Counter-revolution in Samarkand, Part I

In the early hours of a February morning in 1918, a train of scruffy soldiers pulls into a Bolshevik controlled station outside the ancient city of Samarkand.

This is scenario one, The Mutineers Attack!, from the excellent Red Dawn Rises! supplement for Setting the east Ablaze! rules.  It is certainly dramatic, judging by all the exclamations!

The scenarios in the book are great and inspired by Peter Hopkirk's equally excellent book on the Russian revolution in central Asia.

 

  

We used the third edition of the rules, by the only slightly less excellent Steve Langan, for this game.

 

This is what happened according to the official history.  

The sleepy guards are not expecting trouble but the soldiers disembark fully armed and ready to fight.

 

"MUTINY!" The Mensheviks have turned their former allies against the revolution and they are now fighting for the Whites!  
 

 

The small garrison of red guards run for the relative safety of the coal bunker. 

 

 

"Fire on the traitors, comrades!"

The Bolshevik gunners spring to their work and shells begin to land with pinpoint precision.

 

Chaos reigns in the mutineer ranks.  Their armoured car crashes off the ramp and immediately breaks down.

Some of them run and hide in the railway shed.

Others in the trees.

Captain Pernov pushes his men through a window into the hastily vacated station.

"More shells comrades.  Keep firing…Oh!" The Bolo field gun runs low on ammo. 

But all is not yet lost for the Reds, as their AA gun pours murderous fire into the station killing more of the mutineers.

 

What this defence needs is an inspiring and handsome proletarian hero. 

 

Fortunately, as the Red guards regroup in the coal bunker, they are joined by commissar Totzek after he heroically sneaked out the back of the hotel.  These dogged revolutionaries will be difficult to shift from behind those solid walls.

 

Wait! Stop! Where are you going?  Seduced by more Menshevik lies the guardsmen defect.

It’s okay thinks Totzek to himself, "I will persuade the mutineers over to me, with my deep understanding of class consciousness and dialectical materialism".  "Oh!  That didn’t go well."

 

"It'll be okay.  I’m sure nobody else heard me mess that up, and will therefore abandon me as a result. Oh!"  The Red AA gun also defects to the Whites.

 

Time to run for it.  [Ed: I don't have any pictures of the chase that followed, so you'll just have to imagine a cross between Dr Zhivago, Benny Hill, and the Keystone Cops, all to the soundtrack of Yakkerty Sax.]

Totzek makes it to the field gun and his last remaining comrades.  Who, fortunately, seem to have found some more ammunition.  Making every shell count they blast their former compatriots and send them running but Pernov rallies his men and begins the assault again.

The inept mutineers, driven on by Captain Pernov, struggle up the slope to storm the last Bolshevik redoubt but are thrown back by the stubborn defence.  Totzek empties his pistol into their ranks, killing another mutineer.

 

 

However, the numbers are overwhelming and our scene fades to black as poignant music plays and a battle damaged red flag waves gently in the breeze … 

 

... but what a twist!  The body of the commissar cannot be found! ...

Red Sonja on the move

Here is my first attempt at a video of my Russian Civil War Red Train on the move.

  

Steven Spielberg watch out! 😂

Maybe I'll have another try later.

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.

Rivets

This is a neat trick I used for making the rivets on the train.  I bought '1000' half pearl acrylic beads with a flat back used for nail art.  They were cheap and work nicely as rivets in 28mm.

I glued them on to the plasticard with a bit of slightly water down PVA using an old paint brush.

After painting and a light dry brush they do nicely as large heavy duty rivets for 28mm vehicles. 

The Painted Train

Here is the train with a basic paint job I did last night.  It's quite clean and simple at the moment, which I like but I'm not sure if it needs more detail.  Maybe some writing or posters on the sides, some red flags or a bit more weathering would add to it.  The weird colour of the fuel in the tender is supposed to be Birch logs.

I took these outside where the light was a bit better.  Although there is still too much shadow.

Sonya the Green Engine

Here's the result of a bit of spray painting this evening.  I think all the guns and wheels still move.

The colour is WW2 Russian Armour from the Plastic Soldier Company.  I've had the tin for ages.  I think I did use it for some 6mm Cold War tanks before but there was plenty left.

Gun Carriage Update

I did some gun making this morning.  The 'ironwork' looks like it was done by the drunken proletariat but the guns do move and it will be dark inside the turret when assembled and painted.

 Here is the completed gun carriage.

Starting a Railway War

This is the armoured train I have been working on. I think I'll name it the Red Sonya (Krasnaya Sonya, красная соня - according to Google translate and Wikipedia), which sounds about right for a Bolo train and is a hat tip to the fictional heroine.

Though not at all a copy, my train is inspired by the Red Siberia that was captured from the Whites at Chelyabinsk station in summer 1919. 

This first photo is from the time of it's capture in July 1919.

This second photo is later at Kurgan station. Probably August-September 1919.

Here are some close ups of the parts so far.

The basis for the train was this set I got from a well known tax dodging online marketplace.  The set includes the engine and carriages shown plus seven curved, two straight and two points/switches.  Each piece is about 12" long.

I also have this one, which matches track and truck couplings.  Be careful when buying, there are others that don't match on the track joins even though the trains are very similar.  The couplings on the others will join even though they are different.

The second set has no points but does come with six curved and four straight track pieces.

These are some earlier photos of the work in progress.  Look at the size of that funnel!  And why is there a Pritt stick lid on that train?

This is the earliest concept image.  Note the clever use of train tickets as ersatz gun carriage rooves.