Back of beyond - Bolshevik command and Lewis gunners

 The next top up is two lots of command figures 

First are the commanders for the sailors. I made the flag up with crossed anchors .

 

Next are some infantry commanders .

The 4 Lewis gunners for squad support .

 

All Copplestone castings once more .

Ardennes 44 - German AA / AT 88 and bunkers

 I found a long 88mm in the stash . This is a relatively unusual,Pak41 early more powerful,AA version . I gave it a rattle-can basecoat of dark yellow . Then used the AK pens for dab of colour camo in brown and green . Followed this with dark brown oil wash and one dry a highlight . The crew are from my winter crew stash with a mix of clothing , which seems fine for late 44 /45 . 

I made a simple cobble stone base using milliput to match up,the bases used for the transport wheels . I gave the whole thing a light treatment of the snow gel from AK.

In addition James had come across some of the 15mm bunker sets marketed as Conflix made by Bachmann  the railway company . He picked me up 4 for  £10 .  The are basically table ready , so I just had to winterise them . This was done with a white dry brush , followed by applying the Snow Gel 

 

These are a nice bargain find and have been added to winter terrain stuff . 

Next jib for this collection is another platoon of American Infantry wil will see the Americans start to counterattack .

7DTTR - Last of the French stuff

 This little lot completes the outstanding French forces for the battle group. It adds in an extra platoon of infantry and two lots of transport , one wheeled and one tracked .

Then the infantry

 

And here is the picture of the whole force 

Plenty of options to choose when building a force for a game. 

 

For my WARPAC , I have a poorly  equipped East Germans with T55’s , BTR60’s and infantry . For my Soviets I have some decent armour T80s , T64B , AA Gecko  and Shilka , some BMP2s and 2 Hinds .this is the next force for some upgrade with extra tanks , APC and Infantry . 

 

Back of Beyond - Bolshevik Maxims , bannermen and cavalry

 The latest additions to move my Bolshevik forces onto an all arms force .

I have added some brass wire spent casings to these . 

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Next up are some banner men . One of the issues with multiple similar painted unit can be identifying them to activate . I had an idea to create the red field and use cryllic font letters and numbers . I fed this into Chat GPT and out they popped . 

 

 

 

There are a few others designed just waiting the on order figures for the sailor and cavalry command .

 

I also did one for the railway workers in a recent game 

The last tranche of the stash were 6 cavalry.

And united with the existing pieces 

I have also acquired a 3d printed 155mm Schneider Long Tom . An usual piece for the BoB I reckon , but it does give me bang for my rouble 

I can swap out the field gun crew for now until I get hold of some more .

The complete for so far 

Still at bit more to add . I continue to enjoy doing these . Hopefully the next North Star order arrives this weekend .

Gaming - Revolutionary in fighting - Back of Beyond /RCW

 We had a game today with a bit of  in fighting , Left and Right Socialist revolutionaries try to sort out who is the most revolutionary. Set of course in the Russian civil war 

Martin had the table set up ready to go . His and Andy’s guys on the right . John’s and mine on the left.

Martin wanted to use Bolt Action rather than STEA. The key differences :-

1) BA activation by dice colour and then choose which unit to apply it to , versus specific unit activation by card - both are randomised . BA then need to activate based on morale roll . 

2) There seems to be desire to know exactly how far your units will move (BA ) rather than rolling for it (STEA) and also using officers to to give a move bonus . 

3)the to hit d6 working outs are similar  , but with BA you need to convert the hits to kills. STEA you are just dead. . STEA treats heavy wepeons  / guns, vehicles very differently in terms of damage effects. 

4) melee favours the active side in BA with the attacker causing casualties first . STEA it’s effectively simultaneous with both sides dicing 

5) both have a morale system that accumulated losses impact on . More morale tests in STEA 

Both have their plus points . The movement of BA and the melee for  STEA  We had a good game  . Though Andy failed a hell of a lot of activation rolls which would have made a big difference 

Set up

My new cavalry deploy 

Our units in the centre 

We are also looking for campaign character- we find her in this building .

Andy’s sailors move toward the wood .

My field gun deploys to give support to my advancing infantry .

The firing starts - Andy’s gun crew decide to bug out before firing a shot

My sailors advance 

 

My forces mass and move forward 

My cavalry advance 

Advance toward to armoured car and seek cover 

 

My cavalry have destroyed Andy’s cavalry and are on his back board .

 

Altogether a good game . Somewhat dominated by Andy’s inability to activate consistently which really caused him issues . My dice were pretty good and lots of new units did well .the Left revolutionaries celebrated their victory 

I am looking at building a few buildings from scratch for this too . Example ideas below

Always things to do ! 

Just another image cleaned up