BoB: One Armed Sutton

14/01/2013

There were many characters in the 1920’s in the RCW and Chinese Warlord periods. One of them was Frank “One Armed” Sutton. He had lost part of an arm whilst fighting during WW1 in Galipolli, when caught in a trench with some Gurkhas that were being subjected to grenade attack by Turks:

In his own words: “This much I had learned at Eton: I was always a safe field. I was bound in the course of time to misfield, and I did.” The grenade blew his right hand off at the wrist. Shortly afterwards, a massive Turk jumped into the crater with his bayonet fixed. After a titanic struggle during which Frank bit the Turk’s ear off, he managed to kill his adversary and returned to the beach to retrieve his golf clubs, where a surgeon removed the rest of his wrist. Thus he came to be known as “One Arm Sutton”.

In 1918 he went to the Russian Far East as a Gold prospector, and after numerous adventures there, wound up in China where he manufactured guns and mortars such as the Stokes 5″. He later went on to create primitive aroured vehicles based on the White Tractor. He was the Chief of Staff and Director of Munitions for Tsang Cho Lin.

Unsurprisingly, Mark Copplestone has done a model of Sutton (BC20).

Mortars were frequently used by the Chinese Warlords due to the absence of field guns.

the Sutton Skunk was an armoured Holt tractor. This model is made by Company B (available via Brigade Games and others) and is armed with a Lewis LMG. A very nice little model with only a few parts all crisply cast.

A key component in any Chinese Warlord army for BoB.

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BoB: White Russian Command

05/01/2013

Here’s a collection of Copplestone (BC25), Brigade Games (BG-SIER002) and Artizan models that I have used as the first infantry command unit for my normal/ragged White Russian army.

I’ve included an officer with blue breeches to represent the plastuns and the general nature of White Russian armies being top heavy with Officers who often aspired to be from the cavalry regiments that had prestige.

I have added an Artizan figure as the feisty Terek female commander/officer that can goad her male brethren into action against the rapacious Reds (nice alliteration I think).

And of course another couple to round the unit out including the cigar smoking type that helped the Whites loose the RCW due to overweening arrogance and ineptitude.

As you can see whilst the style of Artizan and Copplestone are similar, both the Artizan and Brigade Games figures are more slender/delicate and a bit smaller. I guess this represents Mark’s influence on Mike (the sculptor for both ranges) whilst they were at Foundry. They’re all compatable which is the most important thing for us wargamers however.

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BoB: White Russian Cossack Plastuns

04/01/2013

Say what ? Plastuns ?

A Plastun or plastoon (Ukrainian, Russian: пластун) was a Cossack foot scouting and sentry military unit. Originally they were part of the Black Sea Cossack Host and then later in the 19th and 20th centuries Kuban Cossack Host.

Another ten of the Copplestone White Guard (the remodelled BU34, the originals turned up minus rolled up greatcoats – see my Colourful White Russian Infantry for examples and I don’t think these are available anymore) turned up and so I pondered how to paint them anything other than khaki. So at least using the idea of the plastuns gave me some blue breeches.

There was a lack of horses during the RCW due to all the privations of the preceeding WW1 and ongoing hardship, so it is only natural that there would be more plastuns than usual.

So this unit, should be a nice variant on ordinary infantry, and maybe conferred with some sort of ferocious rule as their members try to prove their worth and get some cash to buy a Cossack pony to return them to their proper status.

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BoB: Triffids

02/01/2013

Ok, well I bought these ages and ages ago for Back Of Beyond, but finally got them assembled and Painted for Xmashammer 2012 as they fitted well with the Lustrian background.

Triffids in BoB ?:

The 1981 TV series and some editions of the book have Masen speculating that the triffids were the creation of the real-life Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko. According to Masen’s narration, the triffids first came to the attention of the Western world when a man named Umberto Christoforo Palanguez presented the Arctic & European Fish Oil Company with a mysterious vegetable oil originating from Russia.

So they must have had some root (ha ha) stock to have developed them for the oil, so these Triffids might be their precursors, hidden away in sparsely populated reaches of Central Asia, or maybe they are precursors developed by the Reds as bio terror weapon (cue spooky music). So I forced myself to watch the BBC TV series from the 1980’s [1] that I watched as a kid to see what they were like.

The actual miniatures were from HLBSCo (The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Co) and are no longer available. 😦

Yes, you’ve guessed it, the stinger is separate and fitted into a small notch in the “flower” at the top

So they had to be taken to Rich’s Pinning Service (c), to be pinned and also have some greenstuff added to support the weight of the sting. Luckily I’d put them on metal washers for the base, which helps “weigh” them down as otherwise they’d be falling over as they are quite top heavy.

I then painted them to match the TV series ones:

The sting itself is a bit more purple than appears in the photos.

