Update

It has been several months since I wrote my last post on this blog. Lack of time and other projects unfortunately limited playing time, which was however compensated by more painting of Napoleonic 1:72 plastic minis.

After the last battle, I focused especially on Russian troops, with one unit of Grenadiers (Zvezda), one of Cuirassiers (Zvezda) which is useful as Guard Cavalry too, 3 artillery batteries (again from Zvezda), 2 units of Dragoons (Hat) and 2 of Cossacks (Hat again). A single unit of French Old Guard infantry (Esci) rounded up my painting effort during these last few months.

 

I think I now have a completely painted Russia Army, except for the officers' stands (Army CO and Sub-commanders). Maybe just a single Hussars unit would be good to have too, and I have some “reserves” (extra figures from boxes I haven't fully utilized yet) too in case they are needed.

 

Some of the painted units have been used in a recent small game based on OHW's scenario 12 ("An unfortunate oversight"), with Russian attackers vs French defenders (the French won), but I still plan to play something more structured.

 

In the meantime, I've bought some more minis too: a Prussian Infantry Sampler set from Hat, that has one sprue each of Marching, Action and command figures – the 1813 Prussian Army is one I really lack minis of, so this is a nice addition and the sample will let me decide which kind of poses do interest me more.

 

Then I bought a Italeri set of French Horse Artillery with prepared positions. I lacked Horse Artillery and this set has excellent sculpting, while the accessories are very useful for redoubts – I'm very pleased with my purchase. I also bought a box of French Young Guard by Hat: the sculpting is fairly good but honestly not exceptional, but the fact they're in greatcoats makes them useful for many roles and there are enough for 4 full units.

I have painted 3 units with blue greatcoats that will mark them as Young Guards (I need 2-3 of these for battles like Dresden, or La Rothiere), and one with grey greatcoats for generic infantry or for some of the less-well equipped Young Guards in 1813-1814. I've also painted an old Airfix French Foot artillery gun + crew. It may look strange, but almost no-one produces French foot artillery (only Guard artillery), except for the old Airfix and for Zvezda... and it looks like the Zvezda set too is impossible to find (out of production I guess...). Which is a pity because the Zelda sets are usually excellent and this is no exception. Unfortunately, it's not the only one I can't find (the Russian Hussars are not available anymore too...).

However, I now have all the painted units (except the general officers) I need for a scenario inspired to the Battle of Dresden in 1813, which I recently played. This will be the subject of a future post.