Yes, I did order it

 Comes with 60 emu birds, 6 Lewis MG, and free rules.  I can't wait!

New miniatures painted by Fernando

As I mention in my previous entry, I was not able to photograph them outside with natural sunlight, so they appear darker then they are in person.  So let start our journey on what I got painted by Fernando on this last batch.  Also a reminder that by clicking on the picture, there should be a bigger version of it.
  
First up is some more figures for the Russian Civil War

Above is the second half of the Siberian Rifles formation.  This will now give me four units of ten for them.

These two are more for a Pulpy RCW scenario or other games needing Soviet spies, but they are my two Cheka agents, Natasha & Boris...and yes, I have a moose and squirrel that will be in my next batch of miniatures to be painted.

These next two units are for both the Interventionist Allies in the RCW and also for War Plan Crimson

First is some more Canadians.  I needed them to increase the units to be ten man units and some extra Lewis guns teams.

Now is another force of US infantry.  This will give me eight 10-figure units for War Plan Crimson since they will be the attackers.  There is a lot of BARs in this group, but they will replace some of the rifles in the RCW intervention force so in the Crimson games each 10 figure unit will have a BAR.

Next up is a figures for War Plan Crimson and an interwar Cold War skirmish with the Soviets called Ice Station Lima, which is Tiger Miniatures tip of their hat to the novel and movie, "Ice Station Zebra".

First is are heroes of Archaeologists & Scientists.  I actually like the figure on the far right as he is holding a Spanish Conquistador's helmet!  What is that doing all the way up in the Arctic, is a mystery!

Now is a unit of troopers to protect our heroes.  Half are wearing fur coats and the others are wearing skin coats.  

Next is a machine gun team to help protect the heroes' discovery site. 

Well, we have to get the mysterious dingus back to civilization!  What better means for transportation than a reindeer (or caribou if you insist) drawn sled? 

Of course, we have to have the bad guys to try to stop the heroes from just sledding off into the sunset with the dingus!

Next up is more Tiger Miniatures goodness that can be used for War Plan Crimson, Ice Station Lima, or for its only mini-project, Death Hunt.  This is another Tiger Miniatures wink to another movie, "Death Hunt", which is a highly fictional account of the famous pursuit of a mad trapper in the Yukon in 1931-32 by the name of Albert Johnson.  It really is an amazing criminal and survival adventure which you should read up on, even if just the Wiki article.

The three guys in white are the three heroes from the movie, Death Hunt.  Unfortunately, the one on the right should actually be a black American instead of white.  I am going to fix that later.  To the right of them are four Canadian Mounties in winter gear and finally, the mad trapper himself, Albert Johnson.

In the movie, Albert Johnson, played by Charles Bronson, was actually not a bad guy.  Not only was he being pursued by the Mounties, lead by the actor Lee Marvin, but also being pursued by the other trappers that he had a run in with at the beginning of the movie.  Well, these guys are them!  This could make for an interest three game of survival with one player being Albert Johnson, another being the Mounties, the third being the trappers.

This now leads into more figures that are tied into War Plan Crimson, Ice Station Lima, Death Hunt, and now, the Yukon Perils!  Actually the two sets of figures above will also work for the Yukon Perils games too.

Of course we should start off with the good guys of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police lead by SGT Preston and his loyal dog, Yukon King.
 

Next are the trouble makers for SGT Preston's toopers in the line of mad trappers!
 

Now are some treeline toughs that might be trouble or just some rugged individuals. 
 

Some more rugged individuals for the Mounties to deal with or protect. 
 

Yeah, these are Polar Explorers, but could easily be in the Yukon.  Why would explorers be so heavily armed is a good question for the the Mounties to ask! 
 

Being really the only representation of the Canadian government in the Yukon, the Mounties must also deal with checking up on the Inuits and make sure they are not making any trouble. 
 

If they are not diligent in their duties, the Mounties may have to deal with an Inuit rebellion! 
 

Finally, someone that is non-threatening and will probably be needed to be saved by the Mounties at some time during their time in the Yukon.  But what will they need to be saved from?

Why from a polar bear, of course!  But could there be something more dangerous in the Yukon?

Hmm, well a couple of angry Sasquatches would be worst than a polar bear...but could there be something else?

 A family of displaced Yetis!


Now for a moment of Zen...
Be seeing you,
Sapper 

Russian Civil War & the Allied Intervention in Russia 1918-1922 Project

So as you may have noticed in one of my previous entries, I am doing the Allied Intervention of Russian during the Russian Civil War (RCW).  For a while I have been looking what I planning to have as part of this project and where I plan to expand it.  I figure I will layout my plans here.

Concept of the project:

Small unit combat (about ten figures per unit) during the Russian Civil War in North Russia (Archangel & Murmansk region) and Siberia.  Opposing forces will be forty to hundred figures with one or two vehicles max, per side.  Keep games between one to three hours of actual game time, preferably closer to two hours, and no more than one hours total in set up and take down time as well. 

