ESCI – 221 – Crimean War Russian Infantry and Artillery

Description:

Crimean War Russian Infantry and Artillery

Unpainted plastic soldiers in 1/72 scale depicting Russian artillery and infantry during the Crimean War.

Released in 1985 together with the British Hussars, ESCI – 220 – Crimean War Lord Cardigan’s 11th Hussars, this pair of set was an early attempt to provide coverage for the conflict and in particular for the events around “The Charge of the Light Brigade” during the Battle of Balaclava, a particular “epic” disaster which decimated the Light Brigade in exchange of nothing.

The Russians, in the heights at the end of the Valley, were waiting the charge with both artillery positions and infantry, and so this kit depicts these troops.

Box contains 30 figures in 9 different poses and two guns, with two different barrels. The artillery figures are 8 in 4 poses, classic ESCI set up, which is a bit short to crew the guns, since one of the poses is an officers, so only 3 gunners per gun are available.

The infantry ends no better, as only 5 poses are for the infantry figures, a total of 22 figures, two of them are officers in one pose, so troops are basically 4 poses x 4, 20 figures.

The guns are really nicely done, as usually ESCI did, but wheels are bit too high for the Russian field guns of the time.

Together with the problems about the number of poses available, the set present some accuracy problems about the uniform and equipment of the troops, which should have been an simply uniform as it was, and maybe this makes the accuracy problems more evident.

For nearly 2 decades the ESCI figures were the only available for the Crimean War, which was pretty short coverage as to attract fans of the conflict, and together with the accuracy problems of both sets (see ESCI – 220 – Crimean War Lord Cardigan’s 11th Hussars) they never were well sold. Decades later the conflict was boosted by Emhar and Strelets releases, giving some second chance to the ESCI sets, but also highlighting ESCI mistakes, in particular when compared to Emhar sets, which also have a clean and nice sculpture and cast level comparable or better than ESCI.