Over at the Lead Adventure Fourm, my attention was drawn to another useful source book on the Malleson Mission to Transcaspia (Turmenistan these days), and a fairly comprehensive account of it by one of the British Officers that was there.
One copy was for sale for £18, so I bought it, and it was delivered and read yesterday.
A thoroughly useful and easy read with only occasional repetition of a few points. It tallies well with Teague Jones’ accounts and the sundry other snippets of info.
I found out that Denikin had sent reinforcements from across the Caspian to help the Ashkabad Committee which was news to me. Unfortunately some of the reinforcements were not welcomed by the locals. Unlike the British Indian Army units that gave col steel to the Bolsheviks. Vague orders from London, long supply lines and meagre resources meant any military success could not be followed up, and with most of the Allied intervention efforts it was too little, too late with no clear vision. This hardly elped a somewhat apathetc local population seize opportunities to kick the Bolsheviks out of power.
If you can get a copy do so. Not least for the photos of the outrageously large Turcoman fur hats.
A Very Moderate Swedish War caught my eye recently, with a new range of figures (Shiney stuff) supporting it.
The range so far has: a command unit; four infantry in Sewedish helmets; four infantry in Swedish kepi; four infantry in Sewedish tri-corns (really!). A great start but not enough for a meanignful platoon in the games we fight so I asked the owner if more were on the way, his response was:
He is doing an HMG, a 80mm mortar, another light machine gunner and a guy with a smg. Hopefully they will be released in the early autumn.
So here’s what I bought – a command unit, 2 sections with helmets, and a third with kepis. A few leftovers will be converted to standard bearers and medics shortly. A second LK II tank was also acquired to be fitted with an HMG to beef up the force.
So what can these figures be used for ?
Swedish Volunteers in the RCW: Over 300 Swedes volunteered to help out the Estonians in the RCW (“The Boys from the North” Ed by Lars Ericson). A picture is shown in the Osprey White Armies book where they are wearing Swedish helmets..
Hmm, looks like I can get an Austin in to the army as well with a Polar Bear head !
The Estonians were provided also with equipment from the general Russian armies, the British, and the Germans. So these figures can be integrated with many other units I already have,
The Aland Crisis
The Swedes did almost get involved in the RCW, the Aland islands midway between Sweden, Finland and the Baltics saw combat with Reds, Whites and Germans before the Sewdes intervened.
Altaernate histories
What if the Swedes directly became involved in either the late stages of WW1 or the RCW ? They could have been involved in the Finnish Civil War, the Estonian war of independence, or potentially the latvian war of independence.
The uniforms are also valid up until the 1930’s, as are the tanks (modified LK II) so I could use them in AVBCW…
Moose…Monty Python..stereotypical but still funny.
Monti Python ik den Holie Grailen
Roten nik Akten Di
Wik
Also wik
Also also wik
Wi not trei a holiday in Sweeden this yer ?
See the loveli lakes
The wonderful telephone system
And mani interesting furry animals
Including the majestic moose
A moose once bit my sister…
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end
of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge – her brother-in-law – an
Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: “The Hot Hands of an Oslo
Dentist”,”Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink”…
Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti…
The Garford Putilov was a home grown Russian armoured car developed in WW1. Quite a bizarre beast, it had forward mounted MGs, and a turret sporting another MG and a cannon on the reare of the vehicle !
Kit by Copplestone Castings. The camouflage pattern is one the Soviets officially adopted from 1925.
Pinned by Byakhee Rich Pinning Services, with a magnet so the turret can be revolved. Transfer decals are by Brigade/Company B.
It ended up being used by several armies in the fall out of WW1, and he RCW including the German Baltic Freikorps.
I find it funny the differece in size of these Germans, look at the ones on the left !
This waspainted for my recent BoB Big Game and I didn’t have time to photograph it (I finished it at about 9pm the previous night. In game terms it waas restricted to the road,reflecting its lack of off-road capability.
I painted the first o0f the 1st Corps buildings, just as the second batch arrived in the post.
Just to check my sanity, I double checked how wood ages and its colours:
Looks a good match. I used Foundry Granite Shade and Bay Brown Shade, washed with Citadel Biel-Tan green wash and then did a strong drybrush of Foundry Granite light.
For the logs in the porch, I used Foundry Dark Leather, with a Boneyard drybrush.
The three pieces.
The shutters are painted green and then weathered, doesn’t show so well in the photo.
And I had a go at the interior – my sources confirmed my hunch that it would have a whitewashed interior.
I didn’t spend much time on the interior, as these buildings are being painted for a Big Game w/e after next, but they are very crisp and the detail is as good on the interior as on the exterior.
I bought a certain armoured car last week that had been advertised on TMP from 1st Corps, a subsequent visit to their web store and I stumbled on their scenery which I’d not seen advertised previously.
So with the upcoming RCW/Bo Big Game, I thought I’d nab them quickly. They arrived today. A house with porch and shingle roof, and a second house with thatched roof.
Outhouse, well and store house – always useful as clutter on the battlefield. The well also comes with a dinky little bucket. This would be a very useful objective in games set in arid/semi-arid areas.
The castings are niceand crisp with minimal flash.
They come as multiple piece castings.
Good internal details and believably thick walls.
1st Corps have now brought out (this week) a few more buildings
Turns out they didn’t really – they pretty much only used captured German/Austrian mortars.
Fed up of HMGs as the only support weapon, I devised a new project. I bought the Great War Miniatures German minewerfer, replace the heads with some spare Copplestone BoB Infantry and err. Bob’s your uncle…actually I do have an uncle called Bob…
So I went round to Rich’s Pinning Services(C)/(TM) this morning…
Only problem was one of the crew had an entrenching tool…
It all went well.
A bit of liquid greenstuff, the mortar glued together.
First one should be ready in a few days.
First trache of painted Germans for my BoB scenario I will be running in June.
Two HMGs, both by Great War Miniatures (North Star Miniatures are the distributors).
For the second I swapped the spotter for a German NCO to be able to distinguish the two HMGs.
Painted using Foundry Early War(2) German uniform colour.
Should have been published yesterday but the static grass had not dried out in time before my social engagement.
Another purchase from Brigade Games, a ruined version of their barn:
Comes as a kit in light weight resin – the roof is made of four pieces. A nice crisp casting.
This makes a dozen or more buildings for BoB/RCW which is the minimum you need to put on a Big Game over two 6×10 board along with the 200 inches of fencing…
And if you think 200 inches of fences is a lot, then to make a single 12 inch square field takes 48 inches, a 24 inch square field takes 96 inches. preparing enough scenery for Big Games is scenery making on an industrial scale.
The ruined barn should go well with another ruined building that is WIP…
The Lost City of Carcosa 