Calling Napoleonic experts on the Russian Army

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Ilya Ulyanov in his 2008 book 1812: русская пехота в бою mentions the number of buttons on the trouser leggings.   By coincidence I happened to come accross it last week.

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Since I know so many of you have been losing sleep over this vitally important topic of the number of buttons on Russian uniforms here is some info back from Alan Perry, who is responsible for the Russian Naps at Perry Miniatures (the ones I am working on).

According to Alan's research, Russian Nap troops had 4 buttons on the gaiters of their summer trousers.

Here are some of the questions I asked Alan and his responses:

Q: On the subject of heads, Alan do you have any immediate plans (next 6 mo) to make available a Nap Russian Grenadier head sets??? I figure you guys didn't go ahead with the release of the Russian Grenadier plastic box due to lack of enough interest/sales.

Alan: The plastic Russian grenadier heads are still very much alive and kicking, there's just been more important things that got in there way.

Q: Moving onto to the extremely important issue of buttons on pants (), Alan you might have spotted that I have been trying to ask about exactly how many buttons are on those Russian Nap pants. I have asked on a few forums with mixed results. The Russian sources seem to suggest 7-9 buttons. My research material I have (Courcelle, Russian Marines books, etc, etc...) is equally confusing. So can I ask where you came up with four buttons on the Russian Nap plastics, whereas some of the metal Russian Naps only have three buttons (the Grenadier command set). I know you guys do thoroughly research your work so you clearly know something I don't....Help....

Alan: You know only needed to ask, it might have spared you quite a few evenings. Most of my reference is packed away as we are having the front of our house rebuilt ! Although you need not look any further than Osprey(!). I've attached a couple of pics from the Russian Infantry book.

(edit: those pics clearly show 4 buttons on a variety of Russian troops).


Yes, there is a variation on the amount of buttons. I wouldn't get too worried about it! It's the same with chin scales on Russian shakos, the central metalworks in Moscow had more urgent things to make than chin scales so they rapidly went over plain leather instead. But you don't see this anywhere. This is from the Hermitage bloke too. I've been putting them on some of the metal figures.

Alan on winter gaiters: I think there were more than one type of winter leg wear. A contact at the Hermitage said that the winter gaiters were simply gaiters buttoned over the summer gaiter-trousers. You do see this in contemporary pictures. You also see the baggier winter types too.

Alan on cuff buttons:...if you look at the cuffs (on the figures) with your magnifier you should find the third buttonhole for the cuffs, as these were often (in most armies) left unbuttoned.

So there you have it, 4 buttons on the summer pants and who really knows about the winter ones...most sources I have found show 7-9 buttons, with 9 more common...and the fact that the pants were bulkier than the summer ones so if you want to recreate these using the Perry Russians you will need to breakout the putty to redo the pants...a tedious job for sure but one that shouldn't be too taxing for those wishing to get it right.

However, that said, I have suggested to Alan that since the Russian Grenadier box is still possible that he do the following:

Q:... I was thinking however that if you redid the pants on the Russian 3-ups to have them more baggy and then added the black sewn-on gaiters then you people could mix and match from your 1st Russian Infantry box to get both uniform types. I know you suggest just painting on the gaiters but I just don't think it would look right, and the pants were baggy, so that would need doing with some putty.

Alan: As for converting the overalls on the 3ups, the 3ups for the Russians are long gone, they don't survive the resining process prior to tooling. That would also add quite a bit of expense, not to mention time,to make a new frame of Russians to go with the heads.

So perhaps the eventually a box of plastic Nap Russian Grenadiers will come with the winter leggings...one can only hope and lobby Alan to do so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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My apologies, I totally missed the point that these were the summer pants.
Viskovatov seems to studiously avoid illustrating them, which is usually a sign that he doesn't know for sure.  Gabayev says 11 buttons.  Still, the Perrys might be on to something.  I get the impression that the buttons were quite small, but that is just a hunch.