The long story (for the shortened version see below):
In the continuing Napoleonic project, Seth and I had hosted the historical Battle of LaRothiere (1814) [for this game see:[link]. While the real battle had Russians participating, we substituted more of Seth's Austrians in lieu of these green clad boys. However Rod, one of the participants in "DougFest" this summer [link] , has started painting Russians and with my purchasing of the Perry box for the Prussian 30th and 31st Regiments and a further couple of boxes of Warlord Russians, I felt like we could now get in the real troops into our next play of this battle for the coming Enfilade.
All I only need is the artillery,... and the cavalry, ...and the command.... (sigh)
However I do have some very nice guns but no crew to go with them. I made the call out to my wargaming friends for any spares. Rick graciously offered a bag of them for free. Thanks Rick!! Apparently, if I remember the story correctly, Rick said they were at Mark's for Thomas to pick up. Mark suggests they were left in Gary's car. With some confusion in over lapping emails with the two Thomas's, Mr. Moore finally tracked them down and gave them to Francis. Who, finally, said I could get them at his place if I bring some of the stuff I had for him. Basically they were held for ransom! <grin>
The short story:
I asked the boys if they had any Russian artymen to spare. Rick graciously offered a "bag" of them. They turned out to be a good mix of Old Glory, both horse and foot, and Foundry foot. There were 27 of which I turned 20 into five batteries with one as line horse. Excellent. While I only had four gun models, I left one gun unglued in order to place either with a foot or horse crew as needed. Good that.
The two reasons I wanted only crew was the beautiful gun models I had. They are big and nicely rendered. I don't know the manufacturer. I think old Connoisseur (??) but much better than the rather undersized Foundry version
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| Foundry minis and artillery. Very nice painting by http://maraudermoments.blogspot.co.uk. But the guns...uggh! |
I guess I could have got Perry lead but being a cheap ol' wargamer...well... <grin>
Only slight glitch was the difference in the shako size. Again, like the Perry vs Warlord thing [my post on this difference see: link], the shako circumference especially as viewed from above (the usual wargamer view) is significant :
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| Foundry crew on the left. Old Glory on the right. |
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| Close up showing the Foundry kiwer (Russian shako) size on the left and the Old Glory on the right. |
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| A close up of a Foundry pose working with an Old Glory crew. With the differences in the shako, I changed his head for a plastic Warlord one which are a very close match to the OG sizing. |
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| Old Glory Russian artillery in action. The cartridge holder started as a rammer but I removed that tool and bent his arm so as to be holding a powder bag (this the sponge part of his old rammer!) And the typical Old Glory pose : the rammer leaning over (!) But perhaps the camera angle as he is not THAT leaning. |
And like I said, sometimes the crazy OG poses help if you have several of the same as they can be manipulated into different positions/activity. The horse artillery proves this as I have the boys moving the gun back into position.
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| The open handed poses gave me the inspiration to have the crew moving up the gun. The ammo box indicates to the players it is a horse gun as not all players may know the uniform differences. The small square frame is for the small dice we use to indicate combat effectiveness. The large bare batch is to leave a spot to temporarily attach various commander names according to a scenario order of battle. The label sticks better than onto the flocking! |
Thanks again to Rick, Thomas M., and all you guys that helped me in this.