Miniatures painting, comparisons, choosing

OF RUSSIAN (or “eastern”) HOUSES

or of the minor shaking of details when living with a Russian...
...You set up a nice "Russian" battlefield, proudly getting out your stock of houses, patiently collected over the years from everywhere you could. After all, a big table needs a lot, even if less "east" than usually if, say in Austria. Then she comes down to the game room and starts commenting. And you know she has been everywhere there, over the last 30 years, she know a lot and has a great attention to details. She was a tour guide for 30+ years. And then things get complicated;) as you get this kind of comment:

"Russian log cabins mostly have 3 windows façade. Hard put you ‘d be to find some with one or two only. "

"Entrances, traditionally, are almost never from the main facades, always from the side. "

“None of those houses are for living. Only maybe half shed from very poor 19th century. " deception, that was about my proudly showing my game buildings;)

And I have been to a number of reconstituted villages, to a number of ancient wooden houses here and there and seen pictures in museums and I know she is right. And of course modern adaptations, you can see, are most often far off from what one needs for 1812 and even 1941. She searches YANDEX the Russian stuff, rather than Google and finds examples..

And I defend our houses, our game suppliers: "You cannot show everything at that scale compromise with the ground surface, but some things could be right."
NIET, we visited several: 3 parts one for animals, one for summer and one winter. Objects to those recently
painted:

timecastmodels.co.uk
Modern houses maybe. But too many windows on the door side. This one getting painted, with two useful sheds.

see this one and that

A simple house

Pictures from the time of Tourgeniev taken in "his" museum. He describes these in his books too.

From a little town. Usually each house is part of an enclosed area, with service buildings and gates.

He says poor people have thatch and better off wooden planks on roofs. Talking about the Kursk/ Orel region. The more North the less thatch.

And yes then we can enter another can of worms as, guess what not everywhere do they have the same.

Richer, from a reconstituted peasant village/ museum.

This one is good 1812- WW2. It has a little internal courtyard, gate front and entrance sideways inside.
Plenty more. and here...
The whole Russian search for traditional rural houses (center /west Russia, Karelia-North or South-Ukraine would be different).

Nowadays one can turn towards 3d printed houses.

Gallery of painted figs

One never has enough wagons.
For looting and convoys, marking camps and the rear area /line of communication; just for decorative fun in the rear of battles.

They need drivers, handlers and sometimes stuff to put inside (and outside- you know those looting err foraging missions)

Actually I stuck them all, then painted most in a darkish wooden base colour , then fisnished in various tones. If any part had to be canvas or similar it gets a white paint base. NO blacks undercoat to make all ugly coal mining stained.
The quest for civilians and drivers to accompany the carts/ army trains/ rear camps. Best if multi period (17th-napo) and all sides. The red one on the left is an Irregular miniatures Irish rebel, this hat only end of 18th to napo period.
These wagons will do camps behind armies, to loot, to show line of communication exits; might be used for convoys attacks...put in villages.
Mostly here part non descript, the rest for the Russian rear area trains. Some civilians, russian types, taken from cossack artillerist from Old glory , and rennaissance chaps.Figures with broken muskets can be converted to wounded, civilians, cart drivers etc. .
As many non descript handlers as possible plus a few period /army specific ones.

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

Horses...
The horses are a trouble, most cannot be exchanged, using different sytems for the guy to ride; Old glory (small!!) B Fire and S, though not the same size could be swapped. Some Blue Moon ended up on Ab horses. Some Khurasans on smaller ones (they have huge ones). Overall it does work with a bit of efforts..

Factory line...days and days
Also needed bigger cannons, loads of infantry. Some I did one single big bases. The pb with big bases, they look ugly on hill and in some terrain (fortification), but they are a joy to move around. It might be that I will magnet the infantry, but I loath the extra pedestal 3mm of base.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

To add more cards, hover on a card and click 'Add items'

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

In the end one has to do units of smaller guys and of others.It does not matter much on the table. Again, it can be offset by thicker bases. Too many shooting musketeers. Difficult to make rear ranks. Manufacturers, at the ready, figures can be in front, or rear and are mostly missing for flexibility. Can't get the figs very close as the historical spacing of musketeers was decent to avoid fire from the neighbour match on your powder.

Too short boys
Historical infantry flags are 1.8 to up to 4 meters high! people who like big flags can do them for this period and be right (for a change). But then manufacturers for some reasons mostly put small flag poles, or soft pre broken ones or both! So some of these chaps had a surgical op, cut drill and stiff metal pole.

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

Horses...
The horses are a trouble, most cannot be exchanged, using different sytems for the guy to ride; Old glory (small!!) B Fire and S, though not the same size could be swapped. Some Blue Moon ended up on Ab horses. Some Khurasans on smaller ones (they have huge ones). Overall it does work with a bit of efforts..

