More Russians and a Village to Defend

2 Battalions of Grenadiers, the St. Petersburg and the Pavlovski, march through a Russian village on the way to toss out the French invaders.  They are protected by a screen of jagers, who have already adopted their cold weather trousers, signalling the approach of General Winter.

My last attempt to photograph the jagers was an abysmal failure, but was able to get somewhat better shots of them this time, despite the sun flitting in and out behind the clouds.  I had a reflector placed to bounce some light on the front of the jagers, but the sun was only marginally cooperative.

Here we have the Russian forces arrayed thus far.  I am working on constructing the 1st Division of the 3rd Army Corp from the Russian First Army.  Next up will likely be a couple of line infantry battalions, probably Tchernigov and Koporski.  After that I hope I will have been able to find the remaining figures I need to model the Imperial Guard Cossacks.  There will also be some attached cavalry, probably a squadron of Cuirassier, and either dragoons or chasseurs, maybe even some more cossacks.  

The buildings you see are mostly by Pegasus Models, the big on is actually a pre-painted model they produce.  I must admit I was inspired by a post I saw some months ago, which inspired me to go ahead and paint up the smaller cottages and add the fire highlights to the windows of the larger structure.  The small log cabin on the far right is actually made with the Linka system for building HO scale plaster models.  You can see some other examples by clicking the Linka label on the left hand side of my blog.

 

The St. Petersburg grenadiers formed for battle.  These were a relatively simple touch up to make serviceable, but still required quite a bit of effort after all the little fixes were accounted for.

Up next will likely be some more scenic elements, a road and a small stream.  Before any more units are touched up for the Russians, I need to switch gears for a while and finish up a civil war project before a friend comes to visit this fall from England.  We will be recreating parts of the battle of Stones River, on the actual site of the battle in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

HO scale buildings with Linka

Here are several buildings my son and I have recently finished using the Linka plaster building system.  Basically you just use the rubber molds to produce interlocking plaster pieces which can be used to make a wide variety of buildings.  We also have the brick and log cabin sets which we will be using shortly.  The models are the perfect size for 20mm or 1/72 scale figures.  They are a little small for 25mm figures, but I intend to use them as scenery for some SAGA games and my old Ral Partha true 25's.  

Finding the right plaster was a challenge, but eventually we got some dental stone from my son's orthodontist and discovered it is just the right mix for this process.  We order it in 20 pound packs now from a plaster company on the web.

The pig pen is probably my favorite building even though it was the smallest.  The roof is made with standard Linka roof tiles, over wich I layered model railroading grasses to make the thached roof.  The pig is part of a wonderful set by pegasus 1/72 scale models.

The Manor house

 The Farm House.  This was a fun model as the windows were actually made by combining two of the cast parts and then making a silicon mold of the new "original" using regular silicon caulk and a tiny bit of blue paint as a catalyst which we then used to cast the rest of the windows.

The trees are the cheap Lifelike model railroading plastic trees that I stretched a fiber canopy over and then detailed with sea moss pieces and then simply flocked with turf and leaves using a spray adhesive.