COSSACKS: RUSSO TURKISH WAR ERA

  The addition of the Don and Caucasian Cossacks (left and right, respectively) complete the Russian Cavalry.

These two units round out the first stage of my Russian Army project which was begun back in  April: the cavalry contingent (pictured above) consisting of two divisions of Russian Cavalry plus the Guard Cossacks (the horse artillery is still to come).  In this post, as usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX...

DON COSSACK

Each Russian cavalry division contained one Hussar, Uhlan, Dragoon, and Cossack regiment. I decided to go with a Don Cossack regiment for one of the divisions.  For these, I used the Mollo Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army as my guide. Note the all-white furashka cap in the example.  This distinctive Russian headgear is variously depicted as white with black visor and details (and sometimes a colored band), or as all white, as above (to include visor).
 

I again went out-of-period for figures and used the Bolshevik Cavalry I of the Copplestone Castings "Back of Beyond" Range.

I decided to go with the all-white furashka as being more distinctively "Russian" and representative of the era prior to when visored caps came into more general use.  I also stuck with white strapping (as per Mollo)--there are other sources that show it as black. Probably both are correct. As with the caps, I think the white is more distinctive and representative of the earlier end of this transitional era. 

CAUCASIAN COSSACK

I decided to go with a Caucasian Cossack regiment for the other cavalry division.  For this, I used the above image from the NYPL Vinkhuijzen collection as a model.  Having painted a brown coated army before (Hungarians), I gained an appreciation for the look of brown-clad units, and was drawn to the potential of the orange and brown combination of this unit.

I stuck with the Copplestone Casting "Back of Beyond" line and used the White Russian Caucasian Cossack figures once again (I had used these figures for the Guard Cossacks).

Many different versions of brown were brought to bear on these, along with the selective use of washes and highlighting, in order to keep the brown clad riders, the brown bits (like the rifles and slings, the horse furniture, etc), and the chestnut horses distinct from each other. I also resisted the urge to embellish with extra dashes of orange and instead stuck with the understated look of the source. 

 

I've now moved on to the Russian infantry, which will be a larger project, but one that doesn't involve horses (I'm so done with painting horses right now!).

Excelsior!