Showing posts with label Bolsheviks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolsheviks. Show all posts

Monday, September 03, 2012

First unit of Bolsheviks






It's always a surprise when I actually paint a complete unit in one go but here is my first unit of Bolshevik infantry.  They are destined to be opponents for my Chinese warlord army once I have completed a few more units and some support.




Increasingly I am thinking about using these in a campaign similar to my Zambezi Campaign, with  a number of scenarios involving Chinese troops and bandits, White Russians, armed archaeologists and perhaps some other motley forces (Mongolians?) that might (but weren't necessarily actually) roaming around Central Asia in the nineteen twenties.  To this end I painted a  senior officer and tidied up a female Russian I painted some time ago.




Further development on this will be on my long neglected Pulp blog but it will certainly involve some of the vehicles and aircraft I have been collecting for the last five years or so.




I really enjoyed painting these Copplestone Castings figures and have enough for another unit of Russians so may base these soon.  I had terrible trouble trying to find early Soviet flags on the internet so had to resort to painting this one myself.  It is the first national flag for the USSR which was used until the hammer and sickle flag was introduced in 1923.

Friday, June 22, 2012

The Russians are Coming!



Well, there are many other figures I should be finishing off on the workbench at present but instead I have just completed these three Mark Copplestone Back of Beyond Bolsheviks.  Technically, the lady is a repaint as I first did her before I got my painting glasses and I realised that she was far too contrasty.  I have toned her down a bit, therefore.




The other two Russians weren't completed so I finished them off too.  The cause for all this Bolshevism is that I have been helping Guy revise the Russian revolution for his GCSE.  He asked if I had any figures for this period and, of course I did.  I have a reasonably complete Chinese warlord force for the Back of Beyond but they don't have any opponents.  I have started another unit of Bolsheviks, therefore.  Like all Copplestone figures they are easy to paint and not too complex as regards uniforms so I would like to get the unit finished this month.




I think this range was one of Mr Copplestone's best and I still have a fair few to paint.  I did play one game of Back of Beyond with my Chinese against someone else's Russians at Guildford a few years back.  You don't need a whole lot of figures for a good game so I will try and get another unit or two done as I know I have more soldiers in these peaked caps.  The other unit I am working on has the distinctive pointed caps.  The Russians switched to grey for their uniforms in 1922 but Back of Beyond has some non-historic aspects (or maybe it's alternative history) anyway, so I am keeping mine in khaki.