Bolsheviks!

 I just finished up some reinforcements for my Bolshevik forces. These are, of course, 28mm Copplestone Castings on 25mm round bases. The flag gave me hell, but at least it looks like a flag. A joy to paint, for sure!

AAR: The Russian Revolution in Central Asia

My miniature voyage to the Transcaspian Oblast has finally arrived! Ziggy and I put Setting the East Ablaze on the tabletop yesterday afternoon for a first run. I've been collecting and painting 28mm minis for this project for most of 2025. It was nice to see it pay off with an enjoyable first outing. Of course, where the minis have gotten loads of attention, Transcaspian-specific terrain was less of a focus so I suppose that'll be a 2026 agenda item. 

The Reds (me) were defending a rail + road crossroads from Basmachi and British troops (Ziggy). The Russians started the battle with just an infantry squad and field gun on the table. All other resources would arrive later from reserves.

Basmachi infantry off to the far right and British Indian troops in the center.

More Basmachis on the left and a Godforsaken armored car. The A/C makes a risky move crossing the railroad tracks but didn't get stuck.

Ziggy chose to flank march the Bamachi cavalry which of course showed up immediately on my right flank. Well, the artillery was fun for about a second!

My infantry take a big chunk out of the Indians with a remarkable round of shooting, but that A/C fires back and suppresses the brave comrades.

The inevitable. Ah well, whatcha gonna do?

But when the right hand takes, the left hand gives. I get my first reserve unit, the FT. In an encounter like this, even the dink little FT can be the queen of battle!

The British car forces my brave soldiers to shift as the flip to the other side of the wall. The car gives my tank a wide berth. 

A truck carrying a machinegun team arrives. They set up overlooking the objective. Things really starting to look up!

Pepper gets some measure of revenge on the horsemen, blasting two of them!

And then another unit of Infantry arrives. Finally, a fair fight. The machine gun goes "Low Ammo" on it's first shot of the game. Dear God, did they really show up with just a 50-round drum?

Pepper's reign of terror continues, taking out four Basmachis. My initial squad is done and start heading home.

Heh heh. My cavalry arrives! My plan was to simply slow down the enemy cavalry and keep them from adding their weight to the firefight at the crossroad.

The first round of melee goes remarkably well for me, taking out two tribesmen to no losses! We're even now.

Yes. Three shots in and it's out of ammo. Maybe this whole Bolshevism thing has some unforeseen problems? 

My cavalry continues their remarkable success against the tribesmen!

While Pepper takes out another four enemy infantry.

But at the end of the day, the crossing had been lost and the Red troops had to fall back. Both my infantry squads were spent and I only had a tank and two horsemen left against the AC and at least 30 remaining infantry. 

Well that was a lot of fun! The game itself runs really smoothly and simply. There is pretty much no room for argument or confusion. The scenario worked really well to, considering my total lack of familiarity with the rules. I guess it says a lot about the rules that a real-world scenario can be planned out and happily played through with results that are not just insane. I need to pick up some reinforcements for both sides, both sides could use something capable of killing vehicles and the Russians wouldn't hate some additional troops and another leader-type.

Z and I are both ready for another go at this for sure and I know the other guys are as well. I'm not sure if I'll get any more games in before New Year, so if this is the last game of 2025 for me, at least it was a great one!

Completed Afghan Cavalry

 Greetings and happy October! I completed my most recent painting project last evening and have taken some pictures of my work. These are Wargames Atlantic Afghan Cavalry mounted on 2" x 1.25" MDFF bases. They'll be slashing and smashing with my Bolsheviks soon enough. Though I was slow to get them painted, they were a blast to work on and in all fairness, the slowdown was due to events out of my control.

The whole troop

Rifle / musket-armed horsemen

And sword-armed cavalry

Newly Painted Things

 I finished up a handful of miniatures this weekend. They'd been in progress for weeks, I've just been going slowly. 

First up, some Battletech minis. This is the Recon Lance box. I've kept them in the same Marik livery as the last few I did. 

Those are a Firestarter, Javelin, Spector and Ostscout. More light mech goodness, and quickly becoming my preferred class. 

Next is a Brigade Game 28mm Red Russian machine gun for the Revolution. 

I don't think I ever posted a picture of the Red infantry that I painted first. Here they are. 

And finally, I also completed the next group of 20 Basmachi fighters to oppose the Bolsheviks.

Those models and the Russians are Wargames Atlantic plastics. Excellent models as always. 

More Painted Things - Horses and Riders

 I've been a busy boy at the paint table for the last few weeks. In addition to the gangs and cops, I finished up some Bolshevik cavalry for my Revolution project. The 28mm models are from Brigade games. The bases were donated from some Oathmark wolves. I'm quite happy with the way these came out.

 Next up in this project are a Russian machine gun and the other twenty Afghan warriors. After that, I need to spend a bit of cash on some British infantry, I think. 

Afghans 1

 The Reds needed an Opfor and the Central Asia / Transcaspian area was rather appealing from a "something different" standpoint. I picked up some Wargames Atlantic Afghan Warriors that'll work quite well as Basmachis or any other group from that part of the world. It's been a slow painting situation here recently with visitors in the house, but the first 20 are complete. They were a joy to assemble and paint up.

Sharp-eyed visitors might notice a handful of Russian weapons in the mix. The WA box which generously provides 40 warriors does not include enough Martini-Henri rifles for all. I used a handful of muskets to fill in as well as leftover Mosin Nagants from the Russian box. The long sleeves of the Russian arms work well enough with the Afghan bodies.

Next up on the painting table are some 28mm modern law enforcement minis and Russian Cavalry for the Revolution. I have to mix things up so I don't get burned painting the same thing over and over.