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!