Galadhrim WIP

These are some work in progress shots I took of my Galadhrim Army for GW's Middle Earth skirmish game.

My club mate Chris had an idea to start a club Middle Earth campaign to get everyone to mix and not just stay in their own cliques.  Like most wargamers, certainly of my age, I'm a big Tolkien fan and have wanted to do an Elven army since first reading the the books as a kid.  So it didn't take much arm twisting to get me onboard.

The campaign was very successful and we played loads of games and people built some pretty big Middle Earth armies.  Most of us had the start of forces in our lead and plastic mountains and the campaign encouraged us to get them painted.

This was what I had sitting in a box in the garage.  It was too many archers for a game legal army but I started painting what I had and looking for more.

Here's an early WIP pic.  Basic colours and lots of washes.  That's about all my eyesight can cope with nowadays but the results look okay.  After decades of trying I'm still amazed at the detail some people can get on a 28mm figure or even smaller.

I found a few High Elf spear armed warriors I had previously picked up from eBay too.  I use them to represent Galadriel's High Elf kin that have joined her in Lothlorien.  It means I can also use more of my Galadhrim archers.

Here are some early pics of the finished troops.

I love these early metal LOTR Perry sculpts.  Some of the best miniatures ever made in my opinion.

This is my completed Gladhrim host before we played a big defence of Lothlorien game last year.

I have a few extra guards now but I think the army is pretty much done.  More close ups to follow shortly.

Reds on horse and foot

My little red ponies adding speed and flexibility to the proletarian revolutionary forces.

Some more Bolo Commanders backing up Ace Red Agent Roza Rubinstein.

A closer pic of some of the Bolo Horde, these are less uniform and could serve as newly raised conscripts, Partisans or Red Guards.

Special Siberian Kommissar Trevsky and a company of greatcoat clad Red Army men.

More regular Red Army soldiers

That's all my RCW figs painted now until a batch of Cossacks arrive from Northstar.  I do have this new arrival from 1st Corps to work on though.

More Whites

I've completed the Whites I have for now.  That's a strange feeling.  All figures are from Copplestone miniatures Back of Beyond range but include some simple conversions.

14th Irtysh Siberian Rifle Regiment

15th Kurgan Siberian Rifle Regiment

Some support bases.  The light gun is the standard M1902 76 mm divisional gun from Copplestone Miniatures. The heavy piece is a 152 mm M1910 howitzer from Mad Bob Miniatures with Copplestone crew including a converted Bolshevik from the Elite MG pack.

And a quick group shot

Red Sailors Ahoy!

Here is a unit of Bolshevik Sailors.  They carry a red saltire, converting the traditional St Andrew's cross of the Russian Navy to a more appropriate socialist colour.

In the front rank is my completed Anatoli Zhelezniakov inspired conversion.  He was an Anarchist actually not a Bolshevik but a Red Army Commander nonetheless.

More Red Flags

Some more Red Army Flags.  The flags with the yellow writing use the first official RSFSR (РСФСР) symbols designed in 1918 by Sergei Vasilyevich Chekhonin.  The white letters in a cross form are from an alternative and slightly earlier pattern.

See this link for the development of the Red State flag and this one for more information on Red Army symbols.

The first slogan from the left reads "Ни шагу назад", "Not a step back" and is another from the 1st Reserve Communist regiment.  The second says "Советскую власть тогда возьмут, когда через наши трупы пройдут!", "Then they will take Soviet power when they pass through our corpses!" or perhaps "They will take Soviet power over our dead bodies" is a better translation of the meaning.  This slogan was carried by the Mountain Eagles of Tarbagatai, a Red partisan unit that operated in Northern Semirech (Kazakhstan), fighting the Whites of the Annenkov division.  The last has the words "В защиту свободы готовы мы жертвовать собой", "In defense of freedom, we are ready to sacrifice ourselves" and is from the Pskov regional committee.

Red Flags

After hand painting the White Flags, my Red Flags didn't match.  I wasn't happy with them anyway, so I redid them.  Now someone will tell me I've spelt the slogans wrong.

The slogans say: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь", "Workers of the world unite"; "Победа или смерть", “Victory or death”; "За власть Советов", “For the power of the Soviets”.  The first is a Russian translation of a famous line from the Communist Manifesto and was later the motto of the Soviet Union.  The second and third were among the banners carried by the 1st Reserve Communist Regiment of Kiev in June 1919.  See this great thread on the Studio Siberia forum for a lots of information on banners and flags of the civil war era Red Army.

And a work in progress shot.  

Here is a link to the Studio Siberia Forum thread translated using Google Translate.

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.