Smolensk Regiment

A bit of a departure for me, this unit is made up entirely of figures from the Der Kriegspieler Napoleoniques range (except for the officer). DK were contemporaries of Hinton Hunt being in production in the US through the 70s and 80s. I've mentioned before that many DK figures bear a striking resemblance to Hinton Hunt ones (my opinion, please don't sue me) but the Russian infantry figures appear to be original work.

DK figures tend to be a bit smaller than Hinton Hunt ones. In this case I have added some thin plasti-card under the bases to give them extra height.

The figures are:

22 x DK58 GRN BN 1812-Shako-Coat Charging (one converted to drummer)

1 x DK59 GRN BN 1812-Shako-Coat On Guard (converted to standard bearer)

1 x FN/11 French Officer in great-coat charging (with head swap)

The flag is another original from Revo.

These figures were originally in the collection of US gamer Don W. I have refurbished them rather than re-paint them although the conversions are my own work.

Muskets & Marshals

My Napoleonic Rules Muskets & Marshals have been revised and reformatted in what I hope is an easy to use style. Now available as a PDF download for a price "more than a cup of coffee but less than a coffee and a cake" (quote from Mrs S).

Link here: https://payhip.com/b/w6IHL

What you get is:

• A twenty-one page PDF document
• Including two-page Playsheet to enable play without constantly referring to the main rules
• Game order sheet to use to issue commands to your troops

What I get is:

• A sense of satisfaction having finished these rules after 15 years
• Praise from Mrs S for generating an extra income stream

I hope you enjoy them and if you have any queries regarding the rules please contact me via the email link on my Blog profile.

Life Guards Horse Regiment

You might just remember that back in the beginning of April I painted a test figure for a Russian Life Guards Horse Regiment. This unit then got set aside while I focused on the newly arrived Cuirassiers and then the Jagers. I've now put that right.

The figure is PN73 Prussian Garde du Corps (mounted) charging with a paint job conversion to represent the Russian Life Guards Horse Regiment. The only modification to the figure is the removal of the canteen slung above the scabbard. 

The trumpeter is converted from the same figure.

These are not original figures which you can see here clearly by their rather slim physique. Short rations I guess.

I have to say that I haven't particularly enjoyed painting these. I think the fact that they're not vintage castings coupled with the fact that they're not actually the proper Russian Guard figure is to blame. However, they will fill a gap in the OOB so that's good.

On a different subject - I've been experimenting with using ChatGPT to help me run a solo campaign with my Boer War figure collection. This has been quite fascinating so you may want to take a look (click here) even if colonial wargames isn't your thing as the same ideas could be applied to other periods.