"Russian Napoleonic project." Topic

I have always wanted to do a Russian Division in 28mm and with the completion of the British 5th Division for the Peninsular war i have finally made a start. The project has been made affordable by the release of Perry plastics of course.

Up to now i have completed 2 battalions, 2 guns and a limber with 2 more battalion nearly finished. The current state of play can be seen on Carls Blog here-

Link

Please feel free to point out any mistakes, i followed the company and divisional distinctions from the painting guide provided with the Perry plastic box set.

in a word, too dark. the beauty of the miniatures are lost when painted so realistically which is why I prefer to paint figures high contrast and cartoonist bright; for instance, DO NOT use navy blue; use Peacock or "Copan" blue anything but navy blue; for skin tones brighten up the flesh color with white because when you coat figs they get dull.

Beautiful.. Great painting!

Companycmd – that's two words.

James

mickthemagpie,

I think they look really good and I like the style. I wouldn't change them.

companycmd,

As Archeopteryx correctly points out: "too dark" is in fact two words.

Cheers,

The Bandit

Look splendid!

I happen to think the color is spot on. Great painting!

Thanks for the comments gents. The artillery aside i thought the green was too light!!!!

very nice. looks like a good Russian green on my screen.

I think they look great.

Thanks lads. I plan to stick with it now anyway. I've just finished gluing together another couple of battalions and feel a little light headed!

"Too dark"? Not at all, Russian green was VERY dark green, if you read contemporary descriptions, it was almost black in some cases. I take companycmnd's general point that colours generally should be a shade or two lighter for small scale models, but personally I go as dark as possible for Russians. I often wince when I see nicely painted Russian Napoleonic models in an almost emerald green colour.

I do much lighter shades on 10mm figures. I have done a couple companies of French and the coats look bright even in 10mm.

Russian green was indeed very dark, but Russian line uniforms were not Russian green nor were they ever close. Without going into a lot of information about dyes and materials, the green on enlisted uniforms was very close to Humbrol's Green/gray slate and this includes the Dragoons.

The officers' and guards' uniforms were the traditional dark green.

The color on a miniature figure is a matter of choice and what's pleasing to the gamer. They look great and that's what is important.

However, had you painted their coats pink….

Bob Coggins

There fantastic top job 👍

spot on colours – they will look great on the table

Fantastic….!!

Current thinking on the company/battalion colors can be found here:
TMP link

Russian flags were presumably double-sided so the reverse would be identical to the dexter hoist.

Very nice work.

They may make an appearance on the table tomorrow night, if Derek brings his Russian to make up the numbers, in yet another game of Napoleonic command.

Hew, thanks for the link, i have saved it in my Russian uniforms bookmark. Reading that i need to lop off the plumes from the Strelski platoon. Not too sure i want to do that as i think it sets them apart from the riff raff, no offence to them of course!

Well you could swap them out for use in a grenadier regiment where everyone wore plumes.

I think you did a very good job. Artillery carriages might be a bit dark but that's the more or less color I use. Some use a brighter lighter color.

Looking good Mick.
Weird co-incidence, but now I have nearly finished my Peninsula 5th Division (just my Portuguese brigade to do) I have been thinking of doing the same and doing the 1813 Russian 5th as well….

Great minds and all that :)

Indeed Gustav. I'm planning on doing the 7th next. Nice variety there.

In Seroga, I trust…

Lovely looking Brigade!

I too can recall reading accounts of Russian uniform green being described as 'black'. General Wilson perhaps…Anyhow, I think your shade is just fine. Certainly the relevant Osprey (MAA185) describes the tunic as of 'traditional Russian dark green', page 17.

Fantastic. Not too dark at all! I did mine lighter, they can be seen in the pictures on the Wargames Holiday Center here. Now I think I will go lighter on the next lot.

link

Mmmm….how 'bout this color green:

YouTube link

I'd be very happy to have them grace my table, Mick :-)

I think the colour you've chosen works well. Maybe they appear darker than they are because of the basing?

They look great to me. Colour is fine. I was confused by the number of plumes as to the size of your companies…..

But great work, Id be delighted if I could produce that.

Flags are great too. They suely can't be the ones that came in the box???

As it happens the next 2 battalions just need grass on the bases and the flags added so i will do some shots of the whole brigade when that is done.

As for the size of the companies they are all 4 x 8 figures The elite company is split into 2 x 4 to represent the Grenadier platoon on one end of the line and the Strelski platoon on the other.

The flags are from GMB.