Wednesday 8 November 2017

Completed Russian foot artillery for 1805-07

A close up of our hard working Russian friends at the action!
Those followers of this blog would have seen that I have been working on the Napoleonic 1805-07 project for quite sometime.  One of the latest developments has been to base some lovely Elite Miniatures Russian foot artillery in a slightly unconventional way.


I was inspired to do so by the figures of Mr John Ray who several years ago published a fine tome titled "A Military Gentleman".  In it he showcased many of his wonderful, personally designed figures as well as a superb style of basing and capturing our hobby in a wonderful and characterful way.  One such deviation from the norm that John had envisaged was basing artillery in non-rectangular shaped formats so as to maximise the ability to transform each base into an action scene.


I was instantly hooked and have determined that my artillery for this period will also be so based.  I will then replicate it when I kick start the Elite Peninsular project sometime in late 2018.


In this shot you can see the unusual template on the ground and the rough laying out of  figures and
equipment to ensure all marries up reasonably well.

Love the idea of being able to use the wonderful ramming figures in the correct manner


Here we have an angle from just off centre - that's a heck of a lot of firepower!

A very different look however one I am very, very pleased with.

Another angle

Very much like how the gun timber have come out using the Foundry triad paint system.  You can see a
requisitioned wheelbarrow from the old Hinchcliffe ECW artillery range which I thought was perfect
for these gunners to use to help transport their bloody heavy round shot up to their pieces.

I think the battery certainly looks more animated and not "squashed in " to accommodate a base of conventional means



The "Money Shot" - the newly based battery is approximately 10mm wider in frontage than the standard
basing that I have used in the past with General D' Brigade rules. Perfect.


I did post a few shots of these on the Facebook page for the Napoleonic Wargamers Group and received approximately 70% liking the innovation and 30% of those thinking that they could never get used to the irregular edges and shape which is really what I expected if truth be told.  It is different and certainly not something for everyone however for this particular style project, I simply think it works tremendously well.



24 comments:

  1. It looks great! But my friends probably will not agree to make such bases.

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    1. I perfectly understand - however if you paint both sides then they have no choice;-). It is very much love it or loathe it I think.

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  2. Fantastic Carlos..............stuff of dreams.

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    1. Thanks Big Guido - lots of fun making this.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thank you very Sergiuss - greatly appreciated.

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  4. Very nice execution of an idea for basing that is very useful to protect the figures and add drama to the table.

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    1. Absolutely P - the animation is essential I think especially in batteries where you would imagine there is such a bussle and speed of activity.

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  5. Yes, very unique and good looking basing. Troops look great too.

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  6. Batteries look terrific! The basing is quite unusual but lends a nice vignette effect.

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    1. Thanks Jonathon and yes the basing is quite different but I think will look fantastic on the table in a game. The vignette effect is exactly what I was going for so well spotted.

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  7. Very nice Carlo. A Russian heavy metal band to play a tune or two for the French! 8O)

    And I see that you are teasing some Austrian artillery that is on the workbench as well. Excellent.

    Salute
    von Peter himself

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    1. Ah yes well observed young Von Peter, the Austrians are next cab off the rank for this project.

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  8. Yes mate - top job. When you think about it, our basing conventions are often not that important. The modelling your aprooach allows is much better.

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    1. Thanks Greg and yes, basing “norms” and “conventions” are often met with some quirky looks however I distinctly recall the very early Wargames rules in some periods having artillery mounted on a triangle so that the arc of fire was instantly recogniseable so anything is possible. Cheers mate.

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  9. Nice diorama effect, lovely animated gun crews.
    Best Iain

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  10. The Elite crews look great. I like your basing idea.

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    1. Thanks PFH - as mentioned in the post it is different but I am sure will look the part on the actual tabletop.

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  11. Your batteries look outstanding, Carlo. I don't see myself basing my own this way, but that's quite OK!

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    1. Thank you very much Peter. The plan is to use this style basing for my 1805–07 collection as well as my Elite Peninsular figures. I think this suits the style of figure and game look I am seeking. I will leave the batteries of the rest of my Napoleonic collection as is.

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