Friday 1 May 2020

Strelets Rif Foot Rebels

Following on frrom the last post, I have now finished the Stretlets Foot Rifs.  Like their cavalry compatriots these are lovely little figures, with lots of details.  You get three sprues of identical figures plue 3 (one on each sprue) and 5 command figures (41 usable figures). Streltsey 16th-18th century Russian Infantry.  Not very helpful in the terrain of North Africa and Arabia.  Fortunately, I was able to pass these on to John Cunningham.  

What is it with the designers of plastic figures that it is almost essential to include a number of questionable poses - in particular figures clubbing with rifles.  The same is true with this set.  Worse still is that there are 2 poses using rifles as clubs on every sprue - 6 comparatively useless poses.  




Having a good look at one of the clubbing figures, I thought that I could reasonably convert one of the two poses to a standard bearer.  I think this has worked well and was a very simple conversion.  I am not sure whether to convert the other 2 figures.  



Amongst the other two poses are 3 figures with Lewis Guns. 



 There is a nice 'Command Group' of five figures. 



 The rest of the figures are useful riflemen.









At the moment this set is easily available on ebay and from a number of suppliers.  I didn't realise that Strelets 'retire' sets seamingly quite quickly.  There was a nice set of Arab Uprising figures listed under WW1 which would have worked well with this set.  However, even though is was only released a couple of years ago,  it is no longer available, such a pity.


7 comments:

  1. Very good conversion to the flag carrier, the dynamic pose deserved repurposing. As an aside, I wanted to than you for the series of posts that you put up ages ago on 15mm napoleonics from Warrior Miniatures. I enjoyed them and have bought French and Austrian forces, which I am very pleased with and have put in a follow-up order.

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  2. Thanks Norm, on reflection, I am minded to convert one other 'clubbing poses' to make another standard bearer. Glad you liked the Warrior 15mm articles. I think they are a very nice range, good value for money and really under-rated. I notice they now do Saxons as well. I made mine up from figures from the French and British ranges. Tempted to get some but not sure if my eyes are up to it now.

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  3. Strelets are a bit of a pain about retiring various figure sets - I now buy them when I see them quickly

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  4. Hi Couldn't agree more I was looking under the Colonial stuff on the Plastic Soldier Review and them stumbled across these. Then found under WW1 the Arab rebellion sets which looked really nice but of course they are out of production and stock almost everywhere except a site in Australia but the postage is a killer. They don't seem to keep things on the market for too long or do re-runs.

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  5. Ha! Read the up to the first photo and my immediate thought was, well one could make him a standard bearer and the very next paragraph you've gone and done it. So what to do with the other figure? The right arm is OK, a good gesturing position but the left clutching his head is harder. He could make a wounded figure struck in the head or with a bit more carving you could lay him down as a casualty, but as you say, as a fighting pose I'm stumped.
    There are a few Strelets Arab Uprising sets on eBay if you're prepared to pay £11 and upwards a box.

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  6. Hi Rob, great minds think alike. If swords and shields had been in use I think one could convert the figure I made into a standard bearer fairly easily and also the other 'clubbing figure' could also work the same way.

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  7. I believe that was your post on the Harrow Model Shop Jacklex dioramas on 'All Things Jacklex' - no Google Account no comment - but..
    I too have fond memories of the Harrow Model Shop and still live in Harrow - it's not the same... The only diorama that sticks in my mind was the Naval Brigade Gardner Gun - I've wasn't into colonial periods back then so didn't partake of the Jacklex range back then.

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