A Ship Shape Russian Steamer

Some more progress on the RCW River Steamer.

Thanks to Jim for the joke. I have added the funnel and hull sides now and it is starting to look ship shape.  The mast is an old paint brush. 

The sides are cardboard glued on with PVA and held in place with paint tins while they dried.  The stern was too square in the wood, so I have used the curve of the cardboard to make it rounded and filled up the gap with ripped up tissue paper soacked in PVA to give it some paper mache strength.  The bow and stern have cardboard inserts to cover the joins and look like the strengthening on the real ship.

Next up is detailing.  I still have to add the paddles, windows, railings, ladder to the upper deck and armaments, plus quite a few little details like life belts, rigging, flags etc,

Steamer Update

Here is some more progress on the Steamer.  It's beginning to take shape a bit.

I have added the upper deck and pilot house now.  The the paddle wheel housings have also been extended so that a 60mm diameter paddle wheel could fit inside.

The 75mm circular bases are to show that a field gun can fit on the for and aft decks.  These will not be fixed, to allow different armament in different scenarios.

Russian Paddle Steamer

I'm starting to work on a side wheel paddle steamer for my RCW forces.  In Siberia such steam powered river craft were a common and vital means of transport away from the rail lines where river travel was both faster and easier than on the roads. 

This one is an artist impression of  the Vania, a Volga Tugboat that was armed during the civil war.  Few purpose built warhsips existed on the Siberian rivers, so conversion from civilian craft was common and both sides made use of such improvised gunboats for strategic movement and to support their ground units.  There were even some river battles as flotillas vied for control of the major waterways.  Early examples were simply civilian tugboats and merchant vessels with light field guns strapped to the decks.  They were sometimes 'armoured' with bales of cotton or flax.  Later conversions used small naval guns and were properly armoured or at least repainted in more martial colours.

My steamer is rather shorter and more squat than the real thing, to fit within our scaled down model battles, but will hopefully still give the right impression.  

I will add an upper deck above the boiler room and paddle wheel housings, with a funnel at the back, and a pilot house in the centre.  At the front will be a mast and a deck gun plus some maxims on the upper superstructure.  Historically such vessels usually carried both fore and aft deck guns, with several machine guns around the ship but I might keep the firepower down to avoid them becoming too powerful in game.  I want a moderate unit to provide riverine naval support not the Battleship Potemkin!

Improvised Armed Train

I've been working on this armed train today.  

It's not really armoured apart from some wood and sandbags but can represent the sort of improvised military trains as were used by both sides in the Russian civil war.  

It has an MG car at the front to provide protection.  I might add a field gun in a flatbed truck later.

Then there is a passenger carriage and freight truck for troop and supply transport at the back.  Maybe the Freight truck could be used instead to carry a few cavalry.

The MG truck is not based on any particular example but inspired by these examples.  The first is one used by the Czech Legion...

and second by the Estonians fighting for independence.

Here are just a a couple of Work In Progress shots.  The base train is is a Goldlok Western Express I got from eBay a while back.  Most was just repainted

To make the MG Car I used an open topped truck, adding plasticard and greenstuff for the wood and sandbag defences.

 The maxim guns are made  from bits of sprue and plasticard.

Red Cavalry Banner

I've made an attempt to get a bit more adventerous with my Red Banner this time and model it on a more famboyant example.

This one is based on the banner of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Turkestan.  The image comes from here via the Studio Siberia forum.

On the left the slogan reads "Long live the 3rd International" and on the right it reads "Long live the world revolution."

I couldn't fit all that writing in a readable size on such a small flag, so I took the central image and added Туркестанская кавалерия (Turkestan Cavalry) on the front.  Then used the slogan
Да здравствует мировая революция (Long live the world revolution) for the back.  The 3rd International or Communist International (Comintern) was only founded at a Congress held in Moscow on 2–6 March 1919, so Red Army units would have been unlikely to have had a slogan relating to that on that their banners in early 1919.

White Cossacks

Okay, enough messing around with Orcs and Trolls.  I have finished these Cossacks to give some cavalry to my RCW White Army. They are based on the 17th Orenburg Cossacks, who were a Corps support asset for Verzhbitskiy's 3rd Steppe Corps of Kolchak's Siberian Army in 1919.

The excellent Pygmy Wars site is great for anyone looking to paint up some Cossacks and that's what I've used as my source for the uniforms.  I didn't want to do Siberian Cossacks as they had red facings and I'd like to avoid bright red in my White Army for purely themetic reasons. The blue looks good and is different to the raspberry or black of the infantry.  About 50% of them should have lances but none of the figures I had did, so I will have to get a few more to give at least the impression that many were lance armed.

Austin Armoured Car

I've just finished this Austin Armoured Car from 1st Corps.  It is in civil war Bolshevik livery of plain green with just simple hastily free painted red stars as insignia.

