Sunday 29 December 2013

Russian Uniforms

My Crimean War booty has given me a few small headaches. The first is that my current paint palette was not set up for the colours I need, hence a trip to Dark Sphere near Waterloo Station. I know they stock both GW and the full range of Vallejo paints. (They also had the Warlord paints there as well). In the end having bought 5 or 6 possible, I decided that the most accurate paint for the base colour of my Russian  Greatcoats was GW Karak Stone. I could have 'faffed' around trying to mix my own colour but to be honest as the Russians are in 'campaign dress'  I can argue that the uniform was altered or adapted to match what was available at the time. Photos taken by Fenton even show British officers committing the cardinal sin of mixing uniform and civilian clothes!

The more problematic issue was to do with Russian Uniform facing colours. I am not massively hung up on getting all details absolutely correct but this is reasonably important. My research was limited to the Intraweb and some  Kindle Books ( being cheaper than their hardback or soft back brothers).

This is what I am going with unless I discover it is hopelessly wrong

1st Brigade Known as the Line Brigade
                               Belt.        Collar.      Shoulder Boards.           Cap Band
1st Regiment.     White.      Red.           Red.                                  Red
2nd Regiment.    White.      Red.           White.                               Red
Outlining?                              No.             No.                                   No

2nd Brigade Known as the Jaeger Brigade

1st Regiment.      Black.     Dark Green.        Light Blue.            Dark Green
2nd Regiment.     Black.     Dark Green.        Dark Green.          Dark Green
 Outlining ?                           Red.                     Red.                       Red  

Rifle Regiment                     Black.    Black.                  Red.                        Black
Outlining ?                            Red.                     No.                          Red

There were 4 active battalions per regiment and each battalion had different piping around the top of the forage cap

1st Btn.       Red
2nd Btn.      White
3rd Btn.       Light Blue
4th Btn.       Yellow

The one thing missing from this is the complete absence of any 'Guard'  Regiments. I wondered why that was the case until I realised that none of them were sent to the Crimea.

Now this is decided I can get on with the painting. I have already completed the flesh on my first regiment and will basecoat the greatcoats tomorrow.




3 comments:

  1. Interesting post...and blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you. I really liked the 'sandstorm' effect on your last blog entry. Very clever

    ReplyDelete