"Napoleon's Sleigh in 15mm; The Retreat from Moscow" Topic

Had great fun with this project and I hope you like it. Some time back I actually questioned whether it was in good taste to wargame the Retreat, let alone reproduce frozen bodies stripped of their clothes. Mrs Deadhead is still not too keen on this but seems more bothered about the horses!

AB and Eureka figures in 15/18mm, heavily converted and chopped about (I think they are slightly bigger still than that scale, but incredible quality).

Boney's sleigh is scratch built and, if you follow the link you will see stages in construction. Based on Niels Rullkotter's superb 28mm version, which he made for Perrys. He even sent me an early prototype (see the link) plus many photos of the original in the Borodino Museum.

Finally. I know there is doubt and this may have been Davout's whatever the Russkis say. Also Boney left behind his army in his sleigh, so maybe the route was not thus lined!
How I get these through the Oz customs is what beats me. Julian Mizzi is suddenly making 1812 plans for some future convention he hints.

Does anyone recall the closing scene of Stalingrad? Incredibly moving (and so much better in German with subtitles now)

More pics here;

imageshack.com/a/JjbM/1

Very, very impressive. Museum quality.

Wow! Nice!! Very creative.

Now that is figure converting!! Really inspirational! I am getting cold just looking at those pictures. They remind me of the prints by Klein and Albrecht. Great scratchbuild as well Deadhead!!

Really appreciate that feedback. Not sure it would get noticed as I only posted on the Gallery. We are being told off for overdoing the crossposting so…

You will surely recognise the figures from AB and that Eureka Artillery camp set in 15/18mm with lots of Greenstuff to keep them warm. Poor Boney and his Marshal mate are sawn off the mounted figures, indeed so is the lancer riding "shotgun"….that is why he looks a bit bandy legged!

The chap putting on his coat struck me as a marvellous casting to modify, but the best was his mate. On the original I could not work out what he was holding…some sort of canister round maybe? Then I saw his trouser flap undone and roared with laughter. The penny dropped!

The corpses are AB Ancient Greek Slingshotters or whatever they were called. Purely a chance finding…..

My favourite is still the simple "Stalingrad" image of the frozen figure crouched over his comrade……..dead simple.

(Indeed this model was the easiest carriage I have done I think….certainly the most fun)

I got shivers down my back the first time I saw these figures-Will be really proud to have them in my collection – thanks so much Deadhead !

The scenic backdrop is awesome and befitting the context. You can imagine the lads, fighting through the cold to get back home.

Inspiration for me to paint up more French casualties.

Brrrrrrrr

Brilliant modelling. You can feel the cold snd the first impression using of reality. It summons memories of the Duelists Russian scene as well as the Stalingrad film.

Chris

Good point about The Duellists.

I have several pictures saved of Ridley Scott's portrayal of the Retreat and indeed was very tempted to paint monochrome, but with a green wash, to try to capture the same look (as also in The Matrix). Perry 28mm figures of the Retreat are generally painted in strong vibrant colours, not in the washed out filthy look of freezing, firesmoke, mud etc.

At 15 mm scale I still think the stripped bodies are too pink, even after two washes with blue and one of black. Julian may want to drybrush over everything with white, when (if) the figures ever get to him (posted a few hours ago).

Snag is, at this scale, you do still have to be able to see that there is someone there! The photos do look even better in black and white actually………..

very impressive