Someone has bought some moulds.........

..............and they work!

Below is a link to Ross Macfarlanes's 'Game of the Month' blog, where there are some photos of his first castings, and his thoughts on the figures - thankfully good..............

http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/2014/04/hot-off-press.html

If anyone else has starting doing any casting from the moulds, and have any photos you would like to share let me know.

Plans for the Russians

PA are planning to do three moulds for the Russian 'line' infantry, so six figures plus a selection of heads and weapons.

When putting together this range, the Greenwood and Ball range of booklets are often used during reference and discussion, although relatively slim at 24 pages these booklets are packed with information. Nigel Billington at 18th Century Press has kindly allowed me to reproduce some of the pictures from the Russian book to describe what is being planned:
http://www.18thcenturypress.com/syw.html

 Summer Uniform

For the Russian infantry, during summer it was normal to leave their heavy coat and knapsack with the baggage, and fight in their waistcoats. Equipment would be light with just their cartridge box on a single shoulder belt, and a sword on their waist belt.


In the Seven Years War the Russians fought all of their major battles in the summer, so the summer uniform seems a good option. It also means that the figures are quite distinct from those of the Prussians and Austrians.





For the summer uniform, as far as I can figure out, the rank and file and NCOs would strip down to their waistcoats. The officers would probably wear their coats, officially drummers should retain their coats, but G&B, Osprey and others show them in waistcoats, so either is fine. So the current plan is:

• Rank and file - waistcoat - two new figures
• NCO - waistcoat - new figure
• Drummer - waistcoat - new figure (if you want the coat use a Prussian)
• Standard bearer - in coat (use the Prussian)
• Officer - in coat (use the Prussian)

Grenadiers

The Russian grenadiers wore a very distinctive helmet, which clearly needs to be covered by a separate head.

Another item which distinguished the grenadiers from the musketeers was the cartridge box worn on the front of their waist belts. At first sight it would seem that a separate figure is needed for his, however due to the pose and semi-flat nature of these figures the box would hardly be visible, and can just be painted or stuck on, so we decided it was not worth a separate figure?

The first two Russian moulds

We have pretty much firmed up on the first two moulds.

Mould 3109

• Musketeer/grenadier (summer uniform) advancing
• Musketeer/grenadier (summer uniform) march attack
• Heads for musketeers and grenadiers

Mould 3110

• NCO (summer uniform) with separate musket
• Drummer  (summer uniform)
• Again heads for musketeers and grenadiers

And the third mould????

There are still spaces for two more figures in a third mould and we have not finalised this yet - current favorites are in bold:

• Observation Corps musketeer in summer uniform advancing?
• Observation Corps musketeer in summer uniform marching?
• Musketeer/grenadier in winter uniform advancing?
• Musketeer/grenadier in winter uniform marching?
• Musketeer/grenadier officer winter uniform with musket?

(The Observation Corps wore their cartridge box on the front and had no shoulder belt, they also wore dragoon boots rather than gaiters. The suggestion is that the figure is in summer uniform, so no coat).

Any thoughts?