Russian Lifeguard Cossacks

A few months ago I received a surprise package from Alan of ABC Wargamers. Contained within was a variety of Minifigs cavalry, both S Range and current range. One group of figures consisted of these rather splendid Miniature Figurines Russian Cossacks, painted as a guard unit. There are seven figures in the group and the painting is very nice indeed. 

The figures appeared to have dulled over the years and so I set about freshening them up and adding a little more detail. The results were very pleasing:

 Here they are carrying out their duties as escort to the Russian General Staff:

Russian Hussars - 25mm Minifigs

A large portion of my 25mm Russian Napoleonic cavalry is made up of Del Prado 'Relive Austerlitz' figures.  These look quite good and match the Minifigs quite well, however, it has always been my long term aim to replace these with proper Minifigs castings.  So far I have assembled a Minifigs Dragoon Regiment and a Hussar Regiment.  Today I finished off my second Hussar Regiment.

I always find painting hussars a challenge an with so many small details it is hard to do them justice with gloss paints. This latest unit is the Izumsky (I have found so many different spellings of this name) Regiment, red dolman, piped white, blue breeches and blue pelisse. 

Here they are ready to take to the field:

Next, some French Dragoons, that I have already started.

Warrior Miniatures Russian Cossacks

Working my way through the large pile of Russian figures from Warrior Miniatures are these rather splendid Cossacks. Painted to represent a unit from the Don Cossacks:

Douglas Miniatures Cossacks

I am conscious of the fact that despite the title of this blog it has been a long while since I painted any Douglas Miniatures figures. I have always thought that the Russian Cossack artillery figure had potential for conversion.  So, off with the whip, out with the drill and some wire lances purchased on line I came up with these. The result was very pleasing..............

Russian Cossacks - Minifigs OPC

I painted a sample of these figures many moons ago and at last I have finished off the whole unit. In my view these are the best looking cossacks available, with their basic uniform, heavy greatcoat and slung musket. These are Minifigs S Range one piece castings (OPC).

Another Russian Lancer Regiment

This time in red facings we have the 17th Lancers. Once again these are Hinton Hunt, probably Brunswick Napoleonic Uhlans.

The two regiments together will form the cavalry reserve:

In the pipeline are more Turkish gunners to man the redoubts along the Causeway heights!

More Russian Lancers

Continuing to build the numbers of Russian cavalry units, this lot represent the Russian 13th Lancers, with their yellow facings. The figures are old Hinton Hunt 20mm examples that have been lurking in a box since the 1970s.  A second regiment of the same figures is almost complete, which will make up the Divisional light cavalry brigade:

Yet more Cossacks - Ural Cossacks by Strelets

Adding to the Russian Cavalry hordes, the next unit to join my Russian Army are the Ural Cossacks. They are 20mm plastic figures from the firm Strelets and their Crimean War range. It took me a while to work out the colours of this Regiment. My initial foray on to the interweb suggested that they should have light blue facings and I started to paint them with this in mind, however, further research stated that they have raspberry or crimson facings/piping - so that's what I have gone for.  I was a bit doubtful about these figures to start with, they appeared rough and chunky but, once the undercoat was on  I found that they were a joy to paint.

Next up, a Regiment of Don Cossacks

Douglas Miniatures Russian Lancers

A second unit of Russian Lancers, which will form part of the 2nd Composite Regiment as formed during the Crimean War. I have trimmed the lance pennon from the square ended original of the Douglas figure to what appears to be the more common swallow tail variety.

Tumbling Dice Cossacks

Contemporary accounts of the allied march after the Battle of the Alma towards Sevastopol speak of the ever present Cossack scouts, sitting atop the ridge lines constantly watching the allied movements. Always out of rifle range, they would melt away when the allied cavalry tried to confront them. My latest batch of troops is a unit of Cossacks from Tumbling Dice. These are lovely figures and a joy to paint. Here a scout maintains his vigil, observing the long columns in the valley below:

Marauding Cossacks would also pick off stragglers, or unprotected supply wagons, making lightning attacks before disappearing back into the hills:

Cossack Lancers

A second unit of Douglas Miniatures Cossacks takes to the field, I painted these in grey greatcoats, as opposed to the more normal blue, based upon references found on line. I have two more Cossack regiments on the go, one from Tumbling Dice and the second from Irregular Miniatures. When completed, along with another lancer unit, I will have eight Russian regiments, one Turkish and seven British Regiments. Being able to fight an action at Balaclava is becoming a reality.

Here are the latest Russians to join the ranks:

:

Russian Cossack Lancer

This rather splendid figure is a Minifigs S Range one piece casting that came with some other figures as a sample from Old John. He has been sitting in a box for ages, so a couple of nights ago I decided to paint him and really liked the result, The figure is a true 25mm and is thus a little large for Douglas range, but he does look the part:

Meanwhile work on the Turks continues.

Scruby Russian Dragoons

These figures took a while to paint as each one required holes to be drilled into both sides of the nose, in order to fit the wire reins. I think the effort was worth it. These are lovely figures to paint, cleanly cast with good definition. The standard bearer is a conversion and the officer is the original Scruby pose. The other figures have their sword arm bent forward:

 

My next project will see me going back to Douglas Miniatures figures as over Easter a new box of metal arrived from Old John, which includes the Black Watch.

R11 - Russian Lancers   

I have now completed the third and final examplw of the Russian cavalry types in the Douglas Miniatures range, namely the Uhlans, or Lancers. Dressed in the normal great coat attire, so common in the Crimea, these troopers are quite easy to paint. One figure had a malformed pennon, and so I reduced it and added a guidon. The unit represents the 12th Lancers:

Russian Dragoons - Hussars

 

Douglas Miniatures produce three types of cavalry figures - Cossacks, Dragoons and Lancers. Here we look at R9 Russian Dragoon, who rides R9a Dragoon Horse. The figure is armed with a sword and slung carbine and wears the stovepipe shako and the drab greatcoat. I researched dragoon figures and from what I have discovered Russian Dragoons normally wore the spiked black leather helemet, as opposed to a shako. However on campaign the Hussars would look very similar to the figure depicted by Douglas Miniatures.

I have depicted my dragoons as hussars, in fact the Ingermanlandski Hussars, who were involved during the battle of Balaclava. I suspect the greatcoat cuffs would not be blue, but collars and shoulder boards would have been:

Here the same Regiment tests the thin red line - does not look good for the Russian horse!!

R10 Russian Cossack Lancers

The first offering are examples of R10 Russian Cossack Lancers, mounted on R10a (Cossack Horse), which if I recall were the first ones I painted back in the 70s. I use gloss enamel paints and paint my figures in the toy soldier style.