Gaming - Counter Revolution in Tashkent. The Osipov Revolt

 Today was a game with my Bolos being attacked by John’s growing White force . The scenario was lifted from the Red Dawn Rises early revolution scenario book for Setting the East Ablaze . It’s set on a6x4. The whites outnumber the reds who expect reinforcements after turn 6 .

White cavalry on their left flank 

Railway workers man the limited trench line 

Red Guard cavalry mass in the town square 

 

The Bolo 2 I/c Commisar urges the gun crew on . 

White Armoured support advances .

White infantry let by a flamethrower team advances .

Red Guards launch a counter attack .which hammered the Cossacks , until an armoured unit let fly with its MGs 

The Cheka stay at the back in the barracks . 

The two white armoured  units are causing a lot of damage and I have little to stop them with .

White start to attack the brewery area .

The  railway workers who are heading toward the town are suppressed by fire .

The flamethrower kills a Bolo LMG team and then sets fire to the building . Causing it to be abandoned 

The white aircraft turns up on turn 4 , heading down the Bolo line 

The Bolo commanders advances to the rear to join in the final defense of the barracks with the Cheka . They fall to the man.

Bolo reinforcements turn up on turn o but are pinned in by the White armour 

A dog fight that is inconclusive takes place over the station 

White raise the flag over the barracks .

The remaining white cavalry arrive in town

This turned into a full White victory . It was touch and go until turn 5 . The White aircraft was lethal , knocking out a field gun , straggling the railway workers and then moving on to Harry the reinforcements. The loss of the Bolo field gun in the town edge early let the Whute armoured units advance with impunity - and they didn’t even break down . 

 

A great game was had . We took the time to work through the various firing and morale mods and get these more embedded in the memory . 

Back of Beyond - terrain pieces

 A couple of new pieces this week which will be needed for an upcoming game . 

First up a scratch build of a coal bunker . I cut down a piece of A5 2mm MDF for the base . The basic frame is made from balsa sheets cut and glued together . This is sprayed a dark grey and drybrushed . To fill the space I used some kitchen towel soaked in PVA with some black paint added . Once dried I added some scale coal available from Jarvis stuck on with the blackened PVA solution. 

 

Next is a trench strongpoint . This is from the Ironclad 28mm resin terrain which is now back in full availability and production at Pendraken . https://www.pendraken.co.uk/ironclad-miniatures

  

A pretty simple job . Sprayed dark brown overall then using Tan earth for a heavy drybrush and a white mix highlight. The wood in the trench is done a dark grey and highlighted . The sandbags were done a beige brown and highlighted . A bit of static grass added . 

That’s all for now 

Back of Beyond - Forces for the Lion of Khulm

 I needed to do some Afghan types for some up coming  campaign games to bolster the other guys collections . In the lead pile I have about a 100 Old Glory Pathans , so I have pushed some through . As ever with OG figures they look a bit meh in the base metal l,but come to life with paint .

I went with white undercoat and used some Vallejo Xpress paints . They did a job and will do for now ,though I think I need to revisit the colour palette for the rest of them .

Back of Beyond - Buildings , workers and commander

I have completed a couple of Russian farm type buildings that I got from Battle Honours 3d .

I plan to add a few scratch built types and also some fencing areas etc in due course . 

They were very clean FDM  prints overall . Took a few minutes to clean up and then a dark grey rattle can basecoat. I then used a Tamiya desert yellow overspray . The rest is basically dry brushing with various fresh timber type shades . The doors and frames etc are a bluylight blue grey mix and highlight . 

I haven’t painted the inside yet , but that will come . 

 This weeks focus has been the last of the current stock for this period .

I have picked up a few Eureka pieces . Top marks for swift service as they are arrived a couple of days after ordering . 

First up a new mounted commander . It’s ages since I painted a white horse so felt a little rusty doing it . But happy with it . As it was rearing up I have added a thin piano wire support to it .

Next are the workers militia . Clad in boiler suits and flats caps but some with the classic Bundenovka

Very nice clean castings with a good range of poses . I could due with a few more in due course .

I had picked up a 3d print from Battle Honours 3d of a couple of Russian style farm buildings . 

Back of Beyond - Captured tank for the Bolos

  Another new piece to bolster my Bolsheviks, armour in the form of a British Mk V tank . The Brits shipped around 70 as part of their intervention effort to bolster the failing Imperial Russian forces They were used around Archangel and in the Southern front area.  Some were destroyed to stop them falling into enemy hands but some were captured and repurposed. The Brits used them with the Whites in 1919 attacking Tsaritsyn - eg Stalingrad , now Volgograd . Well my Bolos have acquired one .

Some were used in Tallin in 1941 against the Germans and were shipped back to Berlin as prizes , and after 45 ended up back in museums in the Soviet Union .

This is a big old beast . 2 guns 4 MGs . Very useful . Unrealiable as hell   Even more so in the back of beyond . 

This only arrived in the post on Tuesday , so it’s been a quick turn around 

This is a 3d print piece from a eBay offer . I had the rails on the top to stick on and that was it. It was a decent print not too much clean up . A dark olive green Tamiya  rattle can and lighter green olive paint pen for the paint job , Black grey for the track's , then an oil wash and dry brush of beige brown . I added some tubing to carry a flag that can be removed or swapped out   I found some large stars in the decals stash and added these then painted the hammer and plough emblem in the middle . 

I will look out for a suitable figure to use as a commander as one stood out of the  hatch waving a flag would look cool . 

What better than to use the imperials weapons against them . “Workers of the world unite!”

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