Back of Beyond - Tachankas

 This week sees some more mobile firepower in the form of Tachankas . On the WW1 eastern front , RCW and in the Back of Beyond the roads are often poor quality or virtually non existent. Likewise internal combustion vehicles are likely to have poor maintenance a lack of spares or just fuel . Just the thing to get around these issues of course is a horse drawn carriage - and let’s stick a Maxim on it . High speed manoeuvrability and Dakka Dakka . What’s not to like.

28mm options seem fairly limited or overly expensive. Warbases have filled a nice little niche , offering the Tachanka as an MDF kit for £5  , then crew and horse as seperate items . I am not of fan of the Warbases horses so I have used Pendraken 28mm draft horses , which are nicely proportioned and have correct horse furniture . (link -draught-horses-red-h02) The warbases crew figures are little stumpy , but they work well enough on the carriages.

The MDF kit for the  carriage is neatly designed and goes together well enough in a short time . For the crew I had to take a file and knife to them to scrape off the shoulder boards as my Bolos don’t have those

 

A bit of extra work was done to make some reins from garden twisty wire about 300mm folded in half this is fed  through a hole drilled  through the drivers hand and then the loose end attached with solder to the bridle at each side the the middle horse .The traces from the horse to the carriage are made from thin black card . I had an interesting delve into how the horse furniture and attachment were generally done , and most seemed to have leather rather than rope or chain that I could see so the black card looks to have done a decent job replicating it . 

My storage trays box for these is now completely full . So I guess that’s it for now . I do have a larger boat to complete , but not sure that will be this side of challenge end 

My Bolos army has 3 large battles coming up in our ongoing campaign, so wish em luck.

Back of Beyond , getting there with the Bolos

 The next lot of Bolshevik top ups are extra cavalry , another infantry unit and a maxim gun team for the sailors .

First up some lance armed cavalry 

I have added some lance straps made from garden twisty wire stripped from its plastic covering . This wraps around the lance and around the riders arm . In addition I then soldered the lance into the hand and were possibly tacked on to the stirrup . I have superglue failures - which will happen in time - these won’t. The lances are made from strong piano wire that is very rigid. . I sharpened the point with a carborundun disc attached to the mini drill .

I also created some single tail pennants with a red background, a horseshoe and the number 1 to distinguish these .

I also created a unit standard , a combination of cut and paste then a bit of AI processing .

  

Next up the final addition for the sailors - a maxim team .

Spent cartridge cases added by clipping some thin brass wire , attached with some superglue.

 

Finally another infantry unit , these all have the classic budenovka 

So that gives me 6 full infantry units including the sailors , 3 maxims , 2 field guns with transport and 18 mounted , plus various command and commisars . Certainly a decent enough force for our games .

 

I have a couple of Tachankas to complete yet . I also have a plane in the do pile at some point . I have enjoyed doing these 

 

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 .