I wasn't able to include photographs of my twenty-three newly-acquired Del Prado 25/28mm-scale pre-painted Napoleonic Russian figures in yesterday's blog entry thanks to a flat battery in my camera. I now have a fresh battery ... and this is what the figures look like.
They will significantly increase the size of my Russian Napoleonic Army, and I am looking forward to renovating, varnishing, and basing them in due course.
They will significantly increase the size of my Russian Napoleonic Army, and I am looking forward to renovating, varnishing, and basing them in due course.
very smart indeed Bob - they certainly know how to March. I've been investing in the future of the hobby, one of my wife's colleagues has a six year old son who is besotted by tanks. I have consequently donated my two columes of Combat Tabks magazines, and the accompanying 20 1/72 models. Apparently he had his first battle over the weekend - although, given the models available to him - I'm concerned that he may have permitted "period overlap!!!
ReplyDeleteAll the best - always a good read when I hop over to your blog.
Ken H,
DeleteThe Russian uniforms of the period had a smart simplicity which I find appealing. As to the pose ... well I don't think that Del Prado included any firing Rusian infantry figures in their range. If they did, I have yet to find them!
It sounds as if you have a new convert on your hands. I just wish that such generosity had been around when I was young.
All the best,
Bob
I really like that leading rank of grenadiers. For the rest: nice figures, but the numbers seem to indicate some mixed-figure units. Well, I've have had recourse to that myself!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have a marked preference for the 'Advancing' pose, the various marching poses of most of my (second hand) Russians (manufacture unknown) are quite acceptable, and give the units an animated air rather different from my Minifigs French and Austrians.
Firing figures I like to reserve for light infantry - voltigeurs, tirailleurs jagers, riflemen and grenze and suchlike ilk.
Archduke Piccolo,
DeleteI always prefer my figures to be in an 'Advancing' pose, but with the Del Prado 'range' one has to take what one can get. They do seem to favour lots of 'Standing, firing' and 'Kneeling, firing' poses, with a few 'Standing, loading' ones thrown in for good measure. Funnily enough, once the battle starts, the poses seem less important to the visual aspect of the game than the colour and spectacle of the thing.
One thing that I do like to see in my units is uniformity of pose, and I prefer not to mix poses if at all possible. This seems to run contrary to the current trend where every unit has to be made up of identifiable 'individuals'.
All the best,
Bob
I quite agree, for pre twentieth century I much prefer all the figures in the same unit to be in the same pose. I'm not sure what the drill sergeant would say about them being in a random collection of stances!
DeleteMartin Rapier,
DeleteI just cannot get my head around the current trend to have units full of supposedly 'individual' figures. I'm told that they are more realistic, but to me they make units look like an ill disciplined rabble who'd run at the first whiffle of danger.
All the best,
Bob
I mentioned the 'animated' effect of individual poses, but I also think that mixing poses can work in certain circumstances. I seem to recall making a blog antry about that a few years ago.
DeleteMy ACW armies are made up mostly of Airfic figures. The Infantry tended to work best with single poses, with the exception of the guys shooting, which worked best with a standing rear rank and kneeling froint rank. They look pretty naff in an assault column and route march, but the bees knees in a firefight.
The cavalry (7th US) tended to have a wideish variety of poses within a pack of ten useful figures (never did suss what to do with the dead horse and dismounted guy, and the poor schmuck taking one for the team didn't help, neither). Just had to accept multipose units. That doesn't seem to matter so much with cavalry.
The thing with the airfix infantry was the individual character of the figures. ESCI figures, which make up one of my Union Brigades plus the group of Berdan's sharpshooters, are individually pretty characterless, I found. But they seemed to call for mixed pose units! I have no idea why this is. As I mount them on bases of three men, I didn't place them at random, but was fairly careful about who stood next to whom. I wanted to give the appearance of randomness, rather than the reality (which would certainly have resulted in identical figures standing next to each other on one stand - I wasn't having that!).
For mine, Minifigs simply MUST be in 'single pose' units. These other units, not so much. Just by the way, I have 8 firing guys in one of my French units. Very carefully I bent a few of the arms up or down a degree or two to break up the dead straight line of muskets when they are all lined up in close order.
That article I mentioned;
Deletehttps://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2010/01/plastic-figures.html
Archduke Piccolo,
DeleteFrom what I can remember, most of the poses used for the plastic Airfix figures I owned were not too silly to be used ... although I thought that one or two were a little odd (e.g. US paratrooper firing up into the air; Soldier grasping stomach after being shot).
I have mixed poses in my multi-base 'modern' armies, but they are usually mixed in such a way as to make it simple to identify individual units that form part of larger formations.
All the best,
Bob
Archduke Piccolo,
DeleteThanks for the link. It made interesting reading.
All the best,
Bob
Bob, I'm with you on having one pose for formed units. My 10mm Napoleonic infantry are all in a march attack pose, with exception of a few standing firing figures, which I only place in front of a unit to show it has deployed skirmishers, or to show small detachments occupying a farm, for example.
DeleteYour Russians look very smart and will, I'm sure, do the Czar credit on the battlefield when they see action.
Best wishes,
Arthur
Arthur Harman,
DeleteMy favourite pose is the attack/advancing one, either with the firearm held across the body or pointing forward, probably with the bayonet fixed.
I rather like the simplicity of the Russian uniforms, which seem to be both smart and functional. I look forward to getting them onto the tabletop in due course.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThat is a valuable reinforcement for your Russians and no mistake! I occasionally see these figures at boot sales so if there are any specific models you are after let me know and I will keep an eye open for you.
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
DeleteI only wish that I had time to get my Napoleonic project finished!
Thanks for the offer of any figures you find on sale at boot sales. I don't have any specific figures that I am looking for, and even ones that I already have loads of will find a place somewhere in my collection, in the past I've modified British Guards into line infantry with a few strokes of my paintbrush.
All the best,
Bob
Very nice
ReplyDeleteLee Hadley,
DeleteCheers! I'm very pleased that I found them.
All the best,
Bob