Borodino 1812 (part 5): Russian 7th infantry division for AOE in 20mm

 

The 7th infantry division of General Peter Kapsevich is represented here in AOE term by the Moskow and Libava regiments. The only  divisional Jäger regiment present at Borodino was the the 36th hence only three stands for the Jägers instead of the usual six. The figures are the usual Zvezda for the grenadiers, Revell Prussian for the musketeers and Esci for the Jägers. 

The command stands of each regiment (brigade in AOE terms) are from the StreletsR Russian and Prussian chiefs of staff. Some Revell musketeers were also converted as flag bearers. 

The command divisional stand is made of two Prussian officers of the Italeri box of British and Prussian staff. Much has been said about these Italeri boxes. They started in great shape with a fantastic box of French Staff that includes ADCs, Generals, Chasseur bodyguards, Roustam and Napoleon itself. After leaving us salivating, Italeri ruined everything and the two next staff boxes only offering us half a dozen new figures each, very beautiful though and that includes Wellington, and plenty of figures from other already existing sets. Its an obvious disappointment as the new figures becomes more expensive than metal ones. So in a way to take the maximum advantage of the Prussian staff figures I painted them as Russians as their officers also used this peaked cap and the same uniform cut (the Prussians copied the Russian uniform in 1813). If you forget that Kutusov was much older and fat you can use the mounted figure as this famous general even by painting its cap white as he used one at Borodino. 

Next: Russian Guard Infantry for Borodino. 

Borodino 1812 (part 4): Uvarov´s Guard Cavalry division for AOE in 20mm

General Uvarov´s Guard Cavalry Division is preparing itself for the famous right flanking maneuver at Borodino.  

These Guard Uhlans are the Russian Uhlans of Strelets that I had for years in the stash. As all Uhlans are virtually the same in all Napoleonic armies this group was close to finish his life painted as Austrian or French but ended up in the uniforms and colors they were supposed to have. The figures are rare, I suppose, as they are some of the oldest models Strelets produced back in 2003. The lances were replaced by broom sticks and paper pennants. After painting and gloss varnishing the paper looks like plastic. 

The Guard Cossacks are the obvious Zvezda in their generous box containing 15 of these beauties. Due to the need of 16 figures I was forced to open a second box with the remaining figures becoming Bug Cossacks in the future. 

Again Zvezda for the Elisabethgrad Hussar Regiment, a detached regiment to the Guard division. 

Uvarov´s Divisional stand was not easy to make as I couldn't find other portraits of the man but the more famous ones with a bit too fancy uniforms ( we call it here "clothes to visit godmother").  So my inspiration came from the Uvurov's Perry figure in 28mm on their website. The other figure pretends to be a messenger from Elisabethgrad Hussar regiment. 

Uvarov started his new life as the figure of  Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm III but with the addition of some GreenStuff he quickly exchanged his Germanic origins for Slavic ones. 

 Both figures are Strelets and the horses are Revell from the British Dragoons box. With a bit of GreenStuff the shabraque can be turned into whatever model you want. 

One more beautiful farm by Mário Laranja made of card strengthened with Super Glue. My only work was the painting which is really easy due to the detail that Mário puts into the models. 

Next: More Russian Infantry for Borodino  

Borodino 1812 (part 3): The Russian artillery for AOE in 20mm

 

This is the result of the two magnificent boxes of Zvezda Russian artillery. After finishing all this, besides the absolute beautiful models, you still have close to 40 artillerymen that you can use to man some 10 surplus artillery pieces you may have around. So, one of the best buyings around on the plastic market you can find . 

In the backdrop you can see one more of the great Mário Laranja group of houses painted along this group of Zvezda models. 

On the Guard artillery box the limber doesn't have horses or drivers (you can find them on the other box) and these were sorted out in my usual scratchbuilding way.

Horses and drivers are not the same scale (1/76th and 1/72nd respectively) but it doesn't look that bad.  

The horses are Airfix (French artillery for the right side and Scottish mounted officer for the right). The driver´s horses got some extra harness; the drivers are Italeri Scots Grey with Zvezda heads and the ropes are pieces of wire. 

The limber and ammunition caisson are simple marvels of plastic engineering. 

The foot artillery... 

...and the guard artillery. Both boxes also give different figures if you want to place the crew pulling the gun. All these figures will be used, as said, for new gun crews but also as line infantry drummers and converted flag bearers. 

Next: Russian cavalry for Borodino.  

Borodino 1812 (part 2): The Russian High Command Stands for AOE in 20mm

Some 20 years ago I found in a local shop, nonexistent nowadays as many of its kind, the StreletsR box of Russian and Prussian chiefs of staff in that old style of them of 48 different figures. As the project of late Prussians in 20mm was replaced by the same in 28mm, all figures - Russian and Prussian - are going to be useful as Borodino Russians. In fact a few of them, with minimal conversions were already recruited for the French Armée du Portugal. 

Here you can see Kutusov itself, close to the famous drum (on the other side of the ridge Napoleon is also resting his left leg on a drum at least according to the famous portrait of Vasily Vereshchagin). To his right I used the model of the Tsar Alexander I itself, which wasn´t at the battle but had to be used somewhere. To the left of Kutusov I used other figures from the box including the Prussian General Von Wartenburg. All figures are StreletsR with a Revell horse and Esci horse holder (that figure that Esci loved of a bayonetting infantryman). 

