Planning for Russian Civil War at Partizan II

It's my turn to put on the game at the Newark Partizan II show in November.

I was toying with Sikh Wars or Russian Civil War but I did Aliwal with the Boondock Sayntes in May so I am thinking something Russian Civil War related and do Sikh Wars next year.

That does still give me plenty of choice, my collection can cover Mongolia, Siberia, Southern Russia and now Poland, with lots of extra troops from chum Chris's Chinese army and Dave and Si's reds and whites. I even have an Anarchist army for Ukraine which is growing nicely.

I am particularly tempted by the Polish-Soviet War 1919-20. Its a period I am adding to at present and has some colourful units and interesting options.

My Whites and Poles are exceeding my Reds by some margin now. So I am thinking about games that are less defending against the Red Horde (Which is a lot of the Polish-Soviet War) and more meeting engagement or even defending Reds. So that's  a better fit for the beginning of this war when the Poles choose to attack the Reds who had formations building up in Ukraine and Belorussia but were not quite ready to launch their offensive. Politically it was a bad idea really as it made the Poles look like the aggressors, reducing the support they had from the Allies and neighbouring countries, Militarily it made loads of sense, although in the end probably didn't help them at all.

As the Polish lines of communication became stretched the Red army reserves including the first Cavalry army (Konarmia) mainly Cossacks who had fought for the whites or Imperial army previously , marched in to push the Poles back.

I think the fluid situation in Summer 1919 in Ukraine with both the Poles and Reds attacking and defending would make an interesting game for the show and visually different for visitors.

So assuming this is the game I am going with I need to consider where the gaps in my collection are and start painting to fill them.

I got a good start with the below today.

Up to press I have focused mainly on my Poles as they are a new army and good fun to paint. So that has meant that my Red army is a bit weaker in comparison.

As with our most recent game this can be partially remedied by expanding my Anarchists and having them fight alongside the Reds as they did on occasion historically. 

These guys are Anarchist Cavalry but at least a couple of them would fit very nicely into a Red Cavalry regiment, especially the Konarmia which contempory's described as looking more like a horde of bandits, some men without hats wearing Womens hats looted from houses along the way.

These 4 are STP miniatures, a Russian firm stocked by Empress Miniatures with a really lovely mix of figures. The two in the middle perfect to mix in with Reds, the other two probably better as Anarchists. If I am careful with which figures I base together many will be able to do double duty. 

These two are both Boer War figures, the civilian gear makes them good for Anarchist once the Foundry figure on the right had a head swap. Again probably not ideal for Red cavalry. I have maybe 32 to paint in total, hoping I can have half do double duty as Reds with the other half probably only being suitable for Anarchists or Partisans really.

At first glance a White Cossack officer might be out of place, however whole brigades of Red Cossacks changed side to fight for the Poles and my Cossacks are short of a leader figure.

Nice to have the option to field a regiment of Cossacks with Tchanka in the game.

I have a whole raft of Anarchist foot to paint, possibly enough for a brigade and a gun will come in handy, they were much more organised than we might think. The below picture has 4 models all from different manufacturers. 

Left to right Scheltrum this German figure perfect for those Ukranians who had been armed and uniformed by the occupying Germans and now fighting for the black flag, then an STP figure based on Nestor Makhno, I have at least 4 Makhno's so this guy will either command the gun or a company of foot. The gun is a Woodbine Turkish 75mm Krupps, again no doubt left behind by the occupying Germans when they pulled out and the last is a Civilian figure from Copplestone's Partisan pack, perfect for the Anarchists.

The biggest gap for Reds currently is Guns and MG's so the first filler for that is a Copplestone Red MG crew. At least another to follow and a couple of field guns.

A few more coming off the workbench, mix of manufacturers.

The sailors are Anarchist sailors, from Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea, they could equally be White or Red sailors. I hope to create enough for 2 companies to add to my two companies of Red sailors so I can either have them as a full battalion or keep them separate with the Anarchists as needed. All three of these are STP from Empress.

