...In which our protagonist, conscious of his many shortcomings as a blogger, nonetheless begins what will doubtlessly be a brief and feeble comeback, and shows off his Russian 27th Division for Borodino.
 |
| Odessa and Vilna infantry regiments. These regiments weren't actually brigaded together, but I mixed the pairings up somewhere along the way. Crap. Kind of shows how my hobby activities have been going, recently. |
Yes, it's been a long time since I've last posted-- an observation which begins all too many of these blog posts, it seems. I sincerely regret that, and I apologize to anyone (if there is indeed anyone) who has ever hoped for more frequent updates from yours truly. I wish I could oblige you! The current dilatory schedule of posts is distressing to me as well.
 |
Another view of the Odessa and Vilna regiments. The Odessa reg't should properly be brigaded with the Tarnopol reg't, and Vilna with Simbirsk. In any case, the NCO brandishing his sword is a favourite sculpt of mine, from Adler's early Russian Napoleonic musketeer command (RA 10A). |
In fact, I'm so distressed that I've decided to turn over a new leaf, starting with this post. Don't get too excited; I'm not going to promise that I'll post more often, or anything like that. Nor will I even promise to maintain the high standards of photography, reviewing, and helpful hobby-related articles that I (sometimes) feel like I've upheld thus far. That's right, fickle reader: for the immediate future I'm actually promising a
drop in quality. Don't like it? Tough! It's the only way you're going to get any posts at all!
 |
The 3rd brigade of the division, consisting of the 49th and 50th Jäger regiments. For some reason that currently eludes me, this brigade was commanded during the battle by Colonel Voyeikov of the Life Guard Preobrazhenskii regiment. Apparently I've been off my Borodino kick for too long to remember these things.
|
Wasn't this post supposed to be about Russians?
Right, Russians. Today's subject is the Russian 27th Division, yet another element of the VIII Corps which has been in the works for far too long. Commanded by Major General Dmitri Neverovsky, the 27th had been heavily committed during the fighting around Smolensk and the subsequent retreat. Having sustained heavy losses, the division was appended to the VIII Infantry Corps for Borodino, which consequently became the only Russian corps at the battle to consist of three divisions.
 |
Adler RN 4B - "Militia, musket, advancing". Fairly generic looking, wearing trousers, coat and some sort of fur cap. Only one pose means that Opolchenye units will look rather uniform unless painted differently. |
Since the 27th had suffered the heaviest casualties of any of the Russian divisions prior to Borodino, I wanted to do something special to show this. Reducing the number of figures in each of the component units would have saved me too much time, effort and money, so of course I didn't do that. Instead, I opted to fill out the second rank of each regiment with militia-- a practice that became common in Russian units later on in the war, as attrition thinned the ranks. For Borodino it's probably anachronistic, but that didn't stop me.
 |
| 3rd brigade again. I've whined before on how much space the 'advancing' posture takes, and how difficult that makes it to cram bunches of them onto bases. The lovely hay cart is produced by Irregular Miniatures, purveyors of all sorts of scenic goodies, any and all of which can be obtained through the ever-helpful Angel Barracks. |
Apparently, our Protagonist can't count.
Yes, it's sad but true. Simple mathematical tasks like multiplication and division seem to cause especial problems. Take for instance my attempt to populate the second rank of each of these formations with militiamen: in order to make it look good, I figured at least half of each of the ranks in question should consist of militia. Easy, right? Nine men per rank means five militia per, times three bases equals... well, that equals fifteen, which, since they come in strips of four, is actually one less than I bought for the task.
 |
| Tarnopol and Simbirsk infantry regiments. The militia populating the second rank of each regiment can be seen clearly (well, aside from their rather nondescript paint jobs, that is!). |
Of course the astute among you will have noticed before now that there are
two regiments per base, and that means
two second ranks for each one. The very astute among you will have realized that this in turn means
thirty militia men would be required to meet my condition of "at least half" of each rear rank. Thirty, not fifteen (or sixteen, as explained above). Way to go, Mike.
 |
| Tarnopol and Simbirsk regiments. Again, this isn't a proper brigade, since I misread which regiments were brigaded with which. Not only can I not count, but evidently my literacy skills are in question these days as well! |
Anyway, that's the Russian 27th Division complete. It doesn't quite finish the VIII Corps, as there's still another grenadier division, artillery and command to do... which I'm not going to promise anytime soon.
 |
More of an eye level view. |
Next time: part of the long-awaited Württemberg division (Württembourgoisie? Württembergers? Our protagonist doesn't know, but he likes them anyway).
Also, a special shout out to David F. I have no idea who you are, but apparently you became a follower of Mike's Leadpile while I was writing this! Man, it takes me a long time to write these things...
