Ros Figures - Stock Check

2017 has been a good year for hunting down those elusive Ros figures, with success in tracking down many of the obscure cavalry figures, artillery sets and command groups. I have taken a look at the most reliable figure list that I have and it seems that I now have examples of the entire Ros Napoleonic range apart from the following:

French:
Engineers

British:
Hussars

Prussian:
Uhlans

Russian:
Grenadiers

Austrian:
Grenadiers (I have seen one of these in the past)
Jaegers

I am guessing that these figures are out there somewhere and if I am as successful as I have been this year, they should turn up.

French Line Dragoons

These figures are very similar to the French Empress Dragoons, although they lack the shoulder cords and the horse furniture is less elaborate:

French Napoleonic Imperial Old Guard Command Set

A set that I had been seeking ever since I strated this blog is the command group for the Old Guard Grenadiers.  I had not seen them before and this group turning up in the last hoard of figures was a really nice surprise.  Once again this command set follows the same pattern as the others in the range; namel,y consisting of two officers, two drummers and a standard bearer.  The officer is in the standard Ros advancing and pointing pose. They are nice clean castings and match the Old Guard Grenadier infantry well:

 The bases are numbered F5/1, F5/2 and F5/3

Prussian Artillery

In a recent acquisition there were a number of new finds including this nice group of Prussian gunners.  Wearing campaign dress, with covered shakos and blanket rolls, these examples follow the standard Ros artillery package, of five figures and a gun. The figures include an officer, a gunner with rammer, another with spike and two standing figures.  The gun appears to be the same as that used in the French sets; namely a French 8 pdr.

Here are some pictures of the crew:

The bases are marked P6/1, P6/2, P6/3, P6/4 and have Ros copyright 1976.

 Here is the complete set:

A surprising disppointment - Ros 25mm ACW Figures

For a long time I have been seeking out the Ros 25mm American Civil War figures. I was sure that at least a Union and a Confederate advancing figure had been produced, but none could be found.  Well, as luck would have it, at last a pile of these figures have turned up as an ebay lot, mixed up with some Minifigs S Range Confederates. Although happy to find these figures at long last I was disappointed in the figure itself.  To my mind the top half is far too big for the legs. How this happened I cannot imagine as in the Napoleonic range, despite some ugly heads, the anatomy of the figures is usually quite good:

I wasn't sure the were Ros Figures at first, but close inspection of the base revealed the faint wording 'Ros' and it is just about possible to make out 'ACW 2'. I assume that' ACW 1' would be the Union figure.

I will continue to hunt for ACW 1, but if he is as bad as this fellow it will be purely for the records.

French Line Infantry - Full Set

Just for the record and before they are painted, here is a picture of the complete French line infantry set made by Ros. This includes the line grenadier, line fusilier and command set:

British Light Dragoons - Painted

I have managed to cobble together enough light dragoons to make up a unit; which I have painted over the last few days. I found four of these by error. I was going through a load of what I thought were Chasseurs a Cheval with broken plumes, wondering what to do with them, when I realised that, despite the way they were painted, they were not French at all. So they joined the other four scruffy figures that had been painted as Prussian dragoons, which were also repainted.

They paint up rather well, I think. To me they have a vey close resemblance to the modern Miniature Figurines light dragoon, in terms of pose and horse designe. I wonder if the sculpter is the same person?

I have recently received another load of figures, with many castings not seen before. I will be reviewing those over the coming days.

French Hussar

The last group of figures from the large hoard are French Hussars. Dressed in dolman and pelisse, with bell topped shakos these figures cover many different hussar regiments of the French Napoleonic army.  Once again, I believe these to be slightly later moulds giving a finer looking figure. I look forward to painting these.

French Guard Lancers - Painted

Last night I finished off painting the French Guard Lancers, in the colours of the 2nd (Dutch) Regiment of the Imperial Guard. I think they scrubbed up quite well!