Rules:  

Right now, I am pretty well set on “The Sword and the Flame” 20th Anniversary Edition (TS&TF) modified with the "Sword of Adventure", Jackson Gamers' Close Combat rules, and some of my own rules.  “TS&TF” has the advantage that it is very well known and as it very simplistic.  But I am modify it to be less deadly (black cards for hits causes morale checks on individual figures instead of wounds), plus some other changes like on the card, the unit can do an action (move or shoot), instead of all move, then shoot.

Forces:

Below are my projected forces for the project.  I might not complete this list, but I will probably get close to it.  Items in brackets are figures I had not got painted yet and might not have bought yet.  I also excluded the items that are only for the War Plan Crimson project.

Bolsheviks

Command: 1x mounted overall commander, 2x foot commanders, 1x Commissar, 1x Flagman, 1x Heroine

Foot Units: 4x 10 Red Guardsmen [2x 10 Partisans, and 1x 10 Cheka riflemen]

Mounted Units: [1x 10 Cossacks]

Support Units: 1x MG teams, [1x Artillery piece, 1x Tachanka, and 1x Garford-Putilov armored truck]

White Russians (I am conceding that some of these troops will not be in winter gear)

Command: [1x mounted overall commander, 3x foot officers, 1x Flagman]

Foot Units: 4x 10 Siberian Rifles (yeah, these guys switched sides since my last entry on this project, but they can also be used for Bolsheviks too) [1x10 Officer Shock troops]

Mounted Units: [3x10 Cossacks]

Support Units: 1x MG team, [1x Artillery piece, 1x Tachanka, and 1x Austin-Putilov armored car]

Czech Legion

Command: [1x foot overall commander, 1x foot officer, 2x NCOs, 1x Flagman]

Foot Units: [4x 10 riflemen]

Support Units: [1x MG team, and 1x Artillery piece]

US Army

Command: 1x foot overall commander, 2x foot officers, 2x NCOs, 4x Sentries

Foot Units: 8x 10 infantrymen (the strong size is for a what-if they were given the go ahead for the more aggressive operations against the Bolsheviks that the British and French wanted them to do.)

Support Units: 1x MG team, [1x M1916 37mm Infantry Cannon, and 1x armored railroad car, sans the wheels, for one of the sleeping quarters/machine gun bunkers they used in Siberia.]

Canadians

Command: 1x foot overall commander, 1x foot officer, 1x NCO

Foot Units: 4x 10 infantrymen

Support Units: 1x MG team, 1x Artillery piece

Others/Neutrals

Individuals: [1x Femme Fatale, + other civilian like spies I can find, plus civilians]

Foot Units: [1x 10 armed railroad workers (from the AVBCW line), 2x 10 Chinese infantry (saw action in Siberia), 1x 10 British infantrymen]

Support Units: [1x armored train, plus cars

My Wish List

Winter coated Japanese, barring that, I might concede and use 1904 Japanese in summer clothing.  If I go that route, I plan to create a force of 2x 10 infantrymen & 1x 10 cavalrymen, plus 1x MG team and 1x artillery piece.  The reason for them to be smaller force is that they would also be beefed up by the White Russians infantry and Cossacks to fight the Bolsheviks…or possibly the Americans!?!?

Yep, this is a big project and will be my main focus for the year.  Almost all of the US Army and Canadians for this project will double for my War Plan Crimson project, except the US M1916 37mm cannon and the Lewis gun squad.  Since I am discussing this now I will list out the additional units for War Plan Crimson here now.

US Army (War Plan Crimson)

Support Units: 1x artillery piece [+1 more MG team, 5x M1917 light tanks, 5x Mack Bulldog trucks, 1x Mark VIII ‘Liberty’ heavy tank]

Canadians (War Plan Crimson)

Foot Units: [1x10 RCMP constables, 2x 10 trappers, 1x 10 Inuit warriors]

Support Unit: [1x Trappers MG team, 1x Carden Loyd tankette, and possibly 1x RCMP sidecar motorcycle with a MG, if I can scratch-build it.]

As you can see, this is a big project!

Be seeing you

Sapper

Short Update

In the comments in my last entry, I was asked about my 15mm Congo Crisis project and I will do a future entry hopefully next week about what figures I am going to use and etc. after I see if the paint is going to stick to my m/42 APC from Shapeways.  I did the chemical baths and let them dry off and spray painted them today.  I am waiting for that to dry and am going to try to see if the paint is adhering to the FUD material.  If so, I am going to try to paint up one and include it with the post on the 15mm Congo project.

Besides that, I had votes to continue reading about the Russian Civil War, which was what I was leaning to anyways, but there are some many "Oh, shiny!" topics that I want to read.  Actually, I could have read about Roy Chapman Andrews as part of the RCW as he worked to support the US Military Intelligence Division of gathering information on Mongolia & China during the last years of the RCW, and also visited Siberia around 1919 as an officer of the US Navy Intelligence....hmmm, US Navy dinosaur hunter in Siberia with frozen woolly mammoths...just thinking out loud here.

