Cossack Scouts and others

As I had previously mentioned on the blog amongst my purchase of pre-release figures from Eureka Miniatures in Australia for my Crimean War project were six Cossack Scouts on foot, one of each of the poses I believe. I thought that they would make useful bases of skirmishing infantry for my Roosians so I have based them up on 50mm round bases, two figures to a base. 

I have no print sources for their dress but research on t'internet had supplied me with several illustrations of Cossacks of the period. In the end the very small areas of their uniform coats and trousers on view I chose to paint dark blue {Foundry Prussian Blue shade and mid tone} while the greatcoats I painted in a beige-brown shade {Foundry British Uniform mid tone and light}. Two of these are modelled with rather nice hooded coats which vary the look nicely. Belts and such were painted Leather, bags and such either Drab or Rawhide {Foundry shade and mid tone in all cases}. When it came to grass 'n tufting their bases I went for a wilder look, well they are scouting after all. Enough waffling on, here they are, make up your own mind ~

While I was rummaging through the Lead Pimple I found two Great War Miniatures Roosian casualties, so ever the cheapskate I've painted them up as another frippery, or an objective marker even ~

There do remain in the Lead Pimple some Foundry Cossacks, but they need a spray undercoat and I haven't got around to it, yet... You could probably blame the 'great British summer' for that! Hopefully they will appear alongside the French over the winter. Mind, they need to be spray undercoated too...

The Look of the Game

One of the advantages of having a permanent wargames room and table is the simple fact that you are not usually as rushed in setting up or taking down games as you would be on most typical club games night. A simple knock on effect of that is the ability to model and paint game ephemera, put simply that results in the creation of interesting fripperies which just add to the look and feel of the tabletop battlefield. The 'look of the game' matters to those of us who game under the loose GHQ Irregulars banner, creating points of interest be they figures, equipment, vehicles or buildings. I've already shown a few of these from my Crimean War project on earlier blog posts, so the fact that I've added some more should not come as a surprise to any regular reader.

By now you might well be wondering where the figures were sourced. Well, if you follow the Lead Adventures Forum in the Age of the Big Battalions subsection you may have seen that last year Eureka Miniatures in Australia acquired the rights to a new range of Crimean War era figures from a Russian designer. With the Eastern European unpleasantness intruding the range has sadly been in an hiatus since. Having seen via the internet that Nic had cast some Uhlans for a fellow gamer I thought I'd take a chance and enquire if I might acquire some figures also. Very kindly Nic sent me a provisional pack list, quite an extensive one if I'm honest. I decided to choose a few dismounted Cossack Scouts, Casualties, and a Dressing Station set. Mixing the latter two sets has produced three bases of figures to populate a Roosian Field Dressing Station ~

The figures include two orthodox nuns in a nursing role, medical orderlies and a number of casualties in different stages of treatment or recovery. {On a related point, there was also a Hospital pack but no indication of what it might include, but I was sorely tempted...} The figures turned out to be straightforward to paint, though somewhat more delicate in sculpting style than the robust Great War Miniatures, Warlord Games and Foundry figures in my collection. The Cossack Scouts though look much more solid and have given me less trouble now they have come under the brush. They will feature in a forthcoming blog post in due course