This guy is a Scheltrum civilian, I think from the Spartacist pack, a very dramatic pose, you cant see the carbine on his back, quite a few of them have this distinctive curved knife not sure what that is, perhaps a sailors knife?

And whilst I am not concentrating on the Poles, I do have my last battalion of Greater Poland Army missing a company so will try get 8 of these completed in between other stuff. Great War German Storm troopers with the grey green jacket and Polish collar tabs.

Particularly busy this weekend with a bunch more completed, this gets me well on the way to fillign in a lot of the gaps.

So we have a Red army officer who will be added to a few others to give me another couple of companies, 4 Anarchists or Partizans all from Copplestone and a couple of my favourite figures from this batch, then a gun leader, a Copplestone Chinese Gunner with a Scheltrum head which came out quite nice I think.

The Germans to get my last company of Great polish troops nearer to finished, a Great War storm trooper with two plastic Wargames Atlantic figures. 

Lastly the sailors, I have kept these fairly simple. The left hand figure is a Scheltrum German sailor who looks slightly different to the rest but will do. The leader in the middle is Artizan thrilling tales bits quite nicely, the others are all STP, I particularly like the running guy who I gave a khaki army gymnasterka to make him a bit more campaigny.

A few more anarchists, mixed manufacturers.

These riflemen are Copplestone first and second from left and Scheltrum on the right.

The two gunners finish my Krupps crew, left is a Spanish Civil War Empress gunner and then a Copplestone Back of beyond. The command figure is the Nestor Mahkno from Giants in miniature, a lovely sculpt.

The Cavalry are all Scheltrum and a particularly scruffy looking lot

This last figure is a realy nice Scheltrum "Konarmia" red cavalry man. He is particularly scruffy with his rifle wrapped in sacking and his trousers loose around shoes as he has no boots. These figures come with separate heads so I gave him the Budnovka cap, the head however is  company B head.

The horse is a Knuckle Duster Mexican mount, fits really well and I can use the Scheltrum horse to replace this when I get around to his original bandido rider adding some variety to both unts. 

And just to show I am actually getting somethings completed here is the Cossack officer and Red MG crew based up and game ready.

So a view of what is potentially planned for Octobers show game, hope you like it and maybe we will see you at the show?

Thanks for stopping by.

A bunch of Completed Based 1919-20 Figures and Buildings to Share

With some help from Chum Steve I have a whole bunch of completed figures and units to share with you.

These figures are all based around the Partizan potential demo games either for Poland or Mongolia both 1920. Mongolia looking most likely on the basis that most of the figures required are already done.

So filling in some gaps firstly a Russian Officer from the lovely STP range carried by Studio Siberia and more recently for the boxed sets by Empress. The Cherry Cap and black band mark him as an Officer of the General Kornilov shock division. In Mongolia he will simply be an White officer.

The Russians, both red and white, have relatively few Machine Guns so I am remedying that for the game, this one is unusual as its set up on its stand rather than its wheels. This is from the Empress range of figures which is becoming quite extensive now.

This Tchana for my Kuban Cossacks is a 3d printed model ery kindly gifted by chum Chris Charlton, many thanks Chris. I really enjoyed painting this.

I think it is marketed as a WW2 peice but works well enough for me for 1920.

For the Poles I have a second squadron of the Uhlans with yellow pennants and hat bands. Sorry I am not sure what unit they are but I have the unforms from mutliplle imgaes I have found.

The first squadron are nearly all old Renegade Germans on whatever horses I could find, many Redoubt from their Zulu war range, these are a mix of renegade and Scheltum on a mix of Scheltrum and Mutineer miniatures horses, which go well with each other given they are all based on the Ebob horses. The heads are mainly Studio Siberia with a splash of Scheltrum heads.

These are in the 1919 Polish uniform but the cavalry breaches with the yellow stripe added to the collar tabs and cap band give a nice splash of colour. I have another bunch of these to do so will make an effort to translate some of my sources from Polish to let you know what regiment they are.

