Back of Beyond - Trotsky’s train guards

 This weeks job has been to finish off the last of my lead pile for this project . I have taken the opportunity to paint up Trotsky’s train guards in their glorious red uniforms . These guys were probably Latvians and classed as good troops . 

I suspect they might just be bullet magnets in any game . 

The usual Copplestone figures 

There were also another 3 LMG , Lewis Gun guys in the pile and these have been done too .

 

This rounds out the total force nicely now .Army as it stands.:-

Infantry, sailors, factory militia and Cheka   - 136 inc 10 LMG , various officers and standard bearers .

Mounted - 19

HMGs - 3

Tachankas - 2 

Field guns - 2

Transport vehicles 3 

Armoured vehicles 3

Small boat 

To complete yet for the big game in November  :-

armoured train 

Medium size boat

Tomorrow sees a return to the winter of 44 with a big game with Ardennes stuff . There are few new terrain pieces added to that which I will share next time .

Back of Beyond - Bolsheviks - the Siberians

 This weeks painting has been the last lot of Copplestone Bolsheviks in the stash  . Greatcoats  and fur hats . As ever they are really easy to paint . 

These will be fighting in our ongoing campaign shortly . My far east Bolos are fighting the Japanese who have invaded North of Vladivostok. This takes me to over 100 foot.  

I have a further out with Eureka to top up the factory worker militia which should arrive this week.

The plan is to run a really big game in November at the local Battlegrouhd show . 

Back of Beyond , getting there with the Bolos

 The next lot of Bolshevik top ups are extra cavalry , another infantry unit and a maxim gun team for the sailors .

First up some lance armed cavalry 

I have added some lance straps made from garden twisty wire stripped from its plastic covering . This wraps around the lance and around the riders arm . In addition I then soldered the lance into the hand and were possibly tacked on to the stirrup . I have superglue failures - which will happen in time - these won’t. The lances are made from strong piano wire that is very rigid. . I sharpened the point with a carborundun disc attached to the mini drill .

I also created some single tail pennants with a red background, a horseshoe and the number 1 to distinguish these .

I also created a unit standard , a combination of cut and paste then a bit of AI processing .

  

Next up the final addition for the sailors - a maxim team .

Spent cartridge cases added by clipping some thin brass wire , attached with some superglue.

 

Finally another infantry unit , these all have the classic budenovka 

So that gives me 6 full infantry units including the sailors , 3 maxims , 2 field guns with transport and 18 mounted , plus various command and commisars . Certainly a decent enough force for our games .

 

I have a couple of Tachankas to complete yet . I also have a plane in the do pile at some point . I have enjoyed doing these 

 

Back of Beyond - Bolshevik Maxims , bannermen and cavalry

 The latest additions to move my Bolshevik forces onto an all arms force .

I have added some brass wire spent casings to these . 

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Next up are some banner men . One of the issues with multiple similar painted unit can be identifying them to activate . I had an idea to create the red field and use cryllic font letters and numbers . I fed this into Chat GPT and out they popped . 

 

 

 

There are a few others designed just waiting the on order figures for the sailor and cavalry command .

 

I also did one for the railway workers in a recent game 

The last tranche of the stash were 6 cavalry.

And united with the existing pieces 

I have also acquired a 3d printed 155mm Schneider Long Tom . An usual piece for the BoB I reckon , but it does give me bang for my rouble 

I can swap out the field gun crew for now until I get hold of some more .

The complete for so far 

Still at bit more to add . I continue to enjoy doing these . Hopefully the next North Star order arrives this weekend .

Back of Beyond - The Black Sea sailors

 This weeks completion is the lads of “Torpedo Odessa”. A unit of Black Sea sailors - again from Copplestone .

Really enjoyed painting these guys 

 

I have also worked on their boat . I had the good guys from the Pendraken laser room make me up MD`f hull shapes that were clamped together to make a hull about 300mm long . I already had some armament from the paddle steamer model which is magnetised so I only needed to add some of that to enable to swap over .

I am waiting for the command set turning up for these and have designed a suitable flag 

I left it with a simple open superstructure for now . The captain , cox and wheel were all from Ironclad 

I have added tubing to take flag and a main mast that are removable to make it useable for various nations and also easier to store . 

6 layers of full hull , with two extra on the front .

Once it was glued together it was sealed with PVA and primed with an acrylic / polyurethane primer .

A simple paint job after that . 

The funnel is made from a large metal air intake from the Ironclad stuff .

 

I have more naval weaponry on order , including torpedo launchers . I have also commissioned mark 2 longer wider , more detailed supersctrucre etc as a result if the learning with this one .