Monday, 19 June 2023

More GNW Russian Cavalry - Andrey Kropotov's Horse Grenadiers

 Tonight, it is back to the current GNW expansion, and another squadron (six figures, 2 x 60mm x 60mm bases) of Warlord plastic WSS cavalry.

As you may recall from last time, this is what I am aiming for them to look like:


And here they are, using spare mitre caps from the infantry pack....









I have six more plastic cavalry left to do - they are assembled and have tricorn hats on, so are intended as a squadron of dragoons. As far as I can tell, the Russian cavalry at this time was all designated as dragoons (apart from the horse grenadiers) and operated as the old style "shooting" cavalry, as opposed to the "blade" or "charging" cavalry of the Swedes. I will randomly pick one of the regiments wearing dark green, faced red, for this last unit (for now) of Russian cavalry.

Thanks for your visit, hope you liked the latest output from my painting desk!

33 comments:

  1. Super effort on the Cavalry painting Kieth- the detail certainly stands well to the taking of close up photos- well done. KEV.

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    1. Thanks Kev - they are quite nice figures to paint, once you get used to the difference between the under stated detail of plastic compared with metal sculpts.

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  2. A lovely looking unit Keith…
    I’ve always loved that simple concept… If grenadiers are good then horse grenadiers are loads better.
    It a shame that they didn’t actually throw grenades from horseback.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly...as to your comment about throwing grenades, perhaps they did, given Valentines info below that there fired small scale mortars while mounted!!

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  3. Great looking, love the mitre hats. Green & red, not only for Christmas.

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    1. Right! Green and red are not only for Christmas. They work for Piedmontese La Marina too!

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    2. Thanks gents, I like the look of these guys too!

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  4. Another excellent looking cavalry unit, wearing an entirely sensible hat in the age of reason!
    Best Iain

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  5. Another great looking painted miniatures sir!

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  6. Lovely work but I have to wonder how they kept those ruddy hats on while riding horses. No sign of any chin straps.

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    1. I don't think practicality was high on the list of uniform designers requirements back then, JBM. They were like the haute couture of their day....I guess the soldiers should be glad they at least had reasonably sensible footwear, without eight inch heels!

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  7. What beauties! Mounted grenadiers are also dragoons. In 1709, three horse-grenadier regiments were created from the grenadier companies of the dragoon regiments. These elite soldiers not only threw grenades, but also were armed with (several pieces per regiment) hand mortars, which could be fired on horseback using special saddles. And at first they were called "Dragoon Grenadier Regiment" in contrast to the "Dragoon Fusilier Regiment" Yours faithfully.

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    1. Thanks for the extra information Valentine! I had surmised something similar from the fact only three uniforms are listed on the blog as horse grenadiers. I also assumed that, like Dragoons, at this stage they would have drums rather than bugles....hopefully that's correct?

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  8. They look superb. Yep most of the Russian cavalry are dragoons and were a poor match against the hard charging Swedish horse

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    1. Thanks Scotty...that's my reading of it too...and having experienced For King and Parliament treatment of Royalst (blade) v Parliamentarian (shot) cavalry...the latter are at a huge disadvantage...which I think is inaccurate in terms of the ECW by the way, but that's a separate story!

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  9. nice job! I always said that the GNW was the BEST NW.
    (though I don't know if there are other NWs). 😀

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    1. I agree it is definitely the best NW, Stew! I expect the Canadians had one too.....!

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  10. A fine-looking unit Keith and great work on the tri-coloured sashes. They look like they would have been quite fiddly to do.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence...the sashes were not too bad...tri colored flag poles for my Austrian Napoleonics were worse, I would say!

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  11. Fine work once again Keith and I love the gold trim, which really helps to make the red and green pop. Nice info from Valentine too about the saddle fired mortars. I bet the horses got a bit of a fright!

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    1. Thank you Steve....yes, those horses must have received some specialist training, you would think!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Whoops....another Blogger publishing double up....sorry!

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  12. Great looking unit Keith. You can't go wrong with red and green.

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    1. Thanks Richard, it certainly is a nice colour combination.

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  13. Glad to see those heads were of some use Keith.

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  14. Great stuff Keith, they have come up a treat.
    Regards, James

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    1. Cheers James, I appreciate your kind comments!

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  15. They look like little xmas nutcrackers on horseback? Pretty cool though.

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