Freikorps Officer

This is a Freikorps officer and bodyguards from Copplestone Castings where they are sold as 'German Mercenaries'.

It is not too much of an exaggeration that the Stormtroopers of WWI became Freikorps, then SA, then SS.

To understand the nihilistic mindset that ended up with death camps one could do a lot worse than read Storm of Steel by Junger.

Tachanka

 Russian Civil War reenactors with a Tachanka

A Tachanka was a carriage with a rear firing maximum gun used primarily in the Ukraine and related areas. It was a support weapon for cavalry formations in the first and second World Wars, the Russian Civil War and the Russo-Polish War.

Warlord Games Model

I put one of these together and painted it. I have to say the model is great. The crew are in in WWII uniforms but heads could be swapped to make earlier examples.

A Museum Exhibit

Artwork

The Tachanka is always associated with Nestor Makhno, the anarchist leader in the RCW, who used them extensively.

Monument

There are all sorts of theories about how the word Tachanka was derived from various Ukranian or Russian language sources but the truth is no one knows. It is, however, as iconic to cavalry warfare on the Ukrainian plains as the Spitfire is to the Battle of Britain.

VBCW, Back of Beyond Crossley Truck

This is a Corgi diecast that I have titivated up a bit for VBCW, Russian Civil War, or any Back of Beyond game.

I have just added an Empress 28mm driver.

The fore cab soft-top comes off to show the driver.

And the back!

This is a real Crossley.

Here's one turned into an armoured car.

Review of Warlord Games Renault FT - 17, Bolt Action VBCW

The FT - 17 is one of Warlord's more recent kits and it shows. The attention to detail and crispness of the resin modelling is excellent. Everything fitted unambiguously together using lugs and there was almost no flash to clean up.

The kit consists of four resin sections: hull, turret, and left/right tracks. Added to this are a metal gun: you get a choice of two, the MG or the light canon, and the metal rear unditching plate which comes in two sections.

I painted it in original French colours.

The FT 17 was the first tank to adopt the universal tank layout of engine at rear, tracks to the side, and main gun in a rotating turret on top of the hull. As such it was a milestone.

FT-17s fought in WWI, the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War,  various Chinese conflicts, Spanish Civil War, Winter War, WWII (on the western and eastern fronts), Franco-Thai War, Turkish war of Independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

It is not out of place in any inter-war campaign including VBCW.

About 2,750 were produced, which prior to WWII was a big production run.

I think I may get another.

Highly recommended.

Bolt Action Oberland Freikorps: Update

This is how far I've got with my Oberland Freikorps for Bolt Action.

I have so far:

Lt Gruber

Sergeant Spotter: with field telephone.

Heavy Armoured Car: captured Russian Garford-Putilov with 3 MMGs and a light howitzer in a rear turret.

Light Armoured Car: scratchbuilt form a Times Gone Past diecast toy.

Self Propelled Gun: light howitzer on an unarmoured toy lorry.

Rifle section: ex-stormtroopers with rifles, smgs and hand grenades from Great War Miniatures.

For those who care about such things, the pic is a five second exposure in a dimly-lit North European room with a large south-facing window rebalanced by Paint-Shop Pro to get rid of the worst of the colour shifts.

The same picture using a TTL flash on full Nikon auto bounced off the rear ceiling, lightly adjusted with PSP.

As above but using heavy light saturation by bouncing the flash of the close, left-hand, white, side wall. Brightness reduced by PSP.

Anyone have a preference?

Oberland Freikorps

Sticking with an interwar theme for the moment, here is Lt Gruber and his electronic warfare specialist from the Bavarian Oberland Freikorps.

Sorry, N. European light in winter is a pain to photograph miniatures in, low levels and on the horizon, but I hope you can distinguish something.

The models are actually Great War Stormtroopers which tended to be where the Freikorps got their recruits.