Some more recruits and a tempting read

With things being relatively quiet on the gaming front I have managed to paint up a few figures.  However, my plan to paint up as many figures as I add to the lead mountain in each year, is in danger of coming off the rails, as the totals at the moment are Added 305, Painted 159.  I blame the Britcon bring and buy because I spotted some bargain priced unpainted 15mm Napoleonic Austrians  (10p each) and purchased just over 100.  They are set to follow in the footsteps of these figures I purchased at Vapnartak in February and have just completed.

Timecast sell the Old Glory range of 15mm Napoleonics and the landwehr come with a range of different hats and also shell jacket or frock coat.  These chaps are painted as Styrian landwehr.

At 25mm scale these cavalry purchased on ebay have been recruited into the French army of the Comte de Salle Forde.

They are Prince de Talmont (later Tremouille), one of the many grey coated French cavalry regiments with red facings in the Grand Alliance/War of Spanish Succession period.

For some time one of my sources for information on the Muscovites has been this Osprey book.

Useful as it has been, it is limited, but fortunately Helion & Company have just released this new title in their Century of the Soldier series:

It covers virtually the same period, but is more detailed and in addition to the reforms of Ivan IV and later the Romanovs there are sections on the use of North Caucasian troops in the Muscovite forces and also the campaigns extending Muscovite influence into Siberia.  Some of Helion's publications have suffered from poor proof reading, but so far (c 1/3 through the book) this volume seems to be of a better standard.