Retreat From Moscow

Apparently winter isn’t finished yet, with a last cold snap and snowfall before spring arrives. Which again got me in the right mood to paint some more Poles.

These are my last few Duchy of Warsaw models by Murawski Miniatures. Note the Polish eagle is silver with unfurled wings compared to the French. The flag is from GMB Flags, and is the 7th Regiment of Line Infantry. The 7th formed part of 28th Division of the Grande Armee, within IX Corps under Victor. IX Corps was an amalgam of French, Berg, Badenese, Polish and Saxon troops, and acted as the rearguard during the battle of Berezina, holding the east bank of the river whilst the remnants of the Grande Armee passed over hastily constructed pontoon bridges to finally escape from Russia.

There’s another repeat sculpt here, but again the setting means that there’s scope to alter colours to make them a bit more individual.

Another half a dozen Duchy of Warsaw Poles by Murawski Miniatures. A few repeat sculpts between this batch and the last, but hopefully a bit disguised by leaning into the theme and having more piecemeal uniforms.

Stepping away from the more fantastical side of this project and looking at the more historic part, I ‘ve been painting up a few more Duchy of Warsaw from Murawski Miniatures. Very characterful sculpts, I believe done by Paul Hicks

With the temperature dropping outside, it felt appropriate to be adding some more to this project.

This abandoned wagon is a nice resin piece from Alternative Armies for Flintloque, and can do double duty as a specific objective or just table scatter.

It seemed the right time of year to add a bit more to this project, with the weather getting decidedly more wintery, and Halloween just around the corner.

This aboleth model was a gift from ZebraOutrider. I believe that it was from a Kickstarter run by Shed Games. It’s a nice resin sculpt, coming as a body with four separate tentacles to attach.

I really just winged it with the paint scheme, grabbing about half a dozen paints and mixing up things as I went. Quite happy with the fin and some of texture on the body.

These are the goblins produced by North Star as part of the official Silver Bayonet range. I really like these sculpts; they very much look the part in their period appropriate dress, something that was quite hard to find in the huge variety of more fantastical goblin models out there.

Paint scheme was back to being more dark and grimy than the bright colours of the vampires. Decided that I’d skip the normal greenskin colour as a bit of an experiment, not too disappointed in the outcome.

These are probably going to be my last Silver Bayonet models for a while, as I’ve built up enough of a collection to crack on with the gaming. Although there might be the odd unexpected thing that gets added in, the hobby side of this project is likely done for the moment.

Some of the Silver Bayonet scenarios require more than a single vampire, so I needed some backup for my Nosferatu. Whilst I really love the pair of official Silver Bayonet vampires, I picked up a pair made for Frostgrave Blood Legacy instead. Their winter attire is more on theme with this project, and doesn’t stand out as being too ‘fantasy’ in style.

Five more wolves from Otherworld Miniatures to make up numbers ready for the first solo scenario in the Silver Bayonet rulebook.

These came out a bit darker than the previous ones I painted, but it adds a bit of natural variation to the pack. Not entirely certain that I’m sold on the method I used for these wolves, but the method is extremely fast.

This delightful fellow was a surprise gift that came with a few other models in return for passing on a few old books. He looked to be a good fit for the Silver Bayonet, probably to represent a ghoul, but equally could be a cultist, or a vampire thrall or something.

One of the soldier types in the Silver Bayonet is the Werebear, a choice restricted to Russian units. I think a werebear also has potential as a good monster for some Russian themed home brewed scenarios too.

The model is from Otherworld Miniatures again.

Back to the historical with this cossack sled cannon and crew by Black Hussar Miniatures.

There’s no artillery in the Silver Bayonet, so this will need a specific scenario to be created for inclusion. However the crew leader with his brace of pistols and sabre will make a nice Irregular option for a Russian unit.

The nymph was bundled in with my Otherworld Miniatures. Although she doesn’t fit any of the bestiary monsters, there are options to create your own, or she might be another pixie.

The snow troll/yeti is from North Star. The wintery theme obviously requires a suitably furry troll.

Back to the more historical part of this project with half a dozen Russian Jaegers. These skirmishing troops in their forage caps are probably going to act as Infantrymen for a Russian Silver Bayonet unit. Models are more Perrys.

