To Horse!

They've been a long time coming, but the cavalry finally arrived. My Red forces for Red Actions! just received some mounted reinforcements. These are a mix of 'Bolshevik Cavalry' and 'Bolshevik Cavalry in Greatcoats' from Copplestone Castings.

I haven't tackled painting horses for ages. I know a lot of wargamers hate painting horses, but I quite enjoy the process. No speedpaints, oil paint wipe method, or other fancy tricks here. I just paint them the same way I paint any figure; base coat, shading and highlights. It's what I'm used to and works for me. I wanted to get these done quickly, so I've restricted the horse colours to bays and chestnuts. I guess they would have been the most common colours anyway. I make no claim to authenticity of colours or markings. I know, for example, that the manes and tails on chestnut horses aren't dark, but hey, I like that aesthetic and choose to paint as I like. Horse purists be damned!

For ease of handling I prefer to paint the riders and horses separately.  To achieve this, the riders have to suffer the indignity of being temporarily impaled on a length of brass rod set in a weighted base. Once painted, riders are matched to horses and fixed with a blob of two-part epoxy glue, which I find gives a more durable bond than superglue. Any small gaps between rider and horse are filled with modelling putty which, once set, is painted to match.

Cavalry, of course, need leaders. A search through my collection unearthed three likely candidates. I remember these were an eBay purchase from years back when I first became interested in gaming the Russian Civil War. They've been waiting patiently all these years for the chance to saddle up. I think one of the reasons I bought them (apart from being a decent price) is that they fit in well with my own painting style. After re-basing them to match my other figures, I think they work perfectly. I have no idea now which seller I bought them from, or who painted them. If by some unexpected chance you are reading this and recognise these three splendid chaps as your own handiwork, do let me know so I can credit you!

And now,  To Horse, Proletarian!

Back to the Bolsheviks

After a long gap, I have returned to my Russian Civil War forces with a new addition to bolster the Reds. Using my chosen rule-set, Red Actions! by The Perfect Captain, these will represent a company of Red Regulars. I didn't want them to look too uniform since the term 'regular' doesn't really refer to the state of their dress. A mix of Copplestone Castings 'BU03 Elite Bolshevik Infantry' in budenovkas and 'BU01 Bolshevik Infantry' in peaked caps did the job.

I tried something different with the flag this time. My previous flags were simply printed onto plain paper which gives perfectly acceptable results but doesn't reproduced the intensity of the original image colours particularly well. That's fine for representing battle-worn or faded flags, but I wanted something a bit more pristine this time. The answer was to print the flag as before, but then 'paint' it with artists' inks. I printed several copies so I could experiment and practice a bit. It needs a steady hand for some of the finer detail, but I found that with a bit of patience I could achieve an acceptable result. It's really just careful 'coloring in' over the existing printed colours, but the colour saturation is much improved. 

I chose not to represent a specific unit, so the flag is a generic design with slogans and symbols pulled together from various online sources and assembled in Word and Photoshop. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the text, but at this scale and at a distance on the tabletop I think it conveys the right look.

Back of Beyond Misfits

What to do with these guys? They are (mostly) Copplestone Castings 'White Russians in Chinese service'. They're some of the very first figures that I painted from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range at a time when my interest in gaming the Russian Civil War was little more than the germ of an idea. I'm sure Mr Copplestone intended them to be mixed up in some rip-roaring action and adventure in the far east, with the Mad Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, Mongol tribesmen, Chinese Warlords and all that jazz. That's all very well, but my direction of travel pointed more towards Siberia or the Kuban than Mongolia and these chaps look a tad out of place for those theatres of the Russian Civil War. My odd choice of uniform colours doesn't help matters either.

But never mind. Never let historical accuracy get in the way of a good game, to paraphrase some wit called Twain (no, that's Mark not Shania, you philistine!)

Lets face it, there are plenty of examples of 'fantasy' RCW wargame armies with over-represented ''colourful' units, tanks, or elite 'cheka' and the like. Don't sweat it. It's a game.

And I haven't completely abandoned historical accuracy. If you know your Copplestone ranges and look closely, I've painted up a couple of 'Ragged White Russians' and mixed them in to give enough figures for four bases. So then, another unit completed for my RCW forces.

The coat is quite new comrade, only the holes are old.

More Bolsheviks. This time in greatcoats. I had to have a little rethink about these guys. When I first started collecting figures for Red Actions, my purchases were quite haphazard. Nothing was planned out and I just picked up packs of figures as my fancy took me. It was only later, when I started doing a bit of planning that I realised I had an odd mix of figures in summer and winter dress. My original solution was to paint two forces, one for summer and one in greatcoats with snowy bases for winter. What was I thinking?!!! At the speed I paint, that was never going to happen.

I could just have sold the figures, but I like them too much. So, they join the ranks of their lighter clad comrades - a bit over-dressed for the season perhaps, but let's suppose the air is still damp with the Spring rain, or the first chill of early Autumn. I'm not going to be too fussy about it anyway and they are a handy addition to my RCW forces.

Bolshevik Commanders

Another small addition to my Russian Civil War collection. I resolved to pick some small, easily achievable goals to get my painting back up to speed. These chaps fitted the bill perfectly. Copplestone Castings miniatures are always a joy to paint and with their greatcoats providing some large areas and minimal additional detail I got them finished and based in double-quick time.

