It appears that the humidity has broken and it's fall, just as the calendar tells us. What this means is that now I can spray prime figures again. And that, in turn, means that work can begin in earnest on my Great Northern War project.
Research has begun, aided by the Osprey titles on Peter the Great's army and Poltava, as well as Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army by Mollo.
I believe I have settled on the following Russian infantry regiments to start:
Narvski - dark green/faced blue/ red breeches
Kievski - red/faced yellow/red breeches
Byelgorodski (can double for Astrakhanski) - dark green/faced red/brown breeches.
I'm still debating the number of figures to paint per regiment. Russia at this time generally had two battalion regiments, except for a handful which had three. Of course, both Narvski and Kievski are three battalion regiments.
Most of my games will likely be unhistorical toy soldier type affairs, so I'm not terribly constrained by history but I do like to keep it in mind as long as I don't find it too limiting.
12 figure battalions sounds like a good idea, but if I paint them to full strength I'm looking at two regiments of 36 figures each. If I paint them to two battalion strength, then I can paint up all three.
Regardless, if I want to include two officer figures per unit (whether I unit means the battalion or the regiment), I'm limited to a max of 4 units as I only have eight officer figures. Although this is something to think further about, I plan to start prepping the figures tonight.
Remember that mainstay of all wargamers, "when in doubt, buy more figures".
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly among my favorite figures when I did the GNW were the Danes (mostly in grey, but with colorful cuffs and great flags).
-- Jeff
That option - buy more figures - is certainly on the table. I'm using the Zvezda 1:72 plastics,which can be found rather inexpensively fairly often. Whether or not I get more of those, I'm looking to pick up some metal 20/25mm command figures to supplement the plastic.
DeleteIt wasn't until I got involved in this project that I even learned there were participants other than Russia or Sweden. I just did some searching and I see what you mean about the Danish flags!
When in doubt, start another project! ;)
ReplyDeleteDoes it have to be a new project or can it be one of the incomplete ones that silently mock me? I have a couple of those after all.
DeleteEither way works for me. There's a little bug in my ear that keeps wanting to start AWI.
ReplyDeleteAWI is on my short list as well. I've been spending a bit too much time looking at the All the King's Men site.
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