Here’s the rules I hastily wrote up for Xmashammer 2012:

M = 2
Ws = 0
BS = 5
S = 5
T = 4*
W = 2
A = 1
I = 2
Ld = n/a / 10 immune to psychology

Triffids cause Fear.
Poisoned attacks on a to hit roll of 5-6.
A Triffid counts as a Skirmisher (-1 to hit)
They cause a single Stomp attack, S2.
They may make a single missile attack in the shooting phase with a range of 4″. This ignores any armour unless the model has a helmet on (WISYWIG).
In combat, they make a single missile attack. They may not choose targets, they must attack the model directly in front of them with the greatest base to base contact.

* Halve all mundane missile weapons’ strength, except those caused by warmachines

In the game they were a nuisance but delayed at least one of Gav’s Arrer boy units for a round or two.

[1] Not the abomination of the remake from a few years ago !

Filed under Painting, RCW / BoB, Warhammer Tagged with ,

Clearing out the Play Room

20/12/2012

Now the observant will have noticed a lot of RCW/BoB figures being painted.
Yup, that’s because I found a box of them on the floor of the playroom and I’m trying to paint all of them along with their brethern before I put them all away and I am catalogouing them on the way. So lots of White Russians, especially mounted figures, and you’ll be able to see the next unit in the background in the next couple of photos:

Yes I found a big box of stuff that needed sorting through.
As you can see from the photos, how big it is, because there is a cat who loves it!

And anyway, it’s not like I’m going to get to see the DVD/TV:

So I have three days to clear out:

  • 10 Plastoon
  • 5 RCW Command Squad
  • 10 BUF Cavalry
  • 5 BUF Command Cavalry
  • 15 Cossacks

For starters.

:-O

(The Dark Elves are done just waiting for the winking of a photograph)

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BoB/RCW: Standard bearers

18/12/2012

Another Cossack standard bearer:

Again a Terek banner – thought I’d do a normal Cossack in khaki with a Terek banner so I can field the full unit as part of a Terek war host.

As usual a Copplestone model.

I’ll be updating this post tomorrow morning with a couple more standard bearers with alternate RCW flags…before I head off to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which I’ll provide a review for.

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BoB/RCW: White Artillery

17/12/2012

A vaguely sunny day, here is the artillery for the normal ragged White Russian army:

With the HMG done I now on ly have a couple of units to complete.

A straight example of Copplestone BU48.

The Officers are half done, and I have a plastoon unit (dismounted Cossacks) almost finished.

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BoB/RCW: White HMG

08/12/2012

Straight forward paint job on a Coppletone White Russian HMG (BC26):

As usual based on an old GW flat plastic base about 60mm wide.

Painted in dull khaki for my ragged White Russian army which is nearing completion.

Just the command and artillery to do, which will be coming up shortly.

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Eldritch Statues

06/12/2012 2 Comments

I availed myself of some of Copplestones’ Eldritch Statues (FMT5), they’re meant to be 15mm, but they look pretty good next to 28mm Archaeologists:

Resin pieces, based on Renadra 40mm round plastic bases. Copplestone Female Archaeologist (BC19) for scale.

And here they are again with a Pulp miniatures Lady Jane (PHP04):

I got these on a whim, they’re 15mm so they could go well with 15mm Laserburn (somewhere in the archives is a copy of White Dwarf that has a Traveller/CoC scenario and I’ve done a short lived adventure in that genre as well).

And we all know that the Plateau of Leng is in the Himalayas/Central Asia, so what are the chances of a BoB game having some of these inputs ? 😉

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BoB/RCW: White Russian Lancers in Chinese Service 2

01/12/2012 1 Comment

Finally finished off the first lot of these. Lovely sculpts.
Spent all day yesterday mired in producing bids, but today had some half decent natural light levels. So here they are:

The start: The basic figure comes with rider separate from horse, with a separate da-dao beheading sword so it can easily be replaced with something else like a Mosin-Nagant rifle. To build the miniature you also need a base (Foundry MDF) and a lance (Foundry steel pin). The figure and pin all got trimmed for flash and size. As the figure comes with a stirrup holster, you can be generous with the length of the lance and it’s a really good sturdy fix for once.

Base and undercoating as normal. I then painted the horse as per Kevin Dallimore’s guide, and painted the White Russian with GW Orkhide foundation paint for the uniform and Foundry Buff leather for the boots to make them look “yellow”. The da-dao sheath was painted Foundry Drab, and the webbing/straps Foundry Granite. I then used GW Badab Black Wash for the uniform (with a subsequent highlight of Orkhide again) and GW Devlan Mud wash for the boots.

Looks about right IMHO. I added Foundry Napoleonic British Redcoat for the shoulder makings and I was pretty much done.

(Third time lucky on the photo, so it doesn’t look like the crude daubings of an 11 year old !)

I do 5 horses of each shade as a batch, so the actual units of 15 cavalry end up with at least three different horse colours. The light remains so poor that there is no point in providing photos of the Bay brown and black horses !

Next up, I have more of these I will add to the Russian Cossack horses, probably with Mosin Nagant rifles, and I might have a stab at some of the pennants for the lances. Just to make them look real hard and elite as they should be !

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