Napoleonic Russian Imperial Guard Infantry

The 5th Army Corps at the Battle of Borodino contained the Russian Guard infantry, much of the Guard heavy cavalry and a division of combined grenadiers.  I decided to forgo the grenadiers and bulk up on the guard infantry (same morale strength in the rules so no advantage) which allowed me to create four of the guard regiments.  The guard regimental uniforms are similar but for the colour of the collars and, in one case, the addition of red lapels. Very cool those but marred to some degree with the right-arm-crossed-over-the-chest-to-hold-the-musket pose of all the Warlord infantry plastics.
Speaking of which, these Warlord Russians have a more goose-stepping marching poses than that of the Perrys. As the two are not that compatible together (see my previous review: link  )  I chose the Warlords to be the separate Guard elements.

The Russian Imperial Guard using the older flags carried during Borodino. In 1813 they were issued new individual regimental colours which most war-gamers associate with them

This stand I call the "But for the grace of God go I" as the lone Russian seems to contemplate the body of a fallen French soldier.   Somehow I miscounted and ended up painting one extra figure of guardsman. So I picked the one with an odd downward head position - it probably sagged before the glue hardened - and placed him, and a Perry plastic casualty type previously painted, onto a round stand ( a cut out from a door lock instillation of all things! )  merely as decoration on the table but the vignette seemed to indicate a telling story.

Russian caps on Old Glory minis

The local gaming store had a moving sale and of course I had to go buy stuff...

One of the purchases was a discounted pack of Old Glory Napoleonic Russian infantry.  Now these were in caps - as pointed out on the label.  I hate the fact that I must use reading glasses to see any detail and I had forgotten these in the car.  As these figures were a good deal, I was going to buy them nonetheless; but upon getting home with my new loot, I was a bit dismayed -- although I shouldn't have been surprised -- by the quite incorrect look of the caps they sported.  Big mushrooms they were and not flat topped fatigue caps of the Russians of the time.  Now I do have many, many OG types and while they have faults, they are generally not too bad and, well, inexpensive.  These however........ I let the following picture show the silly cap of these fellows.

before (left) and after (right). After closer inspection they are not of the same pose but slightly different as Old Glory poses tend to be, however the difference of the cap is still apparent as all the poses had the same "mushroom" look to them.

So some time was spent literally taking a knife to chop the top half of the cap off and using a course nail file - the OG metal used is quite malleable (a good thing too as their muskets are always wrapped around their necks in the packaging and needs to be always bent straight again!)
You may also notice the mold lines on the knee of the figure on the left (not bad for Old Glory!) and that of the cap which needed to be dealt with let alone all the other bits need to be scraped of each model.  Don't know if plastics take that much longer to make.

However, as done, these will be used as my Russian Jager elements.

Warlord/Perry Comparison Review - Russian Nap Plastic Infantry

September is the month which everyone asks "So, what did you do during the summer?"   Well, I worked on plastics.  Lots of plastics.

Among the masses plastics miniatures of French., Prussians, Belgians and Dutch (ex-British) were Russian Napoleonic Infantry.  Originally,  I bought a box of the Perrys so I could make the 30th and 31st Prussian Infantry Regiments (uniformed by the Russians).  During a local sale I could not resist getting two boxes of Warlord Russians as they were fairly inexpensive.

So I decided to get them all done up before the rainy season begins.  Having concluded to do the Perrys as two Russian Guard elements while the mass of Warlords will form the line elements.  I am fortunate to do so as they are not compatible. Repeat, not.

I will let the photos illustrate this but the usual table view from above make the large difference in the shako sizes obvious.

The Perry box has 6 different poses and leg positions but they can be mixed together without the weird straggling look

my 31st Prussian Regiment using Perry Russians and noting the not too straggle effect of the different poses

   The same cannot be said of the Warlord poses.  While only four poses, each is different enough that my version of the 'Russian machine' would not be met.  Here is a link to YouTube video of War and Peace which give a good example of the precision march we all identify as so very Russian [YouTube link]
Therefore I must combine both boxes giving me 3 elements (each of 10 figures) with the back rank a different stride of march than the front rank but this will look better than a gaggle.

The Warlord heads are attached to the collar and thus then to be glued to the torso while the Perry heads are to be glued within the torso's collar cavity.  No mixing or matching there.  Also the backpacks are of a vastly different size. (So which is correct??) as is the afore mentioned shakos (and heads and hands of course)  I find the Warlords much more 'cartoony' and oversized proportionally.

Warlord left, Perry right. Usual view from above.

Warlord left, Perry right.

Warlord left, Perry right.

Warlord left, Perry right.

While all the Perrys are plastics, Warlord adds 4 metal command - 2 standard bearers, a drummer and officer.  Perhaps I have now been spoiled by precise plastics, but the metals had harsh mold lines, need of much filing and addition of some gap filling for the glued on arms.  They fitted very poorly.  And the drummers arm was particularly poor and does not have any of the drummer lace as does the other arm!

When pricing note that the Perrys have 40 in the box, Warlord 32 (with the 4 metal command types)

Obviously not painted yet so I am hoping much of the difference are not so obvious once on the table. Hopefully

Knuckleduster gun crew reviewed

Recently I ordered the Knuckleduster "US Naval Battery Crewmen" and Kevin asked me for a quick review.

As you can see, hopefully despite the poor photos (!), the crew consists of we presume of Barney himself (representing the Naval/Marine officer whose rep was maintained despite the rather poor behavior of much of the American army at the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814),a vent blocker, the rammer, a trail spike holder, touch light holder, and, finally, the dude carrying a cannonball.

The main thing that strikes me is the lack of purpose in the combined poses.  The officer is pointing albeit in a rather lackluster way doing his job of directing the activity.  We have the rammer holding his tool upright, obviously waiting for the gun to be fired, for which we have in the torch guy -- I least I think so, as it looks more like a baton [??!] --- and we have the guy holding the ball.  OK.  But then we have the trailspike pose which seems to be in mid-effort to move the gun. While firing?? And we also have the vent stopper whose function is to prevent premature firing while loading/ramming of the charge.  But our rammer guy is just standing there. And you can't have the vent guy doing that while the torch guy is about to light it up.

Or long story short,  a very mixed up group and a crew doing mistimed tasks.

Compare that to a typical crew done by Perry Miniatures:

note the pose with his back to us is holding the ball and about to load into the tube while the rammer awaits to immediately place the charge, the vent guy with his thumb over the hole and the trail spike guy in the rear resting until needed again.  Nice snapshot of a crew in action.

or

again, a beautiful snapshot of a crew in action. (from the Perry website)

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I will now present each pose in close up.  While I am a critical as the next guy about the sculpting, as I am about how others have painted their minis, I try not to make judgement as I am not a good sculptor and others can certainly paint better than I.  With that in mind, I leave it up to the viewer to make their own opinion. Do remember that the minis are only an inch in height and these photos are large!

The only thing I will comment upon with all sculpting is choice or design of the uniform as that is one thing that should be done correctly.  I must query the choice of a bonnet (seemingly very Scottish in nature with a pompom on top) worn by the ball holder.  On an American Marine/sailor??  Yes perhaps a deserter or such, but it does not seem very American (unless I am incorrect and it IS the official forage cap of the navy....).  I will not make comment about the rest of the naval uniforms as it not my specialty.  However, as I will be using the crew for British also, for me, it is a moot point.