Could I have finished....

... my Crimean War forces? At the risk of sounding like a Pooterish blogger who  assumes everyone is a little more interested in their every thought than is possibly the case I think the answer is a resounding ..."for now".

(click to enlarge the photos)

These have mainly been put together by buying a few largish collections, some ebay purchases, and some swaps, along with a little help from some friends. The figures have come from various sources, some painted and some unpainted. All are now painted to a reasonably neat standard. I really wanted too feel I had come to a finish, so I have drawn the line at repainting or at least neatening up some of the Russian infantry figures, which have had a quick refurb job rather than a full repaint. One of the beauties of the system I have ended up with of individually mounted figures on mdf bases grouped in units using War Bases excellent close order trays is that the figures can easily be repainted later.

I found some excellent flags from Adolfo Ramos (although these do not cover all the units I need) but made the logical mistake of ordering the 25mm versions - if I had my time again I would go for the 20mm option, as the 25mm ones are ever so slightly too large for the S range flag poles. Given they are a little pricey and have to come all the way from Spain it is not the easiest thing to put right.

So - flags still to do, but I think the figures themselves are all painted to a similar (basic) standard which look well enough together, with a good variety of troop types, and I like the effect of using singly based figures within unit sized movement trays. I could be tempted to build a French force at some time in the future (I have considerably more French for the Franco Prussian War than for the Crimea), and I would dearly love to have a Sardinian contingent of similar size to the Turkish one, but so far I have not been able to find the figures.