Work in Progress

1812 Campaign of Russia

Posted by ADM on 26 Mar 2016, 20:54

My new project is the campaign of Russia made by Napoleon in 1812, it will be a very big diorama for wargames, representing the march to Moscow in Summer and the long retreat in the snow of Winter. All the event that took place during this period (Borodino, Beresina and all the others battle)

I already started this project in 2011 by cutting mold line and painting primer on 1200 figures (it took nearly 1 year of work only for that), until I stopped to start my aircraft carrier project and pacific war, during all this time I collected more and more figures for this project. Now I have around 2000 figures and surely a few hundred more to come before it will be finished. At this point none of the figures are painted, only half of them are primed in white, at this moment I'm cutting mold line of the others.

Nearly all the figures are made of plastic, I tried to avoid Hat manufacturer as often as possible because of the rubber like plastic and the nightmare to remove flash and mold line but it's still a great addition because they produce some subject not covered by others manufacturers. The bulk of those figures are from Zvezda (art of tactic and the conventional 1/72 range) the best to my opinion, Strelets for winter uniforms are much appreciated, many from "Esci/Italeri/Revell", some from "Waterloo 1815" and a few metal figures from "Franznap" and "fine scale factory" for some wagons.

It's still unclear today why Napoleon invaded Russia because the Russian army wasn't an immediate threat to his empire. The Tsar Alexander didn't respected the embargo signed with France against Great Britain but it was hardly a reason to risk his empire for such question which could be probably solved by diplomacy.

Napoleon was probably misinformed of the situation, he also underestimated many parameters, the distance between 2 villages is much bigger in Russia than the rest of Europe, which mean more difficult to find some supply on farms for troops and horses, the Russian army had many depot to stockpile supply (they were burnt when he came) because they couldn't live on the country like Napoleon did during all his previous campaigns in Europe. The Russian agriculture wasn't as productive as its counterpart because the earth was frozen more longer in winter and serfdom still in use, unlike the rest of Europe using more modern and efficient methods of production.

Napoleon probably felt emboldened by his 600 000 troops but the early losses of nearly all his horses dedicated to wagons carrying supply doomed his expedition. When he reached Moscow Napoleon was at the highest point of his empire, but it was also the beginning of the end, the winter and cossack were already waiting for him on his way back and Waterloo was the final point. Napoleon never recovered from his invasion of Russia, he lost his best battle hardened troops (from the french revolution) in the snow.

This is an epic part of history and big adventure who deserve my attention for the coming months/years needed to finish it, according to my freetime.

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Posted by Kekso on 26 Mar 2016, 21:32

Ok, this is officially my favorite WIP here on forum :xd:
ADM, you're restless and I will follow this project with more pleasure than your previous 2 ;-)
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by ADM on 26 Mar 2016, 21:58

Thank you Kekso but updates will be slow to start because I first need to prepare more figures for painting, you can have some rest until I open my boxes of vallejo colors :mrgreen:

I've collected plenty of informations during the past years (including in Benno's Forum, a great place to be !), I've also a good book for many uniforms and some 1/72 paper flags.
Accuracy will be my first concern.

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Posted by Emperor on 26 Mar 2016, 22:06

Man you did the last one great... Can't wait to see what you will do next...I am studying your last one, because I wan't to make battle of Ivankovac in simmilar way...
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Posted by Peter on 26 Mar 2016, 22:49

A great project again is coming up.

May I give you a suggestion for some figures? These are usefull for the retreat.

http://www.schilling-figuren.de/index.p ... =1_8_13_25

I have them myself and they are fantastic sculpted.
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by Zed1 on 26 Mar 2016, 23:07

Well... this is... BIG.
I wish you luck and much resilience...
And I'll be happy to see your progress.
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Posted by C M Dodson on 27 Mar 2016, 07:15

Hello. A massive project indeed!

The Schilling figures are a lovely adittion to any French army. Best wishes for your dioramas. I look forward to the pictures.

