1812 Russian Tarnopol Battalion

 As has become the norm around here, I have been very bad about blogging my gaming and modeling progress.  I have actually been having a pretty good year on both fronts, but I have been too lazy to document it. 

My most recent completed paint project is the 1st Battalion of the Tarnopol Regiment.  This is my first unit of Perry miniature for the Napoleonic era, and I must say, they are very nice.  I selected the Tarnopol regiment using the same reasoning I have used for all my Napoleonic units, I have the flags.  I do not know a thing about this unit or its history.

I also painted a commander for the musketeer brigade, also a Perry model.  Finally, I have my second  Russian gun.  This is a 12lb cannon from Warlord games.

Perry Plastic Russians.  Excellent figures that are not really a great match for my Warlord plastics but should be OK in separate units.  The kit allows for building earlier (1807-1812) or later (1812+) units.  It also has heads with soft caps.  There are way too many figures in the box for the size units I build so I ordered some separate command frames from Perry to build more units.

I am following my painting standard for Russians of red for collars, cuffs, shoulder straps, and turn backs.  These should have shoulder straps colored based on their seniority in the division.  I don't know this info so they gat red and that's that.  I might paint some units in the future where I use the regional color for the cuffs and collars.

This is a Perry Russian Officer that I will use as a brigade commander.  I don't have a good uniform reference so he got a fairly generic paint job.

The Perry miniatures really are the gold standard for the period.

This is the same model that my friend, Tim, painted for me a couple of years ago.  The Warlord stuff is good solid and functional stuff that will not wow you.  This is a half-battery so with the two I now have a full battery of artillery.

I expect this will be the last Warlord gun I paint.  Future artillery addition to this army will be Perry.

My Russian Napoleonic collection is nearing the point where I can play a game.  I now have 4 Grenadier battalions, 2 Musketeer battalions, a battery of cannon and 2 commanders.  On the paint bench I have the 2nd battalion of the Tarnopol regiment as well as the army commander.  After that I will paint the 2nd battalion of the Narva regiment and I will have 8 battalions.  That is enough to get these guys on the table.

Future plans will be to add a second battery (Perrys miniatures) and a brigade of cavalry.  That, I think, would complete this project.  The next Napoleonic army on the list will be British.  I really don't want to do them, but like the French, hard to do do the period without them.

1812 Russian Narva Musketeer Regiment

For the first time since November 2020 I have finished a painting project.  I am VERY rusty but I am happy with how these turned out.  I am not totally sure why I chose these figure and my return to the painting hobby.  I really love the look of painted Napoleonic figures but I find painting them a chore.  I don't have any immediate plans to use these, it just seemed like the thing to do. 

This is the first battalion of the Narva musketeer regiment with the 1812 Kiver (Kiwa).  I am still struggling a bit with the colors on the uniforms.  It seems like the collars and cuffs changed to red in 1807 but the shoulder straps stayed the regimental color.  That means these are probably wrong but I can't find a reference for this regiment.  They are the Narva regiment simple because I had flags for them.

These are Warlord games plastic figures.  They are pretty nice and are not too bad to paint.

3rd Battalion, Little Russia Grenadier Regiment

 As part of the trade that got me the 12lb Russian artillery, Tim also painted a battalion of grenadiers.  These have been based and bannered as the 3rd Battalion of the Little Russia Grenadier regiment.  I have already painted the 1st battalion and Tim painted these to match. I think he did a good job matching my style.

With this battalion and the artillery I now have one fully painted brigade of Russians.  That is just enough to get a small game in.

Russian Napoleonic Artillery

 This is the first artillery unit for my Black Powder Russian Napoleonic army.  My friend, Tim, painted this for me earlier in the summer as part of a trade.  The model is from Warlord games and is pretty nice.  This represents a 12lb cannon.

Napoleonic Russian Brigade Commander

I have finally finished my Russian Napoleonic Brigade commander for my Black Powder Russians.  I actually painted this guy last year but for some unknown reason I let it sit on the paint table with the base incomplete.  All done now.

