When you think of 1805 in terms of Russian military history, you naturally think first of the disaster of Austerlitz, but by then Russian artillery was already beginning to change. Traditionally, Russian gun carriages had been heavier than those of other European nations, and with a greater windage, which meant the guns were harder to manoeuvre and less accurate, though this was also partly down to poor quality powder. From 1805 however, the Russians started to introduce new, lighter carriages, and they also began to standardise their guns more. Although the artillery performed poorly at Austerlitz, this was blamed partly on poor training, but it provoked the System of 1805, also known as the Arakcheyev artillery system, which aimed to improve the service through various changes. In time these would bring results, but even in 1805 Russian artillery was a significant force, not least because they managed to field more guns per thousand infantry than most other nations.
By 1805 the foot artillery had much the same uniform as the infantry. This included a shako which had a cockade at the front and a pompon and tuft on top. The short-tailed coat was closed to the waist with two rows of buttons, and a high open collar to show the stock underneath. Breeches and boots completed the costume, and everything is correctly represented on these figures. The coat of the officer figure has longer tails, as it should, but is otherwise in much the same style as those of the men. He has a large gorget at his throat, which is an issue as gorgets were only formally introduced for field and company grade officers in 1809, but he correctly has his sword suspended from a waist belt, which is itself covered by a sash.
1805 also saw the introduction of the pouch held on a crossbelt that went over the left shoulder, and most of these figures have this. The belt had two prickers attached, which again we see on these models, although the man carrying the ammunition has instead a large bag on his right hip, and one of the men with handspikes has dispensed with his belt entirely. All the men carry a sword on their left hip, as with the infantry, though doubtless that of the officer would be a much better weapon. The man with the match at the start of our top row also has a case for it, and one of the men has a belly box on his waist belt, which seems to have been unofficial but not impossible. Finally, the man with the ramrod/sponge has something on his right kidney which we can only assume is meant to be a bricole, a drag rope to help move the gun.
It must be said that seven poses per gun is pretty good going for an artillery set. Not many sets do better, so we get quite a decent crew, although in reality every man would have been needed, and even more. The first figure holds a linstock, which is strange as this was a device for holding the slow-burning match, not for igniting the gun itself, which appears to be what is happening here. In fact this man should be holding a portfire, and using the linstock with its slow-match to ignite the quick-match of the portfire when it was time to fire the gun. However, a quick and easy trim will produce an acceptable portfire here, so nothing has been lost. Next we have the man holding the combined sponge and rammer. Because he is not actually using his tool, he matches the first figure who seems to be firing the gun, especially as he covers an ear against the expected bang. The next two figures both use a handspike, which was used to manoeuvre the gun, and so would not be done whilst it was being fired. Still, the poses are perfectly good for what they are. The second row begins with a man carrying a cartridge, followed by a generic crewman also defending his ears, and finally an officer in hat and long coat, and holding a telescope to his eye by a rather unsteady single hand. Generally you would expect him to use both hands, but otherwise all these poses are fine.
The gun in this set is a 12-pounder, the heaviest of the field cannons then in use. The barrel length is 23 mm (1.6 metres) excluding the cascabel, which is not as long as some, but not unlikely either. The carriage is 40 mm long with wheels of 20 mm in diameter, which again is not one of the largest 12-pounders, but not bad either. The barrel is fairly well detailed, and the carriage is too, though it does not have a pintle hole for hitching to a limber. The basic shape and layout looks good, but is probably for one of the newer, lighter versions that were only just appearing in 1805. This is because of its size, and also because it has a screw-quoin, which was an innovation to the Russians in this year, as most of their artillery still used the old-fashioned method of hammering a wooden wedge under the barrel to elevate it. The gun comes in the usual four-piece configuration of barrel, carriage and two wheels, and fits together easily enough but will require gluing to stay assembled.
Like the gun, the men are also quite nicely sculpted, with good proportions and as much detail as required. This detail is somewhat vague, unfortunately, so for example the hands have very little definition at all, and the telescope is simply a length of plain plastic. From any kind of a distance this will not show, however, and as there is hardly any flash, these figures are pretty much ready to go straight away.
The uniform of these men dates them to from 1803, when the shako was first introduced, although the pouches were more recent than that, only being made regulation in 1805. How far forward you want to use them depends on how flexible and forgiving you want to be. All the men have their hair in a short queue, perfect for 1805, but the lower ranks had their hair cut short by order in 1806, and the new sword belt over a shoulder in 1808 and changes to shako decoration in the same year also limit these men if you are feeling pedantic. However as there were no 1805 Russian artillery sets prior to the release of this one, this fills a very large gap, and it does so with a good gun and numerous good figures, while the accuracy quibbles we have raised are all tiny and unlikely to worry most people. Instead, customers can enjoy a really nice set of foot artillery which was an essential part of the Russian army in 1805, and if they are not quite the sharp masterpieces produced by some other companies, they are nonetheless well worth having for all those recreations of the crucial campaign and battles of that year.