RUSSIAN UHLANS (RTW): WORK IN PROGRESS

Russian Uhlan circa 1858 (NYPL Vinkhuijzen Collection)

 

In this post, dear readers, we continue to report on my Russian Army of the Russo Turkish War era (roughly) project.  Having moved on from hussars, we are now well and truly stuck in with the uhlans.  It should come as no surprise that these will also be conversions, with a bit of "kit bashing" tossed in. 

 

Perry Carlist War British Auxillary Legion Lancers

 

Like many other nations, the Russian Uhlan uniform remained fairly stable throughout the mid/late 19th Century.  Thus, I am tagging this as a Russo Turkish War project, but the reality is that the representations will be similar but not necessarily specific to that particular stretch of time. To do the mid-century Russian Uhlans, I decided on the Perry Carlist War BAL lancer figures (above) given that they have the slightly slimmer, mid century czapka (much like the Russian model of the mid century).  The uniform details also correspond well with the Russian kit.  The problem with these is the horse furniture: it's a sheepskin as opposed to a shabraque.  Given that it was a one-off, I decided to buy a set of Perry Napoleonic Brunswick Uhlans just for their horse furniture, which is a good match.  To justify this cost, I figured that at some later date I might set the Brunswickers on the BAL horses for some other purpose (oh, who am I kidding?  I figured that since I was going through the trouble of modifying these figures, anyway, why not spend the few extra shekels to get the horse furniture right. There, I said it: I bought two sets of figures to get one unit--my birthday is coming up in a few months; this is an early installment to myself--gimme ten more minutes and I'll give you fourteen more rationalizations). Speaking of conversion, you might note that the Russian Uhlan has a horsehair tuft on the czapka, not present on these figures...

 

...as with my Russian Hussars, to create this tuft I took out my trusty Dremel and bored a hole in the headgear and inserted a bit of florist wire...

...which I then bonded in place with J-B Qwik Weld, and then bent over, snipped to length, and shaped green stuff over in the shape of the tuft: simple!  Although the BAL lancers are in covered czapkas, there is enough detail on them  to enable me to represent the more colorful uncovered czapka... 

...for about 30 seconds, I did consider not adding the tuft and doing these uhlans in covered czapka, but that madness soon passed and out came the Dremel and green stuff.

 

The figures did come with lances, but I replaced those with the excellent Northstar wire lances (cut to custom length, of course). I had some left over GMB Prussian lance pennions, which provided a handy starting point--which I then repainted in the appropriate colors for the Russian 4th and 5th Uhlans. I use a block of florist foam to hold lances and flags during production (a tip for anyone who might be interested).  In the end, it occurs to me that these uhlans will be a close second to the recent hussars in terms of conversion: the horses and weapons are from other manufacturers, and the riders are also modified.  The main difference will be that the uhlan uniform is part of these sculpts, wheras the hussar rig had to be painted in on the others. 

 

These figures will soon be joining the establishment as the 4th and 5th Uhlans. Watch for an update soon (above, details from Pyotr Balashov paintings of the Russian Army found on the Ruzhnikov Fine Arts Site).

Excelsior!