In the great British summer, the countryside is a buzz to the sound of the strimmer, hedge cutter and mower. However,this week it has been far too hot and there is an eery silence across the country. So I did some painting.
Cue the snorting monstrosity of a Mark IV tank:
Yup, finally got round to finishing one of these beauties off. Armed with machine guns (Hotchkisses or Lewises) only:
Byakhee Rich had pinned them some time ago and I’d done 80% of the painting.
Next up is the Hermaphrodite Mark IV – one sponsson female (machine guns):
One Sponsoon Male (Gun and machine gun).
Then I can get on to the next 6 Mark IVs and give them White/Red markings. š
Ordered from Brigade Games, amongst the pack that arrived today:
During WW1, the RCW, WW2 and even later up til the 1990’s armoured trains were used by the Russians and to lesser extents the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Czechs, Poles and Chinese.
As you can see from the ruler, it’s over 12′ long and dwarfs the two figures that also arrived. By the time I’ve added the locomotive behind it along with some carriages and flat beds, plus a flat bed in front and maybe more armoured units it’ll only ever get used in a Big Game where we can have boards 10′ plus to cope with the size of this beast.
Strelnikov is a thinly disguised Trotsky character, cavorting around on a heavily armoured train. In the RCW Trotsky had his own luxurious train and a personal body guard which purportedly were kitted out in red leather uniforms (see the Osprey book). Another colourful unit that could be deployed along with this marvellous item. Interesting to note the Sailors watching him go by, the Russian Sailors were pretty much pro-Bolshevik until 1921, and provided a good cadre of troops trained in the use of HMGs and artillery, much like you’d need on armoured trains.
I’m also figuring out a way to get some of this kit deployed for the AVBCW, probably involving the Royal Train and secret railway tunnels under the Malverns…
Grinding my way through the playroom, I stumbled over my second armoured park (the first being the AVBCW armoured park). Loads of Brigade Models/Company B Mark V tanks.
I had assembled the main resion components but shyed away from the metals guns and other components. As I commented to Richard:
This is partly why I’ve had them a good few years and not built them – they’re complex and fiddly and I knew unless they were pinned, then I’d waste a lot of time bodging it before they then fell apart when stared at too intently.
One thing I have learnt from doing up houses, is that you need the right tools for the job, if you bodge it, it’ll break/fall apart, and then you’ll have to do it all over again properly.
As in, I’ll wave a little white flag and admit to not have drill bits small enough, and not having the skill to do that level of detailled pinning – I can do bigger stuff no problem (size isn’t everything).
L-R: Male; Hermaphrodite; and Female
(Oh yeah is that going to generate some spurious Google search hits or what ?!)
The Male Mark Vs had a cannon in each sponsoon; the Females had two HMGs (Hotchkisses) in each sponsoon; and the Hermaphrodite tanks had a a single male sponsoon (cannon + HMG), and a single Female sponsoon (2 HMGs). HMGs were also mounted (this spurious Google search is getting worse…) on the front of the tank and also one…on the back.
So off they went to Uncle Rich’s Pinning Service(TM).
As I originally bought these for my BoB armies I was planning on painting them in White/Red Russian colours, but seeing as my interests in WW1 and AVBCW have expanded their use I’m now a little stuck as to what to paint them. My books on RCW armoured vehicles indicate that they would probably have arrived painted in British colours: either a Khaki Green colour; maybe a drab Grey; or possibly khaki. Books on WW1 British armour indicate all of the above, especially Khaki for those in the Middle East, and I’m guesing those would have been shipped to the AFSR first. Then there is some indication that the Whites/Reds used camo patterns (see Kolmiots et al 2001 – Tanks of the Russian Civil War). Certainly both the Whites and the Reds went to town with extra markings and slogans on all the tanks and armoured cars that came into their possession.
So I think I’ll go for a plain starter with green/khaki (I may need to deploy these models on the 16th for the AVBCW Big Game JP and I are organising).
Good job I have another 2 of each of these models stashed away awaiting attention. š
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: āThis 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.ā 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 Turkās 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 āOne Arm Suttonā.
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.
The Lost City of Carcosa 