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Friday, December 28, 2012

18mm 1799 Napoleon in Italy

As a change of pace from the last two months painting that focused primarily on samurai and 1859 projects, I switched gears and the last of my Russian Napoleonic AB stock fell under the paint brush.  From the remnants of the Russians, three battalions could be mustered: two musketeer battalions and one combined grenadier battalion.

 The two musketeer battalions are fielded as the Yaroslavl Musketeer Regiment with the contribution of the Yaroslavl grenadier companies towards the combined grenadier battalion. 

The combined grenadier battalion is composed of grenadier companies from Yaroslavl Musketeer Regiment and the Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment.  Keep in mind that during this early period, Russian grenadier regiments wore the short mitre for the fusiliers while the grenadiers wore the tall mitre.  That reminds me that I need to order Russian fusiliers now to field the two fusilier battalions of Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment.

Notice that the combined grenadier battalion maintains distinctive facings and mitre backs for each of the two contributing parent regiments.

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6 comments:

  1. VolleyFireWargamesDecember 28, 2012 at 5:34 PM

    So whats the color scheme / facings of these battalions - I have enough troops to do both and extra grenadiers

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    1. Jonathan FreitagDecember 28, 2012 at 5:43 PM

      During this period, Astrakhan had apricot colored facings and Yaroslavl had raspberry facings.

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    2. VolleyFireWargamesJanuary 1, 2013 at 10:35 PM

      Apricot - hmm is that a muddy yellow and raspberry kind of a burgundy?

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    3. Jonathan FreitagJanuary 2, 2013 at 6:09 AM

      For apricot, I went for a little more orange and used Ceramcoat's Terra Cotta but muddy yellow would also be a good choice. Raspberry is a tougher choice since it tends to span a wider spectrum from light red to burgundy. I chose a light red with a "creamy" opaqueness. Not sure of the Ceramcoat color since my label on the bottle has long since rubbed off. Due to fading in the field, I'm sure any light reddish color would suffice. I would be interested in seeing the colors on which you settle.

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  2. MontyDecember 29, 2012 at 8:15 AM

    Good lord Napoleonics is alot of work. The results, though, are worth it. Nicely done!

    Do the grenadiers get a bonus in battle?

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    Replies
    1. Jonathan FreitagDecember 29, 2012 at 9:19 AM

      Thanks, Monty!

      Re: Grenadier Effectiveness
      As in many things, the answer is "it depends." During this period, I would rate the Russian grenadiers at least as VETERAN (+1 DRM over regular line) and possible as high as ELITE (+2 DRM over regular line).

      When fielding troops for a scenario, I try to form a rating based on two components: a fixed component and a random component. For example, suppose the grenadiers in all respects qualified as VETERAN but had spent the day prior to battle force marching in order to reach the confrontation. Even though their fixed component would rate as VETERAN, I might be tempted to downgrade them to AVERAGE for the upcoming battle.

      The cool headgear ought to contribute to their rating too, don't you think?

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