"BOKI "Secret" napoleonic project. (Commissioned)" Topic

No questions and answers before finished.
Seemingly no producer offer this before.

Drummer boy progressed..

Fantasy?
Or maybe guard engineers?
If more than 2 at the scale we use, fantasy anyway…

Pupilles de la Garde?

Could they be "porte-aigles" in helmets, which I have seen in illustrations.

I may say only that I am very excited about this project.
I tried to sculpt this many years ago, but now I have proper sculpting and production equiptment, know-how and dotation to sculpt this.
And this is pure napoleonic, not fantasy. I hope that this is beginning of something great.

After a year I try again to sculpt horses.
New doll progressing..

Drummerboy progressing too..

One sample from today..

The first picture on the left – is it Beyonce?

The rear legs look right. I'm not sure about that front right side leg though.

The bridle looks a little heavy as well, but it would probably paint really easily.

Good job so far.

Have you made any progress on any other Napoleonic figures?

Yes, the right front leg is in stage of corrections.
This is try to sculpting with unsuccessful first doll.
New horse dolls are almost ready for moulding.
And easy painting is one of this project cornerstone concepts.

Other Napoleonic develops as well but are slowed a little thanks to dolls preparing and other commissioned sculpts.

Hopefully the command figures for Austrian revolutionary cavalry, Towarzcys and Krakusen won't be delayed for too long

Yes please on the Austrian commands.

So the drummer "boy" is the same height as the rest of the unit??????

Yes, all comes from same doll.

With light, standard and heavy horse.

the standard and heavy horse appear to be quite huge compared to the foot soldiers

And some of your opponents may say, that light horse appear to be too small. And I don't sculpt cossack ponies yet.

But these horses are in correct heights by French regulations. The shape of horses are another question, but I tried to get these similar to photos.

According to Gassendi in his Aide Memoire the horses for cuirassiers and dragoons should be between 154 – 158 cm height (1802)

Grenadiers à Cheval had often horses below 155 cm -
in december 1811 buying horses

min height 145 cm – may height 150 cm

contrast to 1811 spring

154 cm – 159 cm

1810

147 cm – 155 cm

in contrast to

Polish Krakusi 137cm – 142 cm

Russian cuirassier horse according to Viskovatov

Cuirassier horse— no taller than 5 feet 3 inches, and not shorter than 5 feet. There is no prescribed color, but the cost, less delivery fee, is authorized to be 100 roubles.

I used the table from Nafziger.
Biggest 155 cm – 160 cm
…
Smallest 146 cm – 153 cm

Krakusen = Cossacks ponies.

what Nafziger book? It is seemingly too general, I used the book by Paul Dawson about the grenadiers a cheval – where the author lists acutal dimensions due to purchase of horses for the unit

"Imperial Bayonets", Table 48, page 215.

Actual lists are naturally different from regulations. This is the reason, why we need horse figures with different sizes even for the same unit.

I have no such obsession to have different sizes even in the same unit – but more variation in poses.

I wanted to say – different sizes for different time periods.

Variations in poses will be enough – for this reason I maked the dolls.

This is a fascinating view of casting work in progress – the side we rarely get to see. Well done Sho Boki, coming on nicely – drummer looks great! Horses coming on very well – look a little like War Horse half way through! – but I'd agree with 'Eclipsing Binaries' that the bridle looks a bit heavy – needs to be a touch more delicate. Well done!

Thanks, RuLane.

How are these guys coming along? I'm still intrigued as to what the are. When is the Big Reveal?

Officers must be finished. But I try to put some of them to next mould to see the casting results.

So they are still secret?

They are obviously French in Bardin for Waterloo, but their secret still unrevealed. They are not 6mm nor 15mm.

10mm!

Read first post. ;-)

The variety and natural poses of your infantrymen, Sho, is just delightful. Slightly jealous that they're not 1809 10mm.

they are excellent, cartrdige box on the middle figure is quite small though.

So – let us sum up, this range wasn't done before, it is Bardin uniform for 1815 – height – not disclosed – French Young Guard?

Two poses moulded and casted.

Not finished yet, but secret is revealed.. they are in 1:200 scale, 8mm.
Practically 6mm but with legs.

Colonel..

Very nice, but do we need another new scale? Wouldn't you be better spending time, and therefor money, on producing figures that are to the scale that people already collect. I for one would not buy 6, 8, 10 or 12mm figures as my collection already is quite substantial and changing scale now would be too much work. Even the true 15mm scale would be too small compared to what figures I already have.

So even though most of your 15/18mm figures are not in the theatre and period I collect, they are still tempting and I may get some Russians, or the Polish or Prussian cavalry, at some point. I doubt I'd ever buy 8mm.

They are very nice and extremely well done though.

I was ordered and paid to sculpt these. And I find this scale the best for smaller end.
But don't worry. With my new technology I plan to produce the same infantry in all my scales at same time. Everybody will get figures in his preferred scale.

With these I will not cover Powers and Nations, but Battles.
Waterloo first.
And first unit set takes shape.. French Lignes and Legeres. Troopers and sergeant will be doubled in set. Shooters, casualties and other markers must be done. At least 33 such infantry units needed for full battle.

Guard follow. Young Guard troopers may serve as grenader and voltigeur in line and light units. Old Guard will be divided to grenadieurs and chasseurs.. so 4 sculpted types of basic infantry units in lead for French side.
Guard started..

Quite a good idea to tackle a range, still an immense ambitious project, you would have to cover an awfull lot of different kinds of units – and artillery – guns, waggons, horse teams, the Prussian army as well – where nobody really knows what kind of uniforms were actually worn in the 1815 campaigns
Good luck with your project

Thanks!
Artillery are on sculpting table right now.
But this is not so ambitious project as it may looks like.
In 8mm there are expression of 15mm with simplicity of 6mm.
Figures are quick and easy to paint and unit sets are ready for battle.

Standard units have all neccesarily components for full scale Waterloo on 2m x 1.5m table. Later I may create additional luxury packs (4 times more troopers), with wagons and horse teams, for these who wanted to play with extra amount of soldiers on larger (3x4m) table. But standard units are designed for correct footprints on standard table (1 inch = 100m) and waggons may don't fit there.

Egen and where will they be available for purchase? They look great, well done!

Cheers

They, as all my stuff, will be available on my site boki.ee

I can't say – when exactly, but probably they will be next on line, if I don't finish Early Austrian Command first.

I cross my fingers for the Austrian command figures for the cavalry you produced.

As for a range, I really think one must look at the Perrys – how they do it, they are the state of the art how to make miniature armies, the Bavarian Napoleonic miniatures – simply a dream, you get all essential units, from the staff down to the National Guards and all guns and artillery waggons as well.

Austrian trumpeters and standardbearers are the first thing I see on every morning. I lined them up near to my bed for attempting my fingers, because only hats is left to do.. but always fingers grab 8mm instead.

Perrys have different goals. In 8mm I build up units for wargame first. This is the main goal. Otherwise they will be useless.
But I add theme packs later, when neccessary battle units are ready and if people likes the line.

well in case – I have to wait for the Valmy battle set in 8 mm scale ;-))

I take your word! ;)
Nice small battle, all troops together are lesser than any one side at Waterloo.