RUSSIAN GUARD COSSACK: RUSSO TURKISH WAR

Russian Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Own Cossack Escort

In this post, dear readers, we follow up from last week's post on the beginnings of the Russian Army of the Russo Turkish War project. Following on from that, the first unit has been mustered. These are Copplestone Castings White Russian Caucasian Cossacks from their Back of Beyond Range--technically from the Russian Civil War era, but they do a fine job representing any of the Caucasian Cossacks from the Russo Turkish War era forward. I guess that this isn't so much a conversion (as my last project was), so much as it is a re-purposing of figures to represent something other than what they are.

A colorized photograph of Tsar Nicholas II wearing the uniform of the Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Escort

Officer of the Regiment, circa 1877: pretty much the same.

Not unlike someone starting a French Napoleonic Army who begins with the Old Guard, I am kicking-off my project with a guard unit. In this case, one of the numerous Russian Imperial Guard elements. The Guard Cossacks of His Majesty's Escort had 200 troopers on duty protecting the Tsar and another 200 rotated off service. There may have been other sortina's (that's Cossack for "squardon" basically) as well. Regardless, once I received the Copplestone figures I knew that I wanted to put this unit on the table. Whether it was sent on campaign or engaged as a tactical/operational unit along with other guard cavalry is unclear--and I rather doubt that anyone playing in a game will have the depth of knowledge to cavil: "Wait a minute...aren't those the Cossacks of His Imperial Majesty's Escort? What are you about, man?"--yeah, it's not likely. But even so....

Guard Cossack

...Gazyrs aside (those are the signature bullet loops of Caucasian dress), the uniform is so close to the Life Guard Cossack Regiment of the Lifeguard Cavalry Division (pictured above) that they could pass for them at 4 foot playing distance (particularly given the fading faculties of the group in which I play). "An easy enough mistake to make, my friend: those are the Life Guard Cossacks..." But enough of these diversions. On to the study of my rendition of this unit (as usual, you may clix pix for Big Pix in this post):

I have to say that for me, Copplestone Casting figures strike the perfect balance between detail and ease of painting--and they deliver on effort invested. I could be tempted to jump into the Back of Beyond just because of these figures. Given my complicated relationship with painting, I never thought I'd be among those who would say any figure set was a "joy" to paint--there is a first time for everything, I guess, because I'm actually looking forward to painting the next set of these (this time as non-guard cossacks).