Also for this project I picked up a couple of bomb damaged houses at Vapnartak in York earlier this year. 

Nice 3d printed buildings equally useful for Poland or Russia, sorry no idea of the company name, it was a table full of buildings run by some nice people, if I knew I would be going back for some more.

The Paint jobs are quick and easy mainly relying on dry brushing to varying degrees.

The shell holes in various parts of the buildings are a nice touch.

Building two is slightly smaller and simpler but in some ways I like it better.

My painting was based on existing examples of cottages with white painted log walls and grey wood tiled rooves. Add to this darker patches where there is smoke damage.

Simple but effective I feel, I will get a couple more if I find the company again. I might even be able to use these for retreat from Moscow games when I get back to that old project!

These last are mainly for Mongolian game, I may try get a sneaky gun and crew and maybe the Cossack Plastoon finished too but time is against me. 

Anyway tried these with a brown background, oddly it washed out some of the images. Firstly White Russian MG.

Copplestone Back of Beyond range, fairly generic paint job so they mix in.

Another unit of Kuban Cossacks. All from the Empress range, initially Tsuba figures for the Russo Japanese War.

The horses are Ebob and came out really nice. The horses and riders are a little small so wont mix but fine by themselves.

The figures themselces are really quite lovely, typical Paul Hicks beauties.

Notice the Cherkeska coats are a mix of colours and the Gymnasterka shirts are too, with civilian white and army Khaki mixed with black and parade ground red shirts. The Cossacks provided a lot of their own gear so an opportunity to make each one a litle indvidual.

This chap on the left is probably my favourite with a blue grey Cherkeska.

So thats it for now, Thanks for stopping by.

A few more 1919 Poles and White Russians

I have pushed on with some more 1919-20 Poles this week. Mainly cavalry with a few more infantry in the German Uniform.

These WW1 Germans bring my Royal Polish unit to over half painted, around 10 more infantry and an MG are they will be completed.

Left to right these are Renegade with a Studio Siberia Head swap, Wargames Atlantic plastic, Renegade and Great War Miniatures officer.

The Uhlans completed give me enough for a second squadron of these guys.

Again a mix of figures these include the first Scheltrum figures I a have painted along with a small mix of horses.

Here we have 3 Renegade German cavalry, 4 Scheltrum lancers including the right hand three, these have a mix of Scheltrum and Studio Siberia Heads. Two of the horses are Scheltrum which are very nice and the other 5 are Mutineer miniatures .

And on their bases ready for texturing.

Whilst doing this I also pulled together a couple of White Russian Officers as I was short for a game and decided to use the new light box with them.

Still needs extra lighting but nicer images than the last light box which is falling to pieces anyway.

These figures are Empress from the Tsuba Miniatures Russo-Japanese war range and very nice too.

Ive also finished some Plastoon (Foot Cossacks) and tried putting a house in the light box. Empress miniatures these and very nice too.

Cossacks provided their own uniform in large part and as Plastoon were Cossacks who couldnt afford a horse I am making them all with slightly different gear and in some cases white civilian shirts under the Cherkeska. The officer of course can afford a red dress shirt.

I have a few more of these, both Empress and Studio Siberia so will have at least two companies of 8.

Chris has taken to refering to them as "Naughty Cossacks" which does make me chuckle.

The Poles of course also need supporting arms, Rich Croisdale has painted the below Spad 13 fighter plane for me after Chris C built it, bit of a "Pain in the arse" this one but a lovely job. Thanks gents.

The Camo scheme is taken straight from google.

I made add a little dry brush to lift the model a little and give it some depth but really pleased with this addition.

The Poles had almost total air superiority and desperately needed it so this is a really useful addition and we will hopefully see this on table very soon.

I also picked up this lovely little armoured car from Company B.

Again painted and this time built for me by Rich Croisdale. Lovely model and the colour scheme straight off the box.

The vehicle is a converted Model T ford and the Poles had a few of these, it definately looks the part.

So the Poles are nearing a point where we might be able to get them on table. More to follow shortly.

Thanks for stopping by.