Now the stands of the 1st Army of the West (right, Barclay de Tolly) and 2nd Army of the West (left, Bagration). The bases are progressively smaller and with less figures from the Kutusov stand to the divisional commander's stands. The Bagration stand is all StreletsR again with Revell and and Esci  horse holder. Barclay de Tolly´s stand is Italeri with cavalry General Depreradovich to the far right. The Italeri Russian and Austrian staff is a true pity; only six figures are original and the rest are Austrian infantrymen and Pavlov Grenadiers from already existing references. 

These Corps command stands are generic and you can see both on left and right the Revell Prussian officer on horse converted with a large bicorne. The two cossacks from the right represent a wounded dispatch rider delivering its message. 

 

As some heads were already gone some bicornes had to be scratchbuilt. The staff officer to the left is the gigantic Italeri late Prussian. 

The divisional command stands will have to be some twenty and this one is a taster made from the Revell late Prussians.

Along side these stands another fantastic farm from Mário Laranja was painted. 

Once again it tends to be generic but with the Napoleonic wars in mind. Everything is card strengthened with liquid cyanocrylate, less the tree which belonged to my dear father´s HO train collection. 

Next: more Borodino Russians, first artillery and then cavalry. 

Borodino 1812 (part 1): The Russian 2nd and 4th infantry Corps for AOE in 20mm

One more project interrupted - Wagram 1809 - in order to give some room to my old Russians, glued for years to some ugly pieces of card, and to some "Revell Russians" I was thinking about for some time. In this post you can see some 400 figures but only half are new models with others being old Esci retouched and rebased. 

The Borodino battle is a major event being the greatest battle of the Napoleonic wars until then (as Wagram was up to 1809). I remember that, as a kid, Tolstoy's War and Peace was the second book I read (the first was Robinson Crusoe) and I was dying to reach the battle descriptions which was not an easy task as the ones who read the book probably know! The movies that came out from the book are also great sources of inspiration. 

Since then the Russian campaign of 1812 and Borodino, the Grand Armée, etc were always in my imagination. Another good thing about collecting figures for the Russian 1812 campaign is that the French still use the same uniform as in Wagram and the Peninsula which allows me use my Peninsular French. The only problem are the flags which are already the famous Tricolore in the Russian campaign while all my 20mm French have the 1807 flags. 

As you can see the Revell Prussians give some reasonable Russians. In fact the Prussian uniform of 1813 is a copy of the Russian and even the Prussian shako is very close to the Russian Kiwer when covered as it makes a bulb at the top front . Then some paint for the metals and cords and there they go. Well, the shako is a bit taller at the front than at the rear but even the Esci Kiwer is taller then it should so everything goes nicely together. In fact only StreletsR portrays a good Kiwer in plastic but I will only go at these ones when the Esci and Revell figures are finished. 

An advantage of the Prussian Revell over the the Esci Russians is that bayonets are fixed in all models as well as the blanket roll is placed on all torsos as the Russians did.

These grenadiers are the Esci figures with a plume made of a pin covered with Araldite resin, something made some 20 years ago or so. 

Many of the flagbearers are Esci wounded, cornets or officers converted in order to hold the flag. The Esci Russians, even if beautifully sculpted, miss many blanket rolls and bayonets but look nice en masse. 

A few more Esci converted grenadiers form the 2nd Combined Grenadier Battalion. They represent the 2nd brigade of the 23th division, part of the 4th infantry corps. Only five stands instead of six as this division was a bit understrength at Borodino (casualties?), the same happening with the jagers of this division.  

The white I use on my Napoleonics is mixed with a bit of sand yellow in order to break the luminous white of most brands. 

Also some brigades have the newer Zvezda as grenadiers. Fortunately I piled plenty of Zvezda boxes of Napoleonic Russians and, in a recent visit to the Flecha Negra in Madrid, I brought all that I could find as this excellent Russian brand is obviously very difficult to find nowadays. 

This jager command stand has the Revell Prussian officer painted as Russian. 

Now for some detail of the Revell "Russians" as I´m  clearly trying to convincing you to do the same. I had five boxes of these figures in the stash from the days I was thinking to do late Napoleonics in 20mm. Later, with the cheap 28mm plastics, I ended up doing my late Prussians with Perry and Warlord figures. So these Prussians ended up a bit to the east following Kutusov and not Blücher. 

The Revell Prussian flagbearers had the plastic flag cut out, the pole separated from its tip and the paper flag inserted. In the end the tip of the pole was glued together with a piece of plastic to compensate the larger paper flag. The Revell officer on horse has an Esci Russian shako instead of the original soft hat. 

Same with this Revell flagbearer and stand. 

Bird view of the first four Russian divisions (2nd and 4th Corps of Barclay de Tolly´s 1st Army of the West). 

All Jagers up to now are Esci. I chose the winter uniform for the sake of diversity as it makes them distinguishable from the musketeers in summer uniform. 

These old Esci Russian artillery are in fact bodies and guns from the Crimean War Esci box, so some 40 years wrong. Even so after placing the kiwer on them they look reasonable for the Napoleonic era even if in winter coats when Borodino was fought in summer. 

Modelled together with this lot were these fantastic Mário Laranja houses. They make part of a much larger group of some 30 houses that Mário offered me at the same time of the WW2 Carentan city that you might have seen many posts ago. They were already built and I just had to base, apply black spray and paint them. 

As usual they have an incredible amount of detail and everything is card! 

These houses were made with the first few decades XIX century in Austria in mind, and that is a bit before the invasion of the open timber framing houses in the region which only happened in the mid century. Of course I painted them a bit generic so they can be used in different parts and periods of Europe. 

An "Austrian" type of farm, again quite generic (the gate is resin and also made by Mário laranja), and inspired by the fantastic The Raft blog that you can see here:

 https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/1809-terrain-3-austrian-villages/

Next: Russian command stands for Borodino.