kievan rus – The Wargaming Erratic

I had seen these figures by Orion many times on screen and decided against purchase. But byzantines in 1/72 is not a happy hunting ground. So I have taken the plunge.

4 identical strips giving you 52 figures in 13 poses. it says on the box 11th to 14th century – so for my needs – 10/11th century they should work.

One strip showing the flash that plastic soldier review complained about generally.

back and front with some awkward poses to deal with and the other issue that plastic soldier review mentioned – flatness

but look at the detail – plastic soldier praised the detail on many orion products of this era, sad that poor mould/manufacture compromised these figures. The animation like more recent strelets releases is what I like

Next up again Byzantines in 1/72 are few so again a set I had looked at many times were finally purchased.

You get two rounds of small unarmoured cavalry plus one sprue of horseman. The infamous? flash is visible.

If the flash proves to be a non issue in prep, I think I have another promising set of figures with some excellent detail on well proportioned figures.

These byzantine infantry are on the edge of my project timeline – 11th century. But again some nice designs should prove useable.

The dark plastic does not do justice to the design quality – I hope my average painting will not let them down.

These chaps are almost too early but I reckon you have some latitude in this era – ” we have not had new uniforms here in decades the new recruit was informed by the byzantine clothing department”

Again the flash is present but also again some good designs and excellent details

And now for something completely different! Strelets doing Marlbrough. Despite having hundreds of Zvezda Russians and Swedes I had to try some. I think these are my preference from the British

One command sprue and 4 rounds of infantry. sufficient poses that are similar. Unlike my dark age figures I like a degree of uniformity in my “baroque” era armies.

Some complementary reading matter from a reknowned author Paddy Griffiths – I remember a library book by him on gross scaling of simulated battles as in army level or corps level etc. Great ideas. This book will complement my biography of the master builder Vauban.

And we finish up with two more books on the anglo saxons – in themselves a side project of my “Normans in the South”. One day I will read John Julius Norwich

Both books are by Paul Hill and having enjoyed his Norman Commanders and nearly finished his Anglo Saxons at War books I have taken a punt on these earlier two books which having more sweeping titles. A quick look at the contents suggests Paul will stick with his thematic – episodic approach which some reviewers did not like but I think it helps in what is a difficult era to write clearly about. Now i really need to crack on with my saxons and angles.