Twelve

This should have everything I want. An historical novel of the Napoleonic Wars with a fantasy horror twist.
The first third of the book delivers this - just. The remainder of the book fails to live upto the expectation.
It suffers from some poor writing and an almost complete lack of empathy with the lead character. The hero manages to travel around Russia, a rather large country, with ease and apparently quite quickly even in winter. At the same time we miss nearly all the major battles and some are only mentioned in passing. Strange that for almost the entire campaign the Russian characters rarely meet a Frenchman and when they do it is without animosity or violence in the main.
The baddies are equally unconvincing and do not deliver any of the menace we might expect from creatures of their kind. The reader is never really given the impression that any of the characters are in danger or that they are exposed to real harm.
I won't be reading the follow up "Thirteen" - the continuing adventures of Captain Danilov.

If you want to read it buy the book second hand or get it from the library. It's not worth buying at full price.

Great Northern War Russians

A couple of shots of the almost complete Russain foot mustered for parade.
I say almost because there is one battalion missing who are waiting for their movement trays to arrive from TSS

All in all I'm more than pleased with these. Very happy in fact with the finished result. When Little Big Men get around to producing some flags then they will be totally complete.

Great Northern War Russian Command

All done bar the basing.
As ever with Musketeer Miniatures these were a joy to paint. Simple figures elegantly sculpted and with plenty of character.

Sergeant with partisan (not supplied by Musketeer who provide a halberd with the figure). These mustachioed figures have a scowl that fits in well with the popular perception of the stern Russian.

Russian officer with a coat adorned in plenty of gold lace. The sash is based on that worn by Tsar Peter and is in the Russian national colours.

Drummer. Probably the least exciting of the range but a nice figure all the same. Details are crisp and clean although the face makes him look like an emo (for those not familiar with the term just look at any group of teenagers and the emos amongst them will be apparent).

Russian ensign. I chose to make half of them into officers and gave them the halberd that comes with the sergeant.

Bill has once again delivered a terrific group of figures that match in so well with the rest of the range. A real joy to paint and so very easy as a result. Forty eight figures purchased two weeks ago and now complete.

Quick Update

I've not been idle at the painting desk although my ability to get down to the club has been curtailed somewhat thanks to work.
Last night I had to work late and so spent a few hours at the desk and have now managed to finish all the Jacobite foot. That's 260 Highlanders completed along with 36 regular foot. At the same time the Jacobite horse are almost finished and I am waiting for the new bases to arrive in the post (ordered last week and still waiting) with just some lowland horse and Scotch hussars to go. I decided to leave the artillery and buy some more since all the guns I have are large calibre and really should be much smaller for most of the battles in the '45.

Additionally I am almost two thirds of the way through the Russian command figures for the GNW project. Forty eight figures now need lace and trim completing along with the sash for the officers. Once done that will be all the foot complete and ready for the table.

Well almost ready.

I'm having a debate with myself over whether or not to replace the pikes.
Swedish pikes were 6-8m in length. Taking a 28mm figure as being just under 2m tall that means it is not unreasonable to have long pikes for the Swedish foot, which they have been given.
However, Russian pikes seem to have been much shorter at less than 4m (some sources say 9 feet). Unfortunately I can't find a good photograph of any re-enactors with pikes that show how long theirs are. I've given mine pikes of the same length as the Swedes. So do I now replace them all with new pikes or do I leave them?

Photos to follow shortly.