This model is from Warlord games and is actually a mounted colonel.  He will make a usable brigadier until I get around to finding a better model.

Bolt Action US Marine Support Teams

I finally finished the last models for my US Marine collection for Bolt Action.  We have the 75mm pack howitzer which will get lots of table time.  Next we have the M3 37mm anti-tank gun.  I doubt this will get used much at all.  It s not a good value so generally the bazooka is a better bet.  Besides, so far Japanese tanks have been pretty scares in our games.  Finally we have 2 M1917 .30 cal mmg teams.  With the US rule allowing multiple mmgs I am sure these guys will be in the thick of the fighting.

Pz Kmpf B-2(f) for Bolt Action

This is Warlord Game's French Char B-1 bis plastic model built as the German Flammpanzer Pz Kmpf B-2(f).  This is the later version of the flammpanzer.  This kit is very nice but it is a little tricky to build this version.  This one is for my friend, Tom.  I think I will get one to build for my early war French army.

German Assault Gun Battery for Bolt Action

About a year ago I made a paint for trade deal with my friend Tom. I then promptly put it off as only I can do.  The guilt has finally caught up with me and I am trying hard to get this all done before Christmas.  This phase are some Warlord Games Stug IIIG kits.  I built two as Stug and one as a Stuh 42.  This is a really nice kit and produces a really good gaming piece.  I may have to get one for myself.

1st Battalion, Little Russia Grenadier Regiment

I am making good progress this spring on my long neglected Napoleonic project.  This time we have the 1st battalion of the Little Russia grenadier regiment.  To be honest, I had not set out to model this particular unit so I really have no idea if this looks 'correct' in terms of uniform.  It is the Little Russia regiment because Warlord kindly included flags in the box for this unit.

When I started my Russians I really knew nothing about Napoleonic Russians - how to configure the units, how to paint the uniforms, what are the flags all about?  Part of the joy of historical wargaming is the research and discovery of a new period or topic. 

Needless to say I have been doing a lot of research all-be-it on the internet.  Since I have been working on grenadiers that has been my main focus.  These figures are painted in the 1809-14 style with the old style shako and large plume.  I painted the jackets more inline with my understanding of the 1812 uniform (1812 being my area of interest for this project) with the red collars, cuffs and turnbacks.  The earlier uniforms used the red turnbacks but the collars and cuffs would have been the color of the Inspectorate (basically a region) that the unit was raised from.  In the case of this unit I think the cuffs and collars would have been pink to match the color in the flags.

FOr this unit I really have no idea if it ever wore this combination of uniform traits or not.  I am not even sure a unit could have retained the old style shako but been issued the new red and green jackets.  The amount of variation I found in my research leads me to believe it is plausible. 

Another area of confusion is how to structure the units.  I play Black Powder and these rules really don't get into how a unit should be built or appear just how many figures it has and what troop classification it is.  That should make things a little easier, or so I thought.  Since a grenadier battalion has different in-game stats it is important to be able to easily identify the unit on the table.  This battalion, with its large dramatic plumes will be easy to spot.  The trouble comes with the 3rd battalion (also know as the 2nd line battalion) which I have yet to model and paint.  I am leaning in the direction of building a unit just like this one but that would deviate from the history a bit. 

It turns out that a Russian grenadier regiment was not comprise solely or entirely of grenadiers.  They also contained fusiliers, which were the equivalent of the line regiment's musketeers. Basically regular soldiers. Prior to 1812 the regiment would have had a first battalion comprised on grenadiers just as I have modeled here.  The 3rd battalion would have been entirely fusiliers without the tall plumes.  This is likely to cause some confusion in game terms.  It gets more complicated for grenadiers in 1812 and beyond.  The unit structure at that time was basically identical to the structure for the line regiments - 2 companies of grenadiers, 4 companies of fusiliers/musketeers.  This certainly would make identification of grenadier regiments difficult on the table.  Quite the problem - units that look more like the historical counter parts or units that are easy to identify on the table.

