Izhevsk Rifle Division

Here are the first completed units for my resurrected Russian Civil War project.

These guys are (loosely) based on troops of the Izhevsk Rifle Division that fought under Admiral Kolchak in Siberia and later as part of the Izhevsk-Votkinsk Brigade of the Far Eastern Army. They are probably a bit too 'clean' and rather more 'uniform' than their historical counterparts and their famous blue shoulder boards are a shade too bright, but I wanted something to make them 'pop' on the wargames table - so I hope I can be excused a bit of artistic licence.

Their banner caused me a bit of a headache as after much searching for references I have drawn a blank. I resorted to using a flag based on a Russian Imperial Regimental design. Flags like these were used by White forces in the RCW, which gave me the excuse to use it - and for no other reason than the blue colour matches well with the shoulder boards! If anyone reading here can point me in the direction of a more accurate flag, I'd be grateful for the advice.

The figures are all Musketeer (now Footsore) Miniatures WWI Russians, now available from Wee Wolf Miniatures, but they serve well as RCW Whites. They are bit slimmer than the Copplestone Castings miniatures that make up the majority of my RCW lead pile but I do like them, especially for the variety of poses which I think works well with my chosen basing style. Their only weakness is the bayonets. These look great, but being very slim and fragile I'm worried they are going to suffer some breakages, even with careful handling.

I mentioned in my previous post that I'll be using Red Actions! by The Perfect Captain for my RCW games. The basic element in Red Actions! is the platoon represented by around three figures, with up to six platoons making up a company. I chose to base my infantry figures in groups of three on 50mm round bases from Renedra, partly for ease of movement and also because I like the look of vignette style basing. Leader figures are individually based on 25mm round bases. In Red Actions! I'll probably use these figures to represent White Volunteers. 

So far, I've completed nine infantry bases which gives enough flexibility to field a couple of companies (one of 4 platoons and another of 5 platoons), or three understrength companies of 3 platoons each - though I'm going to need to paint up some more captains to lead them.