Wednesday 4 May 2011

Russian Jager

Moving on from the Stylish blog nominations I have been working through some more Russians. These have been great fun if not a little tricky to do. I wasn't expecting to have anything done for a good while as I agreed to help out a friend with some figures, however he is away on holiday and I will be going soon too so we've put it on hold till June. (any burglars who stumble onto my blog the house will be occupied the whole time we are away ;-)



The post is a little picture heavy so sorry about that. The Jagers are all from AB and as I mentioned earlier were a little tricky as with the black belts against the green uniform you really don't get to see how they will finish up until you get the final grey highlight on and varnish them.

My regular setup with the elite base split so they can either be placed at the head of the column or placed at either side of the centre companies.

These guys are the 2nd battalion of 11th jager regiment from 7th division in 1812. I have 3 more battalions to do.



I added a hornist into the front rank of my main command stand to try and give them a more light infantry feel. Also my jagers (as with my Prussian fusiliers and Bavarian/Saxon lights) are all in skirmish order either firing, loading or advancing, my line are all in march attack. It's just my way of differentiating between my light and line.


I picked up some AB casualty figures in a swap with Neil of the Napoleonic Wargamer blog (thanks Neil) and will be adding some into all my jager battalions.



When I plan my battalions I try to add at least 1 character figure into each full company, either a musician, officer, NCO or casualty just to give a little extra interest.



I'm not sure if this will be of any help to anyone but since this little tip was passed to me for doing my WW2 bases years ago I have found it really handy. I put my static grass into old washed out and dried plastic fairy bottles (doesn't have to be fairy ;-) and after I have added PVA to my base I shoot the grass onto the areas (over an old take-away container). I find this helps the static grass stay standing up and afterwards you just pour the excess grass back into the bottle.

Also I have been working on some cossacks I picked up a couple of years ago from Stuart at our club. JP had hammered through them so I debased and demounted them, cleaned them up with files and mounted them on new bases. I blacked the areas JP had missed and have started repainting them. As with the rest of my OG Russians I am not going to spending as much time on them as with my AB's.


They still have to have their metal work cleaned up and the horses need finished but they are coming together well. I have 15 OG and 30 of a Polish manufacturer as well as a hand full of BH and AB's.



I've also managed to get another OG Russian grenadier battalion based and varnished. All they need now is their flags and grassed to finish them off.




I'll be heading off to Falkirk for their annual show this Saturday. I'll be just off night shift so will be half dead but if you see someone wandering around with a rucksack full of goodies who looks like the guy in this photo it is most probably me (i'm the 1 with the red hair!). By all means say hello as it would be cool to put some faces to names.
This will definitely be my last post for a good while so Happy painting!
Cheers Paul

22 comments:

Stryker said...

Paul - more superb brushwork, as always I am in awe!

Ian

Anonymous said...

Russians are looking great. Glad i could help with the dead un's.
I realy like the Russian uniform. The green and red work well and i love the full cords on the shako.
12 more French on the go. Should be done in a week or 2. : )
P.S. mum's the word on the holiday ; )

Anonymous said...

You have been busy! Excellent looking as always-enjoy your hols!

Regards

Matt

The Angry Lurker said...

Quality work as usual Paul, the static grass tip is going to cause problems as the other half is going to be pissed when I empty a three quarter full washing up liquid bottle.

Ken said...

Hi Paul,

Excellent idea to have the fusilers in open order and skirmish poses.

Enjoy your show and holiday

Ken

Sgt Steiner said...

As always just awesome and so impressive

Cheers

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Really impressive, Your 15mm work is really top shelf!!

Christopher

Ben Gilmour said...

Incredible work as always, Paul! I enjoy a picture-heavy post..

Ray Rousell said...

Great painting as usual, the casualty figure looks great amongst the ranks, good idea for the static grass too, I'll give that a go!
Happy hols!!

Paulalba said...

Thanks for all the kind comments guys they are very much appreciated!!!

Neil, I must admit I really like the green and red on the Russians as well. I was very lucky finding formula P3's Skorne Red as it goes well with almost all colours. Good to hear your getting through the French!

Hope I haven't caused any family strife with the static grass tip.
Thanks again
Best regards
Paul

Giles said...

Paul - absolutely terrific painting and, as usual, you set the standard for 15mm Naps. I hope you enjoy your holiday.

Best wishes

Giles

MiniMike said...

Top notch again Paul. Enjoy your holiday!

RazorOne223 said...

Great work!!! I always enjoy coming to your site to see new stuff...

Cheers.

Curt said...

Well done, Paul. I always like the look of a few casualties in the ranks - just bloody-minded I guess.

Curt

Gonsalvo said...

Very nice work! As I'm working on my own (28mm) Russian Jagers, I was a bit surprised you chose to do them in their "summer" white pants instead of the dark green ones; it's hard enough to tell the Jagers form the line as it is... of course, some would argue there was little diference functionally anyway. I like the idea of using the poses and hornists to differentiate them.

Peter

Paulalba said...

Hi Giles, MiniMike, Razor1 thanks very much!
I don't know about setting the standard Giles but as long as they are neat and tidy I'm happy ;-)

Hi Curt, I wasn't sure of the casualties in the ranks when I started back into Naps but I do like them a lot for my light troops now (my brother still isn't keen on them as he likes all his troops to at least look alive as they go into battle ;-)

Hi Peter,
I didn't have much option with the white trousers as Mr Barton has sculpted the figures with the summer trousers. I see that Front Rank do their 28mm 1812-13 Russian jager with the false gaiter, is that the figures you are using?
To be honest as the jagers uniform is so dark with the black leatherwork and green collar they certainly stand out next to the line plus as I will be doing all my jager skirmishing and without flags this should help.
Thanks again for the kind words guys!
Awe ra best
Paul

Stryker said...

Paul - I know you already have the award but I'm going to nominate you anyway!

Ian

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ian,
Much appreciated!

Gonsalvo said...

Paul,

Mine are Sash and Saber; got a great deal on them not once but twice at less than $1/figure in bulk which is hard to beat. I'll be posting some pictures of both Jagers and Guards eventually, probably in June.

Paulalba said...

A great deal Peter,
You can't beat less than $1 for a 28mm figure. I'll keep a look out for them on your blog.
Cheers
paul

Phil said...

Another great job, really impressive ... difficult to show mine after that!
Nice army!

http://napoleonic-spain.blogspot.com/ said...

excellent miniatures and painture!