Bolshevik Bits and Bobs

I had one of those weird days today, where you set out to get something specific done but end up with something completely different.

I was intending to start painting the first two units for Congo, the young warriors and scouts, but was side tracked into the Back of Beyond. The Reds vs. Whites game the other day made me think about the extra bits that I could add to top up my Bolshevik army, so I had a rummage around and 'bingo' off I went on a complete tangent.

I have a unit of ten Cheka but the rest of my units are organised in twelves including a Lewis gunner and standard bearer. These I have now added to bring my units up to the same strength. I also found a half completed heavy machine gun team, so I thought I might as well finish that off as a Cheka unit as well, although it will have to paid for as a slightly more expensive option if I use it.

To round things off, I also dug out a painted but very worse for wear senior commander, who was originally going to be glued into a staff car. I may still do this but, for the moment, he's been based on a two pence coin and will be tidied up for my command base. This consists of an 80mm laser cut mdf circle with rings to take three figures, a nice idea that I picked up from Colin's White Army.

I have some time tomorrow to start painting these and may even get them finished. I'm also re-painting the Putilov field gun for the Bolsheviks, as I've never been happy with my original effort, which looked terrible and didn't match the tanks and other vehicles. This will get a wash and dry brush to look a little less rubbish the second time around. It's been given a re-spray in Humbrol Grass Green matt acrylic to start with, which looks a bit garish but will tone down once it's been weathered.

To wrap things up, give or take an armoured train that I've been thinking about, I have ordered a Schneider CA1 tank from HLBS as a field gun armed alternative to my machine gun armed Whippet. The Schneider wasn't actually used by the Bolsheviks but this is the Back of Beyond, so anything remotely feasible is OK with me (they did have FT17's after all). It'll cost me 100 points but with two machine guns and a cannon it will be very useful.