I’ll admit that I struggled with how dark these turned out – dark grey greatcoats, black crossbelts, backpacks, hats, gaiters, boots and dark green for the rest of the uniform… the white crossbelts for British and French Napoleonics do a lot to lift the colours.

A trio of hobgoblins, one obvious leader accompanied by a pair of lackeys.

These are actually Formorians by Alternative Armies, coming from their Erin Celtic Myth range. I thought the models were very characterful, and could also be used as fairly generic monsters for lots of miniature agnostic games.

Like Rangers of Shadow Deep, Silver Bayonet uses clue markers and a deck of cards to drive the game scenarios.

The artwork in the Silver Bayonet rulebook is fantastic and very thematic, and it inspired me to bash together half a dozen clue markers rather than just using plain tokens.

So there’s an odd stone circle with blooming flowers surrounded by snow, an odd ritual, a skull hidden away, a lost shako and bloody drag marks, some bloody footprints and a broken and bloody fence with claw marks. Some worked out better than others, but I’m pretty happy considering these were all put together using things I had lying around with pretty low effort.

A couple of scenarios also call for grave markers, so I roughly made some from lollipop sticks. The graves can also act as clue markers if a scenario calls for more than 6 markers.

Another quick and simple painting effort for this one. The model is again from Otherworld Miniatures, a Hellhound from their dungeon encounters. I love the stalking pose and the uncanny human looking face.

I was a little undecided what colour scheme to go for, but decided that since I enjoyed the fast painting and end effect on my other wolves, I would replicate the scheme on my werewolf and see how it looked. Quite happy with the end result.

The model is by Otherworld Miniatures.

A quick painting guide for the wolves (more for my own reference)

• White base coat
• Grey wash all over
• Sepia wash targeting mid-tone and darkest fur
• Black wash on darkest fur only
• Drybrush white all over, lighter in the darker areas
• Re-wash with sepia if necessary (i.e. too heavy drybrush)
• Re-wash with umber on darkest fur if necessary

The Silver Bayonet rulebook arrived a few days ago and was very quickly read cover to cover. The rules very much follow from McCollough’s other games, but with an interesting switch to using 2d10s rather than d20s, and having a pool of fate dice for re-rolls. Very excited to give the game a try soon.

With the rules finally in hand, I’ve been able to assemble my French unit. There’s a cap on 8 models per unit, with recruitment points to spend on different soldier types, with each nationality having a slightly adjusted pool of soldier options. It is advised that more models is better than taking a small band of elites.

I decided that the Carabinier with the dual pistols would be Officer for my French unit, mainly because I love the model so much. I had an idea in my head that this would be a team of some experienced soldiers who have had previous encounters with the supernatural before, supplemented by raw recruits who have fallen in with them during the chaos of the retreat from Moscow. I decided that I would have a young Polish officer with a few men to represent the rawer part of the unit – in game terms a Junior Officer, accompanied by two Infantrymen and a Grendier.

A veteran of the Old Guard, my Vivandiere and another French infantryman completed the unit roster.

I’ve got a fair bit of work ahead of me still, as one disadvantage of the Retreat from Moscow theme is my distinct lack of winter terrain, something that I’ll be trying to address over the next couple of months, along with continuing to build up the bestiary and making some thematic clue markers.

Vivandiere or Cantiniere were woman who were attached to the French army to act as sutlers or canteen keepers, and acted as vendors of food and drink to their attached regiment to complement their rations. They were not soldiers, officially serving alongside their husbands, (although the rule that vivandières had to be the wives of soldiers in their regiments was not always strictly enforced).

They fought in every campaign of the Napoleonic Wars,  and it was common for cantinières to provide food and drink to the troops while under fire (generally at no charge on days of battle), nurse the wounded, and generally stiffen morale. Some cantinières reportedly carried muskets and fought in the ranks.

A Vivandiere is a recruitment option for a French unit in the Silver Bayonet. This model comes from Black Hussar Miniatures, a small indie company in Germany, who have a small range but very interesting Napoleonic figures and accessories like wagons, field kitchens and bakeries. They also have some FIW and Saxons for the 7 years war.