French Guard Chasseurs a Cheval

The next figure from the 'hoard' is yet another new item from the range. This time it is a French Imperial Guard Chasseur a Cheval. This is another nice looking figure and I am guessing that it is a later production as the proportions and detail are better then other figures. The pose is pretty much standard for the Ros range and his horse is the same as that used for the French Guard Lancer:

French Guard Lancers

Another pack of four figures from the hoard are these charming lancer figures.  These are yet another set that I had not seen before and they are mounted on a horse that is new to me as well. Like their line bretheren they have very tall thin and bendy lances, that have somehow survived the 40+ years since casting.

I will paint these figures in the coming weeks:

Empress Dragoons - Painted

I have painted the Empress Dragoons and they turned out quite well:

Horse Artillery of the Imperial Guard

The second set from the recently acquired hoard is a five man French Guard Horse Artillery team. I think that t hese are little gems and in my view demonstrate a gradual improvement in the sculpting of this range. The head proportions appear better and overall I think this is one of the better Ros sets.

The set follows the standard five poses used in the Ros 25mm artillery teams; with an officer, a man with a lever, a man holding a rammer and two standing poses. There is also a gun, which is different to that used in the line artillery set. I am guessing that it is a 6 pdr piece as used by the horse artillery:

French Empress Dragoon - from an eagle eyed friend!

To my surprise one afternoon I received an urgent email from an online friend - whom I shall call ' The Mysterious Goya', saying that a hoard of figures, that were almost certainly all Ros 25mm, had been spotted on a trade stand at a show. The figures were purchased on my behalf and turned up in the post a few days later. What a nice surprise when I opened the package. An excellent haul that included several cavalry figures and an artillery team that I had given up hope of ever finding. Indeed, I was not even sure that they had been manufactured.

I will post pictures as I examine them in more detail.

First up is an example from a group of four (they came in packs of four cavalry) French Empress Dragoons of the Guard. I am assuming that these are guard dragoons (as opposed to line dragoons) by the lanyards and cords depicted on the right shoulder and the chaperons doubles on the saddle. In fact this is a horse that I have not seen before either, which is marked N7, Ros 1976.

British Line Infantry Command

Within a mixed group of British infantry I found an almost complete set of British line infantry command.  Missing from the group is one officer figure, but the standard bearer and two drummers were present.  As far as I am aware this is the only BRitish line infantry comand group manufactured by Ros, despite having infantry with stovepipe shakos in the range.

As with my other line infantry officer the base is porrly cast, although this time his sword and scabbard are OK:

 On the base B7 can be seen, with B7/1 being the standard bearer, B7/2 the officer and B7/3 the drummer. They all bear the Ros logo too.

British Line Infantry Centre Company Belgic Shako B5

I found these figures as part of a group of ten lurking amongst a mixed group of poorly painted British line infantry. There were also examples of the British line infantry command (to follow).  In the Ros range there is another figure, which represents flank company troops.

On the base the word Ros can be made out, the date 1975, along with B5:

British Napoleonic Light Dragoons - probably!

Lurking amongst a group of poorly painted Hinchliffe type Prussian dragoons I spotted some odd figures. There were 4, they looked like Ros figures, possibly hussars. On closer inspection I am pretty sure these are the rather elusive British Light Dragoons. The horses match other British cavalry figures in the Ros range and, although the detail is vague the uniforms fit as well:

French Napoleonic Command

At last I have been able to locate and purchase a full set of the French Napoleonic command figures. In common with other cammand sets, this one has a standard bearer, two officers and two drummers, making a total of five figures. On the base the figures are numbered F3/1, F3/2 and F3/3 respectively. The name Ros can be seen and the drummer figures have the date 1976. The officer figure also follows a common pose for infantry figures; advancing with left arm extended with sword by his right side. The standard bearer has a nice eagle mounted on the top of the pole:

Prussian Jaegers - Ros Figures 25mm

A group of 10 Ros Figures Prussian Jaegers.  They appear to bear the label PL 2 on the base and can be distinguished by the lack of a bayonet on their rifles. They also have a blanket roll on top of their packs as opposed to the blanket roll worn over the shoulder by their line infantry colleagues:

Another nice find, proving that these figures were indeed manufactured by Ros and were not just a listing in their catelogue.