I have had plans to put together a Russian force for the Crimean War. Between myself and my group, we can cover almost all the other troops, but no one has Russian. Well, while doing am eBay scan (very dangerous for me), I came across a pile of listings for the troops I needed. As usual, I jumped in with both feet!
The minis arrived from the seller, each individually wrapped (just like Old Guard Painters packaging…). I pulled them all out and looked them over. The paint jobs are all nicely done, but the figures are rather larger than I was expecting. Clearly well fed Russians! They are defiantly on the heroic 18 size of the ledger. Well, not perfect, but close enough. Being well painted helped me with any second guessing.
I did not have to do anything with the figures, as the quality was great. I just needed to find some flags and order some more bases from Shogun for the force. I was able to do both. After spraying all the bases brown, I affixed the figures to the bases with white glue. I prefer four figures, but these troops were busy enough that I thought three looked better on the base.
Once the glue had dried, I pulled out the scissors and started cutting out flags. I affixed each to the flag poles with white glue and water. One they hardened a bit, I went back with tweezers and bent them up a bit to give a more natural look.
The next steps was the flocking. All my 19th century stuff in just done with flock, so I saw no reason to change for this force. I just painted each base with some Geohex Green and dunked them into a tub of Woodland Scenics mixed turf. After that dried over night, I went back and dull coated all the bases with Mr Hobby Matt spay coat. With that, I have the majority of what I need for the Russians. I think I need one more cavalry unit and a lot more guns. I think these figures may be Eureka, so I will just get some of those to finish off the force at some future date.
- Manteuffel