Anyways, so I am continue my reading on the Russian Civil War about the 'Mad' Baron von Ungern-Sternberg.  Extremely interesting character to say the least.  I plan to read two period biographies about him and the author who served with him after my current book.  One by his Chief of Intelligence, Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (an extremely interesting character in his own right too!), called Men, Beasts, and Gods.  The second one will be by a Major that served in one of his units, Dmitri Alioshin, called Asian Odyssey.

I got to go, but I will end on a quote by Baron von Ungern-Sternberg about how interesting this subject is going to be to read.

Cheers,

Sapper

"My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is true and what is false, what is history, and what is myth."

New England, War Plan Crimson, and Spray Paint, oh my!

This is what is going on with me lately.

New England

I am just back from my first vacation in many years.  I flew into New York City to visit a college friend that I had not seen in 12 or more years then got in a rental car and begin a two-week road trip through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Ontario, with a minor stop in Quebec.  I have now been to 49 of the 50 states of our Union! (Alaska, you’re the last one.) This trip was mainly a historical tour, but I did do some culture things as well.  When I get so time to sort through my pictures, I will post some of them up.

War Plan Crimson

Tiny Battles Publishing has just released a board game about War Plan Crimson (the US planned invasion of Canada in 1920s-30s), with the same title.  I thought this is rather cool since this covers the same gaming project that I am working on. The links to the buy a PDF version is here, or a hard copy here. 

Spray Paint

Just before I left for vacation, I got to spray paint a prime coat on my 28mm vehicles for War Plan Crimson too! (This was actually before I found out about the new board game).  In the picture, is the bulk of my Interwar US vehicles, plus a couple extra vehicles for other things.  Starting at the top of the picture (and to the left) is five Mack AC Bulldog trucks.  This was the main truck for the US Army after WW1 and up to the mid-1930s.  These truck were used to carry the M1917 light tanks up to the jump off point for combat since the tanks were so slow and had a very short operational range for fuel. 

Directly across from the trucks are five M1917 light tanks which are based off of the FT-17 tanks.  A US light tank platoon at this time had three tanks armed with machine guns and two tanks armed with 37mm guns.  That is the ratio that I have, plus I have one extra M1917 tank (not in this picture) that I am hoping to convert to radio tank. 

Next to the bottom M1917 tank is a US T16 light tank or also known as the Marmon-Herrington CTLS-4TAY tank.  This is not for my War Plan Crimson project, but just for display.  These tanks were designed for the Dutch East Indies armed forces prior to WW2, but as the Japanese attacked before they were delivered, they were transferred to the Missouri Army National Guard’s 138^th Infantry Regiment and were used during their deployment in Alaska.  Since I served in a unit with lineage to the 138^th, I had to get one. 

The large tank next to it is a Mark VIII Liberty heavy tank with the US Army used during the 1920’s and early 1930s.  I doubt that this tank would have been involved in War Plan Crimson due to the mechanical failures of this tank.  If anything they would have been placed on reserve to counter possible invasion beach heads on the coast.  But I went ahead and bought one for completeness sake, even if it is expensive as all get out.

The other large looking tank in the corner of the box is the US pre-WW1 Best Tracklayer Model 75 tank, A.K.A., the Bison.  Again, this is not for War Plan Crimson but more for display.  However, I am planning to start up the US Banana Wars project next year.  While I am planning to concentrate on Nicaragua and Haiti in the 1920s, the lure of pre-WW1 Mexico is there and maybe the California National Guard decided to deploy a Bison to the border with Mexico in response to the Zimmermann Telegram.

Just in front of the Bison is the Ford 3-ton M1918 tank. The US Army made a contract for 15,000 of these with Ford Motor Company during WW1, but over time the US Army felt that the tank could not live up to requirements in Europe and with the end of the war, the contract was voided with only 15 tanks built.  In my War Plan Crimson some of these may still be around.  I only got one, but might pick up four more to outfit a full platoon.

Finally, in the very bottom corner largely cut out of the picture is the Venezuelan Tortuga armored car.  While this is a Venezuelan vehicle built in 1934 (seven in total), it is much in the vain for a Banana War’s “tank” for the insurrectionists.  This will make the US Marines a bit more humbled in a game.

Final Notes

I actually got some reading/listening done for several books since my last entry.  I am updating my 2016 updates with them, but I am going to list them here as well:

WW1 & Interwar

Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia, by Peter Hopkirk

The Zimmermann Telegram, by Barbara Tuchman

The Fate of Admiral Kolchak, by Peter Flemming

Fiction

Kolchak: The Nightstalker: The Black and Evil Truth, by CJ Henderson

The Assistant Murder, by Dashiell Hammett

Red Wind, by Raymond Chandler

Until later, be seeing you

Sapper