inserted a bit of florist's wire (bonded with J-B Qwik Weld), which would act as a post...

...When putting them together, I left the wire longer than needed in order to make it easier to manage (above).  Then I cut them to length after the bond had set...

...next I formed the small hanging plumes on to the posts using green stuff. I then armed them with Gripping Beast swords that I had leftover from my Saga project (not pictured).

 

For anyone seeking information on the Russian cavalry, I relied on images in the aforementioned NYPL Vinkhhuijzen collection (scanning backwards and forwards about a decade from 1875-80 set); the articles by Ray Lucas in Miniature Wargames #20 and #21 (Jan, Feb, 85); the John and Boris Mollo Uniforms of the Russian Imperial Army (Blandford Colour Series); and the excellent Balashov paintings of the Russian Army of the period.

 

Work is proceeding on track. Watch this space, dear readers, for another post in about a week.

Excelsior!

RUSSIAN GUARD COSSACK: RUSSO TURKISH WAR

 

Russian Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Own Cossack Escort

 

In this post, dear readers, we follow up from last week's post on the beginnings of the Russian Army of the Russo Turkish War project.  Following on from that, the first unit has been mustered.  These are Copplestone Castings White Russian Caucasian Cossacks from their Back of Beyond Range--technically from the Russian Civil War era, but they do a fine job representing any of the Caucasian Cossacks from the Russo Turkish War era forward. I guess that this isn't so much a conversion (as my last project was), so much as it is a re-purposing of figures to represent something other than what they are.

 

A colorized photograph of Tsar Nicholas II wearing the uniform of the Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Escort

Officer of the Regiment, circa 1877: pretty much the same. 

Not unlike someone starting a French Napoleonic Army who begins with the Old Guard, I am kicking-off my project with a guard unit. In this case, one of the numerous Russian Imperial Guard elements.  The Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Escort had 200 troopers on duty protecting the Tsar and another 200 rotated off service.  There may have been other sortina's (that's Cossack for "squardon" basically) as well.  Regardless, once I received the Copplestone figures I knew that I wanted to put this unit on the table.  Whether it was sent on campaign or engaged as a tactical/operational unit along with other guard cavalry is unclear--and I rather doubt that anyone playing in a game will have the depth of knowledge to cavil: "Wait a minute...aren't those the Cossacks of His Imperial Majesty's Escort? What are you about, man?"--yeah, it's not likely. But even so....

Guard Cossack

...Gazyrs aside (those are the signature bullet loops of Caucasian dress), the uniform is so close to the Life Guard Cossack Regiment of the Lifeguard Cavalry Division (pictured above) that they could pass for them at 4 foot playing distance (particularly given the fading faculties of the group in which I play).  "An easy enough mistake to make, my friend: those are the Life Guard Cossacks..." But enough of these diversions.  On to the study of my rendition of this unit (as usual, you may clix pix for Big Pix in this post):

 

I have to say that for me, Copplestone Casting figures strike the perfect balance between detail and ease of painting--and they deliver on effort invested.  I could be tempted to jump into the Back of Beyond just because of these figures. Given my complicated relationship with painting, I never thought I'd be among those who would say any figure set was a "joy" to paint--there is a first time for everything, I guess, because I'm actually looking forward to painting the next set of these  (this time as non-guard cossacks). 

Two cossacks of the regiment: fellows not to be trifled with.

Excelsior!

 

 

RUSSO TURKISH WAR PROJECT BEGUN: ONE FIGURE DONE (LITTLE VICTORIES)

 

First Figure of the Russian Russo Turkish War Project

 

Greetings, fellow meanderers.  Figures are still rolling in for my aforementioned "Pandemic Project II" (Russo Turkish War Russian Army: the 1877 RTW, I might add, as opposed to earlier ones).  I decided that rather than waiting for the whole batch to arrive, I'd get stuck in with what was on hand.  I also decided on giving the project a jump start by getting a complete figure done, both to get into the swing of things and to give me some inspiration and momentum.  One peculiarity of the figures on the market is that there are no mounted command figures for the Russians.  Thus, I knew that I would be in the conversion game for these (of course, I just HAVE to have mounted commanders).  I also wanted to have the very excellent Kuban/Caucasian Cossacks among my mounted units. Thus, I searched around and decided to go out of period (surprise!) and pick up some Back of Beyond Caucasian Cossack Cavalry and give those a try...

...and of course, this first figure is a conversion (would you expect anything less?). This figure began life as a Copplestone Caucasian Cavalry trooper from their Back of Beyond line. I added the shoulder boards with green stuff. 

For inspiration, I went with the uniform of the Russian Imperial Guard Cossack unit that was the personal escort of the Tsar. This works well enough for a one off high ranking command figure.  In the below study, you may clix pix for BIG PIX...

The Copplestone figure for Russian Civil War works fine for the Russo Turkish War as well.  The uniform was traditional and basically didn't change much. I decided on the white Kubanka (hat) as a distinction for a high ranking officer.  I'm happy with the look. Getting this figure done also acquainted me with Copplestone figures ahead of tackling a unit of them...

...the next unit to be mustered into service will be the other Copplestone Caucasion Cossack figures, also done up in the Guard Escort Cossack rig.  In my Chocolate Box Wars system (another work in progress), each force can potentially field one guard cavalry unit--so these will be my Russian guard cavalry.  I'll have some other Cossacks in the lists for "every day" use. But those will be the topic of other posts at another time, dear reader.

 

Excelsior!