Wayside Cross

This little project kept me happily occupied and out of mischief on a Sunday afternoon. The capped orthodox cross was made out styrene strips, scored with a sharp point to add some 'wood grain'. Constructing and painting the cross took up the majority of the work. The base was already textured, painted and ready to use. It had originally been intended as a test piece for some snow effects, but I had abandoned the idea and it was just waiting to be repurposed. Drilling a few holes for the foliage and cross, gluing everything in place and adding some ground cover was all that was needed to complete the piece.

I think it should look right at home as a terrain piece for my Russian Civil War project.

The Perfect Captain - A Farewell

We take many things for granted. Things that have been around for so long that it feels like they have always been here - and always will be. But, my friends, all good things must come to an end.

If you follow any of the popular wargames forums, it probably hasn't escaped your notice that The Perfect Captain's website is set to close sometime this month (October 2020). We can only hope that all the files will be available in another format, but that isn't very certain right now. TPC do have a Facebook group, (I will refrain from expressing my views on FB for fear of upsetting someone) but I shall miss the webpage.

I can't remember now how I first stumbled across The Perfect Captain, but it was the discovery of their Red Actions! rules that first kindled my continuing interest in the Russian Civil War. 

What I do remember is being struck by the quality of presentation, with graphics that would not look out of place in a commercial rule set.

And here's the thing. These are not commercial products. Everything on the Perfect Captain's website is available 100% free, gratis and for nothing. Their only request is that if you download the rules you make a donation (or give up some time) in support of a charity of your choice. Undoubtedly some will have ignored this request, but I like to think most wargamers are basically decent and willing to give something back. I can't help wondering how much all those donations have amounted to over the years. So apart from providing us with a wonderful and inspirational wargaming resource, perhaps The Perfect Captain's enduring legacy is also a humanitarian one. It's a heartwarming thought.

Thanks and farewell, TPC.

Love this artwork

Unit cards for Ironbow - perfectly capturing that period feel

The Perfect Captain channels Blue Peter.
Make your own sanides-style tablet for the Hoplomachia rulebook 

Red Actions! cards and counters. 
Where have I seen that face before comrade?

A Couple of Commissars

I was supposed to be painting Star Wars: Legion figures. That was the plan anyway. There are a couple of squads of Rebel Troopers assembled and primed, waiting on the painting desk.

Alongside them were these two gents, part-painted from my last brush with my Russian Civil War project. I was going to set them aside to finish another time but, well they shoot stragglers don't they?

Ragged White Russians

My Russian Civil War project has been suffering from neglect of late, so I thought I'd better put that right.

Here are the latest recruits. A bunch of Ragged White Russians from Copplestone Castings.

They have a suitably battle-worn and irregular look about them with plenty of patched and torn clothes, worn-out boots and improvised footwear.

They're not intended to represent any particular unit so I've kept them fairly generic. That goes for the flag too. It started out looking far too pristine for such a ragged unit, so I distressed it a bit until I was happy with the look.

For some unexplained reason the bases gave me a headache and I struggled to achieve the effect I was after. This should have been the easy bit, but even following my tried and tested paint recipe I couldn't get a good match with my existing units. Much cursing and several repaints later, I finally got them looking how I wanted.

Vexatious Vexilology

In my last post I posed a question about correct flags for my Russian Civil War Izhevsk Rifle Division, having drawn a blank on useful references.

I also posted my question on the Lead Adventure Forum where forum members Mark Plant (of the splendid Pygmy Wars website) and Cuprum (of Studio Siberia) both offered some excellent suggestions and advice. Cheers guys! This included a link to www.kolchakiya.ru. The site is all in Russian, but fairly easy to navigate with the assistance of Google Translate. Here I found a mine of useful information on the histories, uniforms and flags of Admiral Kolchak's White forces in Siberia, including the Izhevsk Rifle Division.

The site describes several banners of the Izhevsk Rifle Division, including two St. George banners. According to the accompanying text only one of these, the "Battle flag of Izhevsk Division", was actually presented to the unit - so this is the one I chose:

'Battle flag of Izhevsk Division'. (source: www.kolchakiya.ru)

'Battle flag of Izhevsk Division'. Photo from the archives of the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco. Published in the book Efimov AG Izhevtsy and Votkinsky. The fight against the Bolsheviks1918=1920. M., 2008 (source: www.kolchakiya.ru)

The flag is described as a rectangular panel, divided into two equal parts. The left-hand part is white with a diagonal cross of St. George ribbon. The dates 7/VIII 1918 and 9/IX 1919 in gold are placed in the upper and lower quadrants respectively. The right part is White-Red-Blue (the colours of the Russian flag) with the letters "Izh" in gold on the centre blue band.

Unfortunately, no dimensions are quoted so I resorted to making my version 'wargames scale', i.e. large enough to look good on the wargames table. Using the two pictures for reference, I tinkered around in Photoshop until I had something I was happy with. As there is no description of the reverse side of the flag, I simply used the same design for both sides. I did ponder a bit about the colour of the St. George ribbon. These are usually black and orange stripes, but those in the picture are more of a golden yellow. Even allowing for fading, I doubt the original colour was far from what can be seen in the photo. Perhaps orange cloth was hard to come by! Anyway, here's what I came up with: 

After printing out on plain white paper, I carefully cut out the flag and applied a liberal coat of PVA glue to the reverse. After allowing a few minutes for the glue to soak into the paper, I folded the two halves of the flag together, wrapping the centre portion around a steel rod for the banner pole. The PVA made the paper quite wet and easy to shape into the desired folds, but once dry the shape is set and quite strong; good enough for the rigours of the games table at least. All that remained was to 'present' the banner to its unit by adding it to the standard bearer. 

Ready for action!

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.