Byakhee JP and I are planning a game of AVBCW next Friday. Having had the unit of (10) shotguns on the painting table for ever and a day, plus a built Lanchester A/C, I will now use the next week to complete these figures and vehicle.
So I’m seeting myself a challenge to do these figures. They’re a mixture of Gripping Beast and Musketeer miniatures. Civilians, so will all need unique paint schemes which is probably why I’ve procrastinated over painting them for so very long !
Then there is the Lanchester (Copplestone Castings). As I intend to play the Malvern Hills Conservators, the Local Defence Volunteers, they only have A/Cs and other light vehicles save for one tank (Tanks and the Malverns don’t get on well together).
Having done loads of tanks for AQMF, I’ll be using the same schemes for painting this so I can get this on the table ASAP.
Updates of scenarios and paint progress over the next week.
I’m hoping this self imposed deadline, will also spill over into finishing off the BUF dismounted cavalry unit I also have half completed on the painting table. I’ve not done enough figure painting for AVBCW (and Warhammer) for some time…
Continuing my trawl through the Boloshevik boxes, and what I didn’t finish painting for the last Big Game a fortnight ago (!):
The elite Bolshevik HMG unit from Copplestone Castings. Obviously the commander is standing up because he is “well hard”. Por encourage les outres.
Putilov half track, very few of these were made and they only turned up late in the day, and I guess mostly under Bolshevik control.
Hence the Red transfers I used.
Built by Byakhee Rich, complete with revolving turrets due to rare earth magnets.A simple Foundry Moss Shade with GW camp wash and highlight of Moss on top.
Some pictures of figures I’ve painted in the last fortnight for the BoB Big Game…Yes I still do paint figures as opposed to scenery !
Matt had indicated he needed a seco nd Turkish field gun, I knew I’d bought one years ago, and promptly found it on the play room floor in a box. Great, so i started painting it up. In an exchange with Matt I suddenly thought it was strange it only had three crew when all the other Brigade & Copplestone field guns had four crew. A quick squizz at the Brigade site confirmed that my pack was one short – having bought it years ago at a games show, I decided to just bite the bullet and order a new gun crew from Brigade who are based in the rebel colonies.
Friday lunchtime, the postie turned up and she gave me a package from Brigade Games – about a week from order to delivery across the pond ! An excellent service from Lon as usual.
So I decided to blitzkreig the painting and get the fourth crew member done !
Having got up at about 6.45am, I had just enough time for the paint and glue to dry before handing it over to Matt at 10.30am. I didn’t have time to add static grass though.The fourth crewman is standing at the back holding a shell. Matt further embarrassed himself when in an accident, the field piece tumbled to the floor. Luckily no harm done.
I’d similarly promised Roo a Bolshevik HMG which was finished on Friday.
And I just about finished the second Bolshevik HMG for Nick on Saturday morning (note lack of static grass !). I varied the paint job and this Copplestone Castings set comes with variant heads for the loader, so obviously varied the heads just to make the two stands different.
An elite Bolshevik HMG was well under way, but as it was not needed got put to one side.
The Swedish LKII is finished. I tried to use a system similar to the ones painted on the museum pieces that was not the German WW1 Mustard/Red-Brown/Grey but something subtely different.
So I ended up with Foundry Slate Grey, my basing colour brown, and Foundry Moss. Given a brown wash, and then highlighted.
A picture showing the LK II (Copplestone Casstings) which is 1/55th next to Brigade Games Mark V (which is 1/56th), next to First Corps Erhart which is probably 1/48th (?).
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 Germans in WW1 were slow (if not almost stationery) in getting off the mark when it came to tanks. They did produce the A7V in small numbers which was a slow lumbering beast, but having encountered the French FT-17, and then the British Whippet took the plunge and commissioned a Leichte Kampfewagen which turned into the LK II. They were too late to see combat but a small number were ready by the end of WW1. The Germans, prohibited from having tanks by the Allied Powers, sold them to Sweden.
Whilst Rich pinned it together he innocently commented that it look like an agricultural tractor, and I had to point out that that was how the Germans listed them after WW1 when shipping them to Sweden:
The parts were shipped as boiler plates and agricultural equipment and then assembled in Sweden as the Stridsvagn m/21 (Strv m/21 for short), which was essentially an improved version of the LK II prototype.
A nice little model even if the pictures don’t show the back plate….
Been busy painting command units for the forthcoming BoB/RCW game – it seems I am providing 3 armies to the Lead Leeches, as well as my own !
First up, a couple of Kuban mounted standard bearers:
Copplestone White Russian Cossacks.
These are part of the massive box of cavalry I am refusing to shift from the kitchen until the entire contents is finished – I oipened the box after 8 years and found the entire contents unpainted and unused. After three weeks of promising my cleaner it will be removed, it is now getting embarrassing. She’s back on Monday, so stand by for more Cossack Cavalry goodness.
Some more Infantry support elements. These are Musketeer WW1/RCW Infantry Characters, namely Signallers (which will e observers for artillery), Ammunition carriers, and Medics.
As you can see, I have painted two sets for ordinary White Russians and one for more Colourful White Russians. Another set will be for Cossacks forces, and a fifth will be for the Shock Troopers. Both are well advanced along with HMGs and one of the mortar units,.
The Lost City of Carcosa 