Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Sunday, 19 July 2026

Gaming - Back Of Beyond , retreat from Mangashlak

 Today saw a further battle in the group campaign game . Last game turn the Bolos had failed in an assault at Fort Alexandrovsky and were badly beaten . This game saw the Bolo army being harried by more arriving Cossacks while trying to extricate themselves from the Eastern side of the Caspian Sea area. The Bolos were all Morale 4’s (needing 4+ to pass ) which saw a number run retire or rout ..and this felt right for the scenario . They were short on squad LMG’s and no artillery .


The Bolo army retreating eastward to a rail line .
 

The local Cheka are mobilised at the sound of firing 


The sailors try to man a vessel coming under fire from White naval units 

The armoured train arrives to provide more support 



 

The massed ranks of the Cossacks arrive 

Charging on they come 

Overunning a Bolo Maxim 
  

The Red Cavalry evaded away from the Cossack hordes 

The Bolo infantry rolled well for movement and were able to outpace some of the attackers 

White naval assetts hit the retreaters 

It looks great and somewhat scary when it’s heading towards you .. it fired a few shots  hitting nothing! But that was its first game .

A number of Bolo units were shooting very well causing significant Cossack casualties, over 30% of the overall attackers . The Bolo cavalry managed to escape being overrun  and regrouped having taken only one casualty. The White forces decided to not press the attack and 3 Bolo infantry units escaped to fight again . The train has had an outing and its presence put the White commander off advancing further , 

We tried a change to STEA system . Rather than activating by particular unit , we used the Bolt Action dice draw and you  could pick . I will make up some MDF tokens to use rather the dice for future use . This speeded thing up nicely , and we used the STEA rules for everything else . It was a good game , not as 


We are doing a very large game in November at the Battleground show . My last job is to paint up the die cast aircraft I have for the Bolos once the large decals have turned up . 

The army stats used .
 


 


Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Back of Beyond .Armoured Train part 2



 Some more progress on the armoured train . Martin had sourced me some more Teamsterz pieces . So I have made up another carriage and there will be another loco along shortly 


Teamsterz running gear with a balsa flat bed and MDF sides 

It takes a 60 mm base in the middle so I will make up another suitable gun in due course 


It should give the White forces some issues to deal with 


In addition I have based up all the spare On30 track I had . I had the laser room at Pendraken cut me 18 and 12 inch x 50mm straights and curves . I did a double layer and chamfered the top then added the track . Sand and PVA then added with a dry brush 


 


That gives me about 16 feet of track now , so more than enough . Time to build a station building I think .

I have an aircraft to sort out for the November big game - I have a die cast one that needs a paint job in due course . 

There is a BoB campaign game this weekend where the train might get a run out .