Since I am much more a gamer than a button counting Napoleonic simulator I will go with easier to identify on the table.  This means that my grenadiers will all get the tall plume regardless of the style of shako or which battalion they represent.  This might send some purists into a tailspin but I think it will make the games more manageable and fun.  Besides, the grenadiers look cool so it will be neat to have a bunch of units running around.

As a final disclaimer, I really don't know much about this topic.  I am sure I have goofed some of this up but I am sure I will keep learning.

Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment

With my Napoleonic French at a usable point I decided to switch to Russians.  I am starting with grenadiers and the first unit is the Pavlovsk Grenadier regiment.  This is the first and the third battalions and the figures are all Warlord Games 28mm.  These are nice figures and are very easy to paint.

1st battalion front 

1st battalion rear

1st battalion command

3rd battalion front

3rd battalion rear

3rd battalion command

2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment Swiss

I started my Napoleonic project for Black Powder almost 8 years ago.  I had really high hopes for this project and I had several friends that had expressed interest in participating.  As time has progressed most of my friends (all but one in fact) have moved on and are not longer interested.  I have persisted, although halfheartedly at best.  With the completion of the 2/2 Swiss Regiment for my French army I now have 8 battalions completed along with 2 guns and one commander.  That is not very good considering that is only one battalion per year.  This has really made me rethink this project.  It is time for me to either put some real effort into getting a usable collection painted or just admit to myself that it is time to let it go.  One of the real problems I have is that I HATE painting Napoleonic figures.  Right up until the unit is based I can't help feeling that they look like crap and it took way to much effort for them to look that way.  Then I base them and I fall in love but not enough to inspire me to paint more.

1st and 2nd Battalions of the 2nd Swiss Regiment

Anyway, enough whining.  These guys are done and are the first completed project for Finish it February.  It feels good to get these out of the WIP pile and into the collection.  The figures are Warlord plastic French and are very functional figures.

US Marines for Bolt Action

My first army specifically built for Bolt Action is done (well, not really done but playable).  This is about 1200 points of US Marines.  All the models are from Warlord Games US Marines line and are pretty nice models.  The core of the army are made of plastic and much of the support is metal.

I started collecting these models a couple of years ago so this has actually been a pretty quick transition from and idea to a usable force.  I am rather notorious for projects taking YEARS before they are ready to play.  My friends and I had decided that when we made the transition to BA 2nd edition we wanted to play new Pacific war armies.

Platoon HQ with LT, platoon sgt, and runner.  The figure to the right is plastic and the other two are metal.

This is the first of two flamethrower teams.  These are both metal models.

The second flamethrower team.  The separate heads, even for the metal models, means you don't have to have an exact duplicate for a models like this.  The assistant is plastic.

Bazooka team of metal models.  You can build a bazooka in the plastics set but the loader would end up being generic.

This is my Forward Observer team.  This  FO is plastic and the radioman is metal from the Marine command set.  This army can have up to three FOs so I am sure I will be adding more.

Marine sniper team.  This one will need some work.  The assistant is actually not 'legal' under the rules as he has a rifle.  The army list actually specifies the assistant has a pistol and can be upgraded to an SMG.  This model will likely become an FO in the future.

M1919 MMG Team.  I really am not a fan of this set.  The gunner comes with a figure base molded to hut butt in a very awkward way.  It took a lot of work to remove this base so the figure would sit correctly on the plastic base.  The M1917 MMG does not seem to have this problem and I will be painting up a couple of those in the future.

81mm medium mortar team.  The mortar crew are metal and the spotter is plastic built from the Marine box set.  I noticed just now that I forgot to finish painting the bases on these.  

Navy Corpsman and Marine stretcher bearer.  The strecherman is a wounded Marine that looks to have been pressed into service helping the Corpsman. A neat little set.

Marine Squad 1.  Ten men with 3 BARs and 2 SMGs.

Squad two configures the same as above.

Squad three is the same as the other two.  I plan to add additional figures to take these squads up to their full thirteen man strength.  You can have up to three shotguns in each squad but I am not sure its worth it.

Action Shots!

OK, I've not played a game with these yet so I decided to pose some action shots to get me excited about getting these on the table.