Chris
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Posted by The Iron Duke on 27 Mar 2016, 22:37

im looking forward to this i am really tempted to start a russian army i love the zvezda figures but im tempted into 28mm or 15mm ab figures i cant decide where to start
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Posted by FatFather on 28 Mar 2016, 09:14

YES! Is coming! Don't forget about Polish soldiers ;D.
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Posted by vellek on 28 Mar 2016, 16:24

THIS is going to be fun!
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Posted by ezzys on 29 Mar 2016, 23:19

O my this can only be another exquisite masterpiece of massive proportions.
Know doubt it will be as masterly fulfilled and executed as your last ADM,
Now let us see lots more of your work especially this one as its my favourite era
All the best Phil
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Posted by Susofrick on 30 Mar 2016, 09:07

Hey ho, let's go! This can only be one thing: Great! I will also follow!
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Posted by DickerThomas on 30 Mar 2016, 10:14

this will get "Great" .... :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
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Posted by ADM on 30 Mar 2016, 18:57

Many thanks everybody for all your support, this will be something really big and I will make it to the smallest details and best accuracy according to my knowledge, of course every advice will be welcome ! :-D I prefer a shower of rotten tomatoes in time instead of being wrong about something when it's too late to make change. :mrgreen:
Peter, I might add all those metal figures to my project although I already have some similar in plastic (4 sets of Strelets sledge train). More diversity is always better.

I'm working on 321 Russian heavy infantry grenadier (set Zvezda 8020), removing the very small mold line because it's always ruining the best painting effect if it's not done (it take me 1 day to clean 20 of them), there's no flash or unwanted plastic at all so it's easy, I've converted some grenadiers into more flag bearer (one white flag per regiment and 1 colored flag per company, it represent around 6 flags per regiment) , with a bigger base because the pole being in metal it's more heavy than the plastic figure and the figure could fell with its small ordinary base. I've also found on ebay some farmyard wagons drivers and accessories from Airfix Waterloo battle set sold separately, there's plenty available and they look great.

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Posted by Peter on 30 Mar 2016, 19:59

Thanks for the answer. And if you are looking for some casualty figures, he has them to! Just do a tour on their website and maybe you find other usefull things! ;-)
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Posted by DickerThomas on 31 Mar 2016, 06:15

Hello ADM, ;-)

maybe you will find this Link interresting.... i used the info's about Borodino for my own Dio...

http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com

.. it could be useful... :oops:

MOD: You don't have to use the code button to post a link. Just the link is enough. ;-)
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Posted by giorgio on 01 Apr 2016, 10:20

Hey! it's going to start another ADMirable adventure of the ADMiral (but don't you have a Fleet to ADMinistrate?) ;-)
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Posted by ADM on 11 Apr 2016, 01:01

Thank you for your link DickerThomas, really interesting ! :yeah:
Giorgio, there's not much sea battle today around the world to satisfy a top qualified Admiral in tactic and strategy :mrgreen: so I let the vice admiral manage the supply of the fleet until they really need me to win over land and seas and spread everywhere, so now I prefer spend my time with those figures and let express my creative side ! :-D

The mold line being erased I installed all my 319 Russian Grenadier on stripes of double-sided tape for the primer: Tamiya XF2 white mixed with 50 drops of XF20 grey applied by airbrush. It's a very light grey instead of pure white, like this, the uniforms colors are less flashy and more realistic. Those figures are now ready for brush painting but I won't start now, first I have more figures to prepare for painting, like these 164 Russian line infantry including a command group ,of 4 flags and 20 figures (Zvezda art of tactic, yes, it represent 40 boxes...). The very first step is to make this thick base more thin so it can mix with others figures of others manufacturers much better. It's the first time I'm trying this range of art of tactic figures so I'm curious to see how it turn out by assembling hands, legs and so on. For sure it take more time but if the figures look better so it's a time well spent.

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Last edited by armpcm on 11 Apr 2016, 07:08, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Photo link fixed.
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Posted by armpcm on 11 Apr 2016, 07:15

Hi there,

Its going to be a amazing project to watch, War and Peace in 1/72, I have stockpilled coke and popcorns to see it. :mrgreen:
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Posted by Susofrick on 11 Apr 2016, 08:28

Oh my!
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