PASS IN REVIEW: RUSSIAN RTW ARMY

Russian Army of the Russo Turkish War Era on Parade

 

Once again, life has intruded on art, as reflected in the absence of blogging activity here (only one post in November!). Hoping to get back into a more regular pattern again, here is the overdue parade of my completed Russian Army.  This post represents closure on this major project, which began in April, and as such also marks the moment to move forward again into other subject matter.  But enough of these meta-ruminations. On to the parade. In this study, you will find links to the collective posts that made up this project (and as usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX for the eye candy):

The entire force as seen from the Tsar's raised viewing platform (cue appropriate Imperial Russian martial music ). The artillery park and command take pride of place at the head of the formation.

Looking over the head of the Guard Cossacks, the serried ranks of the regular Infantry contingent, the backbone of any Russian Army: nine line battalions plus two rifle battalions.  

The Russian Guard and Bulgarian Legion enhance the infantry.

Two battalions of blue-jacketed dismounted cossacks provide auxilliary infantry support.

Two cavalry divisions, each consisting of a hussar, an uhlan, a dragoon, and a cossack regiment, plus horse artillery, march on the wings.  The top-pictured cavalry division is led by the cossack general, a conversion and the first figure completed in the project.

For anyone who might be keeping track, this is a much larger set of figures than would be needed for the Chocolate Box Wars project (still a work in progress: the less said about that the better...).  As a matter of fact, this collection violates the entire principle of that small figure count project--except for the truism that there really is no such thing as having "too many" figures. This force does, however, provide a good size for my 19th Century Volley and Bayonet Variant, which I also had in mind.  In the end, I must say that this project grew in the doing, in no small part because of the immersion in research that each stage involved (sort of like Tolkien's description of how his tale started as a philological exercise and then "grew in the telling").  At any rate, the project is now ready for the table, and I hope that my record of its production in this blog has provided some useful information for others who may be interested in the period--and if not, at least a diversion for those who may just like to look at pictures of toy soldiers. I would count either as a success.

 

Excelsior!