(My apologies for the cross-post from the Challenge blog, but this one does have a few more pics for what it's worth. :) )
In response to Miles’ request to provide pictures of our various hobby spaces here is a shot of my nerve center (or is that 'nerd center'?).
Yes folks, it’s literally a closet, so no snarky remarks… :) We're pretty draconian about having a fairly minimalist household (I should’ve prefaced this by saying we have no kids). We try to keep things pretty spartan around the place, but our book collection and my hobby stuff frequently pose a challenge. So I created this ‘hobby closet’ in our media room in order for me to keep my hobby rig set-up while still having the ability to close the doors in order to keep the room looking neat and tidy.
I know, it's a little OCD, but I'm okay with it (rocks back and forth repeatedly...).
I know, it's a little OCD, but I'm okay with it (rocks back and forth repeatedly...).
Anyway, I’ve got about half a dozen hobby projects all on the go right now, which I must say is making me a little mental. Most of them are waiting for ‘that one essential thing’, a decal, a flag or some other infuriating detail that I’ve convinced myself that I absolutely need to properly wrap them up. Now, if I can get some of this stuff wrangled I should be able to get back on track towards my points target but right now it's pretty much a complete gong show.
Nonetheless, from all this chaos, I’ve actually managed to finish something to the point that I can submit it! Woohoo!!
I find this period of history fascinating as there were so many personalities and groups involved in the conflict. Russians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Ukrainians, the list goes on and on. This submission is about a small portion of the Czechoslovakians who fought in Russia during the Civil War.
I was quite close to my grandparents on my mom’s side. Granma's family was Austrian and Grampa was from the outskirts Prague. Gramps, while being a fervent new Canadian was also very proud of 'The Old Country' and took great delight in telling me stories of Jan Hus and his Hussites, and of the ‘Czech Legion’ which fought the Reds and helped to secure Czechoslovakian independence. When he told me about the Czech armoured trains and the fact that the Legion itself controlled thousands of miles of Russian railways I was a little dubious, thinking he was pulling my leg. Later on, when I was in university, I read more about the Czech Legion and discovered that truth is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction.
I was quite close to my grandparents on my mom’s side. Granma's family was Austrian and Grampa was from the outskirts Prague. Gramps, while being a fervent new Canadian was also very proud of 'The Old Country' and took great delight in telling me stories of Jan Hus and his Hussites, and of the ‘Czech Legion’ which fought the Reds and helped to secure Czechoslovakian independence. When he told me about the Czech armoured trains and the fact that the Legion itself controlled thousands of miles of Russian railways I was a little dubious, thinking he was pulling my leg. Later on, when I was in university, I read more about the Czech Legion and discovered that truth is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction.
This squad represents some of the Czechoslovaks who volunteered to serve with General Lavr Kornilov’s forces. They became part of the famous (or infamous) Kornilov Shock Regiment which was considered very dependable amongst the White forces and was composed of some pretty hard, hard men. Suffice it to say that not many of these guys survived the Civil War but apparently a few made it back to the new state of Czechoslovakia and probably had some harrowing tales to tell I’m sure.
These models are almost all from Footsore Miniatures (previously Musketeer Miniatures) while at least one is from Copplestone Castings. All of them are excellent figures, easy to prepare and a real joy to paint.
Even though the traditional uniform of the Kornilov Shock Regiment had the men in red caps I decided to keep these lads in a mix of headgear to show them as separate volunteers. I also painted in white-over-red cockades for their caps and right breast as that was the chosen colours of the Czechloslovakians fighting in Russia.
One thing some may notice is that there are a lot of white flowers on these bases. I thought that since the basic uniforms in the Russian Civil War were often very similar to one another I’d have the white flowers signifying White troops and, you guessed it, red flowers for the Red forces. Dorky I admit, but I think it will make things easy to decipher when they’re all mixing it up on the tabletop. (In fact I think I’m going to use the same idea for my upcoming Wars of the Roses stuff…)
I’m not sure what I’m going to actually do with this these guys. To be honest I'm collecting this period in both 15mm and 28mm. Yep, nuts I know, but I really like painting the detail of the bigger castings from Footsore and Copplestone, while also loving the little 15mm cavalry and armoured trains from Peter Pig. I’ll probably do up enough to use for ‘Chain of Command’ and perhaps some Pulp gaming as well, other than that I have no clue. But I guess that’s the fun of it all!
