Retreat From Moscow

The latest supplement to The Silver Bayonet has just been released. As suggested by the name, The Shades of Calabria has an undead focus, and North Star have again made a nice set of figures to accompany the expansion.

Whilst I think the new book is probably the best one yet, I am probably just going to adapt the campaign to the 1812 Retreat from Moscow. The French were forced to march back over their initial invasion route, revisiting Borodino amonst other locations and all the dead that they left behind as they pursued the Russians towards Moscow. It seems fitting to adapt a campaign based around bandits and unquiet dead to the retreat of the Grande Armee, harassed by Russian peasantry and cossacks as they try to escape back to friendly territory.

This set of spectral soldiers were very quickly painted using a few different layers of drybrushing over a dark base coat.

Considering the less than impressive start to summer this year, it felt appropriate to add a few more figures to this project. These six figures are all Paul Hicks sculpts, sold by Brigade Games as a single pack, and are a great bunch of Napoleonic characters for The Silver Bayonet or other skirmish games. There’s a simple great coated infantryman, an Old Guard veteran, a Mameluke wishing for warmer climes, an elite Hussar of the 6th regiment sadly bemoaning the loss of his mount, a Vivandiere carrying the last reserves of brandy, and an Officer.

I was relatively loose with the uniform colours. The Old Guard and Hussar follow proper patterns, whilst I played around with a more blue-grey greatcoat for the infantryman. The Vivandiere was inspired by a picture of a painted 75mm model sold by First Legion, as I really liked the yellow coat.

The Mameluk followed a picture in one of reference books, although I added the white cuffs. The Officer was a complete mix, not really following any real reference. The cloak is essentially a that of a French surgeon, a blue coat is a fairly obvious choice, and the rest was just made up.

Very happy how these all turned out.

Back when the Carpathians was released, North Star did a limited time offer allowing people to grab individual characters from their boxed units. I took the chance to pick up the Veteran Monster Hunter from the first French unit, and the Supernatural Investigator from the first Russian unit.

I really like these two models, partly because they have a lot of scope for being something beyond their description. The monster hunter (clearly inspired by the Brotherhood of the Wolf) could easily be a bandit or highwayman, and the supernatural investigator is essentially all Baba Yaga witch vibes. Both models can therefore fit easily into a unit fighting against the beasts and monsters, or could easily be some of the foes facing them. Whilst there’s a very nice Forest Witch sculpt by North Star, I intend to use use this model instead.

A few more monsters done, this time a handful of ghouls. Like the hounds, these were released by North Star to accompany the release of the Carpathians supplement.

I struggled a bit to get the skin tones as I wanted, but I think it worked out in the end. I am quite happy with the tricolour striped trousers on one of them, which I decided to do as a nod to the period.

It’s spooky season, so a perfect time to paint up a few monsters for Silver Bayonet.

The Bloodless Hounds were released alongside the Carpathians supplement a few months ago. I really liked these undead hounds, so had to grab a couple. Painting these was quite free-form. I had a few browns, reds and greens on my wet palette after painting some Dark Age Saxons, so I mixed up various shades of greenish-browns. Pretty happy how they turned out.

It’s been a little while since I’ve worked on anything for this project, but I’ve been working on some Russian line infantry (which incidentally coincided with a Silver Bayonet theme week at OTT). These are again are firmly on the historical side of this project rather than the gothic horror, but I felt I was lacking in plain Russian infantry to harassing the stragglers of the Grande Armee.

These chaps come from Wargames Foundry, and are sculpted by Alan Perry. Whilst Russians in great coats are not that hard to find, those wearing extra scarves and looking the part for the winter of 1812 are not so common. Nice one piece casts, relatively quick to paint and without excessive detail.

I thought I’d take a couple of comparison pictures to show how the Wargames Foundry models compare size wise to some others in case that is useful to anyone (namely Perrys and Paul Hicks sculpts for Murawski Miniatures). The Foundry models are a shade shorter and stouter, than both.

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.