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

Factory line...days and days
Also needed bigger cannons, loads of infantry. Some I did one single big bases. The pb with big bases, they look ugly on hill and in some terrain (fortification), but they are a joy to move around. It might be that I will magnet the infantry, but I loath the extra pedestal 3mm of base.

In the end one has to do units of smaller guys and of others.It does not matter much on the table. Again, it can be offset by thicker bases. Too many shooting musketeers. Difficult to make rear ranks. Manufacturers, at the ready, figures can be in front, or rear and are mostly missing for flexibility. Can't get the figs very close as the historical spacing of musketeers was decent to avoid fire from the neighbour match on your powder.

Need carts drivers?
From Campaign Games miniatures came Austrian Jägers command and Brunswick too (looking roughly the same/ Korsehut wearing lads). Landwehr in 18mm and engineers can be done from the same stock of pics. I needed the officers to have variants for the Landwehr, so the numerous horn blowers lost rifles, horns and extra pay becoming modest rear area guys. Here engineers and train for Austrians. Broken muskets sometimes do too.

Miniatures painting, comparisons, choosing

Painted figures

Choosing +reviews

Basing

OF RUSSIAN (or “eastern”) HOUSES

And I defend our houses, our game suppliers: "You cannot show everything at that scale compromise with the ground surface, but some things could be right."
NIET, we visited several: 3 parts one for animals, one for summer and one winter. Objects to those recently
painted:

timecastmodels.co.uk
Modern houses maybe. But too many windows on the door side. This one getting painted, with two useful sheds.

see this one and that

A simple house

Pictures from the time of Tourgeniev taken in "his" museum. He describes these in his books too.

From a little town. Usually each house is part of an enclosed area, with service buildings and gates.

He says poor people have thatch and better off wooden planks on roofs. Talking about the Kursk/ Orel region. The more North the less thatch.

And yes then we can enter another can of worms as, guess what not everywhere do they have the same.

Richer, from a reconstituted peasant village/ museum.

Gallery of painted figs

One never has enough wagons.
For looting and convoys, marking camps and the rear area /line of communication; just for decorative fun in the rear of battles.

They need drivers, handlers and sometimes stuff to put inside (and outside- you know those looting err foraging missions)

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

To add more cards, hover on a card and click 'Add items'

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

Miniatures painting, comparisons, choosing

Painted figures

Choosing +reviews

Basing

OF RUSSIAN (or “eastern”) HOUSES

And I defend our houses, our game suppliers: "You cannot show everything at that scale compromise with the ground surface, but some things could be right." NIET, we visited several: 3 parts one for animals, one for summer and one winter. Objects to those recently painted:

timecastmodels.co.ukModern houses maybe. But too many windows on the door side. This one getting painted, with two useful sheds.

see this one and that

A simple house

Pictures from the time of Tourgeniev taken in "his" museum. He describes these in his books too.

From a little town. Usually each house is part of an enclosed area, with service buildings and gates.

He says poor people have thatch and better off wooden planks on roofs. Talking about the Kursk/ Orel region. The more North the less thatch.

And yes then we can enter another can of worms as, guess what not everywhere do they have the same.

Richer, from a reconstituted peasant village/ museum.

Gallery of painted figs

One never has enough wagons. For looting and convoys, marking camps and the rear area /line of communication; just for decorative fun in the rear of battles.They need drivers, handlers and sometimes stuff to put inside (and outside- you know those looting err foraging missions)

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans. Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

To add more cards, hover on a card and click 'Add items'

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

Thirty years war miniatures comparisons 15mm

Mix and try Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans. Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

More mixing. One can also check fashion variations when having plenty, to maybe try a bit of history. The trouble is that most of the figures are really English civil war, but there is very little other choice.

Comparing a whole bunch of horsemen. The biggest ones Khurasan are not here, they have to be kept together, though in some cases they can exchange men on their horses to add variety. Similar sized can be in same units. If any is too small, higher bases in tall bushes and grass will do.

Infantry middle sized, roughly all can be together in same unit. A period when even weapons can be slightly different, no pb..

And I defend our houses, our game suppliers: "You cannot show everything at that scale compromise with the ground surface, but some things could be right."
NIET, we visited several: 3 parts one for animals, one for summer and one winter. Objects to those recently
painted:

timecastmodels.co.uk
Modern houses maybe. But too many windows on the door side. This one getting painted, with two useful sheds.

One never has enough wagons.
For looting and convoys, marking camps and the rear area /line of communication; just for decorative fun in the rear of battles.

They need drivers, handlers and sometimes stuff to put inside (and outside- you know those looting err foraging missions)

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.

Mix and try
Minis from Old Glory (bought cheap from one of their big occasional discount), Wargamer.pl left over, new Bluemoon, the few scores of Tottentanz (las before they stopped), a few Donningtons, and Khurasans.
Left over from the over ordered commands... tempting later to have more infantry.