Here is the real thing from the Summer of 1919 in Maxim Kolomiets' Armored car "Austin".

The photo is an Austin MkIII of 26th Detachment and it seems to match the model, even though the 1st Corps Web Site says it is v2.  Whichever version, it is a very nice model, the resin was well cast and needed little work.

One of the front mudguards was a little low but could be bent back into place after soaking in hot water for a few seconds.  There was some flash, below the reinforcing spurs that join the bonnet and front mudguards but I assume it is there deliberatly to strengthen the casting.  It was easy to remove.  On mine I added some reinforcing bars with plasticard to strengthen the wheel attachment and increase the clearance between the wheels and the mudguards. 

Lastly, I added some magnetic strip to the bottoms of the turrets and thin metal card to the top of the gun deck, so that the turrets can be turned but are held in place magnetically when handled.

Uz with beards

A quick post of some Gloranthan Trolls (Uz) with beards for a thread on LAF.  These pictures are all from the RQ3 Haunted Ruins book on the Sazdorf clan  Might as well make them visible for all to see.  Beards but not mustaches seem common for at least these trolls.

This guy even has a nice bow in his!  Maybe laughing a seven feet tall troll's beard bow is inadvisable though.

This troll doesn't have an actual beard but clearly a few chin whiskers.

Even one of the Trollkin has a long whispy beard.

See Severian's nicely painted Uz gang here.

The Battle of Lothlórien

The Goblin hordes from Moria and Gundabad invade Lothlórien.  This was the first great battle in our Middle Earth campaign.

Another pic of the Goblin army.  The Goblins couldn't match the Elves alone, so brought along a great many Warg Riders, Trolls and other dark creatures.

Here is a chained Wyrm that the Goblins had to try to free. 

The Elven army included all my figures and some allies from other members of SSWG.  It was an host worthy of eldar days but lacking in powerful creatures other than the characters. 

If you go down to the woods today...

One short clip from the extended version is all the battle gets in the movies but the attacks on Lorien are hardly mentioned in the books either.  This is a still from the movie.

Galadriel was well guarded on a hill deep in the forest.  With hindsight she probably should have been further forward from the start.

These last few pictures were taken later in the battle.  That troll did a lot of damage, killing many of the elves it is seen charging here.

On the Goblin left flank the Galadhrim Knights put in an impressive charge but couldn't stop the Goblins breaking through and freeing the Drake.

On the Elven left Galadiel and Celeborn slaughtered a mixed force of Gundadbad orcs, wargs and trolls.  It wasn't enough though as too many lives had been lost elsewhere.

The battle was a minor victory for the Goblins and the Galadhrim retreated deeper into the forest to sing sad songs of lamentation for the fallen.

Galadhrim Elven Army

Here are some quick photos of my completed Galadhrim Host.  Once again exhibiting my mediocre painting and photography skills but as Stalin, and no doubt Sauron, would say, quantity has a quality of its own.

First is Galadriel in her scary war aspect.  The Eldar Lady of the Golden Wood revealed in her wrath, to paraphrase Gandalf's description of Glorfindel.

I love this Galadriel figure.  It's better than the more passive one and seems more appropriate for a sorceress taking the field of battle.

Next are the other major characters from the army.  The elf Captain Haldir in his armoured version, the army standard bearer and a Galadhrim captain I have painted up to my Celeborn.  Haldir is great as your leader in smaller games of the Middle Earth rules and this is a great figure so he's seen a lot of combat.  I'm not keen on the official Celeborn figure's pose and he wears High Elf Armour too.  This figure makes a great alternative and is wearing Galadhrim armour, so it seems more fitting for a Sindar Elf lord and matches the the rest of the army.  He's in distinctive white to show he's a Lord of the West.

What would a wood elf army be without a wall of archers?  Sadly the Middle Earth rules only allow a third of the warriors to have bows but with the metal sword armed Galadhrim warriors and spear armed High Elves I can use them all.  I use a spare Haldir figure painted with dark hair and the other metal Elf Captain as leaders.

This detachment of sword armed Elves look like they mean business charging into battle.  In the rules these guys are no better at fighting hand-to-hand than the archers but the models are nice.  They are good at backing up a hero and piling on his winning fight with two handed blows.

The plastic Galadhrim elves are not quite as good as the old metal figures but they're still pretty nice and the the variety is great.  I bought a job lot from one of my club mates.  The guys in red cloaks are supposed to be the Galadhrim Captains.

Lastly the army has these Galadhrim Knights for its mounted troops.  I forgot to paint the captain with a red cloak but technically I need twelve warriors to have four archers, so I may look for a mounted hero to lead them or pick up an odd extra sword armed Knight if I find one.

I have some more High Elves and Saraman's orcs still in the grey and silver that I might get to one day.