RUSSIAN COMMAND: RUSSO TURKISH WAR ERA

Detail view of General Skobelev (Outpost Wargame Service Figure)

 

In this post, dear reader, we return to the Russian Army of the Russo Turkish War Era project. Specficially, I am happy to post on the completion of the last (planned) stage of this major project: the command figures.  As usual, only two of these figures are actually of the era and represent what they were sculpted to be (the above-pictured General Skobelev is actually a "General Skobolev" figure from the Outpost Wargame Service Russo Turkish line--although it is new and hasn't yet hit their web-store).  More on that anon.  In the meantime, here is my accumulation of command figs for the Russians. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

 

Mollo Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army

Detail from Surrender of Fortress of Nikopol (1883, Canvas) by Nikolay Dmietriev-Orenburgsky

 

For the general gestalt of my high command figures, I used the indispensible Mollo (above)  and other images, such as the detail of the command group pictured in the Dmietriev Canvas (above). 

Russian Army Command Stand: figures are from the Great War Miniatures Crimean War Range (Baron Osten Sacken and Staff). This was a stand that I had originally done up to represent Prussian High Command, but which became "spare" after replacing it with an "upgrade" to a mounted Prussian High Command stand. I was originally thinking that I would try and have my Russian High Command stand also be of two  mounted figures, but in the end I decided that I liked this vignette and these figures too much not to use them--so I repainted them as Russians...

...I like to have the option to add a flag to my army command stands.  It can serve as a status marker in some games or just as a nice bit of eye candy--equally, the stand can be played without flag as well (depending on the game, it can sometimes get in the way).  To keep these  options open, I put a 1/2" x 1/2" metal square on the base (I fabricate these out of  1" x 1/2" metal wargame bases snipped in two) and I create a flag pole with a small rare earth magnet on its base (secured with J B Qwik Weld).

The Russian Army changed its flag patterns after the Crimean War (to the pattern 1857 flag). The above flag (a pattern 1857) I chose from among those I downloaded (and printed out) from the 1859 plates of the Russian Army found in the New York Public Library Vikhuisen Collection. 

 

Field Commanders: these are repurposed Prussian Napoleonic command figures:

Perry (left) and Calpe (right).

These figures were in my "spares" pile--partially painted as Prussians.  The signature Prussian Feldmutz cap, when painted white replicates the Russian Furashka--and the remaining uniform details are essentially the same as later century RTW Russian commanders.  One thing I did have to deal with was what to do about the sash on these figures...

...the answer was provided by this detail of a Russian Officer of the RTW wearing a white sash (from the Nikolay Dmietriev-Orenburgsky painting of The Last Battle of Plevna.)

 

 

I did two different renditions of the General Skobolev Figure by Outpost Wargame Services. As I did with my Austrian command figures, I mounted these on a set of Front Rank horses that I had among my spares (this combination of the larger mounts works very nicely with the  skobelev figures, which are on the larger side themselves, and makes them consistent with the other mounted figures in the command set).

 

I patterned one on the image of Gen Skobelev in the regulation (if still embellished) green general's uniform as found on the Russian Commemorative Postage Stamp* (above left), which is based on the painting by Nikolay Dmietriev-Orenburgsky.  The other version is drawn from the depiction of Gen Skobelev found in the Osprey RTW book (above right), which is based on accounts that describe him in an all white uniform riding a white horse into action (if you haven't already gleaned, Skobelev was a dashing national hero and internationally famous military figure of the era).
*Russian Post, Publishing and Trade Centre "Marka". Souvenir Sheet by A. Povarikhin. Scanned by Dmitry Ivanov. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 

 

I figured that Gen Skobelev was a trend setter among Russian commanders, and so there would be other commanders in the regulation green uniform who would cut a very similar figure:  thus, my green uniformed Skobelev could serve side by side, if needed, with the distinctive white-coated Skobelev. I have to add that my personal preference is for the green coated version. 

 

At other stages of the project I produced these two command figures: when doing cavalry, I generally pull a musician or two to use as ersatz cavalry command figures (in the case of the Russians, this uhlan musician).  And I kicked off this entire project by doing the conversion to create the Cossack Command figure.   Appropriate that he should be featured as the last figure study in this last stage of the project.

 

The Russian Command Complete and on Parade. More than I would need for my Chocolate Box Wars concept, but enough so that I can use this collection for other rule sets and contexts...and having a few more of them is just nice to look at (after all, this hobby is not just about function: eye candy is part of it, too). 

 

In an upcoming post, I'll do a Pass in Review of the now complete Russian Army. Until then...

 

Excelsior!