Russians, Saxons, and French, O My!

Just completed some more 25mm units for my Napoleonic forces.

First up we have the 1st Battalion, Pavlov Grenadier Regiment, of the army of the Czar.  Due to its heroism in 1807, it was authorized to retain the miter helmet (and did so until WW1).  In April 1813, the Pavlovs were given guard status and transferred to the Imperial Guard and renamed "Pavlovski".  According to most valid data, in the 1813 period only the grenadier company wore the taller grenadier miter while the three fusilier companies in each battalion wore the shorter fusilier style miter.  But since Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspieler did not make a fusilier miter back in the 1970s when I acquired the figures, all of them are in the taller miter helmet.  The flag is from the Warflag site and is the 1803 pattern for the regiments of the St. Petersburg district.  I believe that during my time frame (1813) they were still using this flag and not the new issue guard flags.

This battalion will be the senior guard battalion in my small guards brigade, along with the 3rd Battalion (of vintage Scruby figures) and the Finnlanski Jager Battalion (of vintage Der Kriegspieler figures).  The 2nd Battalion will be completed at a later date once I get enough Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler figures.

Second is the Saxon foot battery #3 which will support my small 6-battalion Saxon division.  This battery has Miniature Figurine gunners and Scruby/Historifigs guns.  The battery had four 6-lb guns and two field howitzers.

Since the Scruby/Historifigs 6-lb guns are slightly under "scale" I've used their 8-lb models which, to me, look good.

Third is a regiment of the French guard cavalry - the Guard Scout Lancers or Eclaireur-lancier de la Garde Imperiale.  Although this cavalry component of the French Guard wasn't raised until late 1813 and into early 1814, I've had three of the stands since the mid 1970s.  Recently I acquired two more figures and was able to finally complete the regiment.  This is the first guard cavalry unit I have in my French forces, but it may not be the last.

The three stands with pennants on the lances are the original figures, being early Miniature Figurines with horse furniture sculpted on the riders.  The other stand with the officer are late Miniature Figurines with the horse furniture sculpted on the horse.  Since they are bigger than the early ones, I've added a "booster" base onto the older ones to get them up to the same height.

More Napoleonics in future posts, including a leger battalion from the Kingdom of Northern Italy and a Russian musketeer regiment in overcoats.

Sachsen-Wachsenstein Second Contingent

The first group of pictures didn't turn out to well, so I'm trying some larger ones. Hopefully these will do better. As always, please click on the picture for an enlarged view.

Here, again, is the Eureka Saxon command group made from some extra figures.



And the Fusilier Battalion Pflugk, which will join its sister musketeer battalion in the duchy's contributory Kreis Regiment.



A closer shot of the command elements of the battalion. I couldn't find any SYW period Saxon or Saxon duchy flags that interested me, so I just used the Napoleonic era flags from the Warflag site ( www.warflag.com ).



And here is the 8-lb position gun, with its crew of 4 gunners and 1 seconded fusilier.



The 3-lbr battalion piece has only 3 gunners and 1 seconded fusilier (who was a standard bearer into whose hand I glued a piece of wire to be used as a pry bar). In fact the gunner holding the sponge and the one in the rear (actually holding a lintstock) were conversions as well.

First Sachsen-Wachsenstein Unit

Answering the call from the Imperial Ministry of War for additional troops to reinforce the Reichsarmee in its impending campaign against the forces of the Elector, Duke Siegfried von Sachsen-Wachsenstein is assembling his kreis contributory regiment, to be composed of equal portions of the Musketeer Regiment von Schlichting and the Fusilier Regiment von Pflugk, with accompanying artillery.

As I stated in an earlier post, I'm using the very nice Eureka SYW Saxon infantry and artillery for this force. These figures are sculpted very well and dressed in battle rig, with just a canteen, cartridge box, and sword. They have been a pleasure to paint as the uniform details are raised just enough to make them distinguishable.

The Duke, above, is the mounted officer figure in the range.


The Musketeer Regiment von Schlichting has been completed and is currently engaged in training.


Still being outfitted are the remainder of the contributory regiment:

Fusiler Regiment von Pflugk

The converged grenadiers from von Schlichting (left) and von Pflugk (right).

And the gunners for the 6-lbr position piece and the 4-lbr battalion piece,
plus a couple of extra figures (foot officer and two drummers) for the Duke's staff.

The 6-lbr crew will have 4 gunners and 1 artillery fusilier while the 4-lbr will have 3 gunners and 1 artillery fusilier.

Postscript: I have a new, darker blue background. Does this make the pictures better and easier to see? Your comments are welcome!

Eureka Saxons - In Progress

I have had some of Eureka's Seven Years War Saxon infantry figures ever since they first were released to 100 Club members. These figures are very well sculpted and have good proportions.

With word from the organizers of the MilleniumCon "Big Battalions" game that the Imperial troop strength was lagging significantly behind that of the Elector, I moved my Saxons up in my painting queue. And I'm glad that I did, because they are very easy to paint. There is sufficient detail cast onto the figures but it is not so exaggerated that it appears grotesque. The infantry are minimally equipped, with just a cartridge box, water bottle, and sword/bayonet scabbard.

The mounted officer will be turned into the ruler of my Saxon imagi-nation, Duke Siegfried von Sachsen-Wachsenstein, who is a Feld-Marshal Leutnant in the service of the Empress.

Here he is as a work-in-progress. He wears a light gray coat (his duchy's uniforms are a hold-over from the Saxon uniform colors of the War of the Austrian Succession), with yellow facings. His saddlecloth will eventually be bright blue with plenty of gold details.

Eureka makes three infantry types - musketeers in the standard tricorne, fusiliers in the "Prussian" fusilier hat, and grenadiers in the mitre helmet. I have a battalion of 24 musketeers, a battalion of 24 fusiliers, and their converged grenadiers (numbering 12). There are also enough gunners and extra figures to allow me to man a 6-lbr "position" piece and a 3-lbr battalion piece.

Also pictured in-progress is the Musketeer Battalion Kreis von Schlichting in their light gray coats with dark yellow britches, yellow smallclothes, and yellow facings. I mount the figures on flat headed roofing nails using Elmer's white glue. This gives me a very flexible holder and the figures pop off the nails with minimal effort once they are completely painted and varnished.

Here are 12 of the Fusilier Battalion Kreis von Pflugk mounted on their painting nails but without any priming yet. They will also have light gray coats but with bright blue facings.

More pictures to come as their painting progresses.