Bolshevik horde!

For once I'm ahead of schedule having completed everything a week early, so here is my Bolshevik horde using the Strelets Summer and Winter Red Army figures. Both sets have a mix of figures with and without the characteristic budenovka. My units are made for use with the Red Actions rules for the Russian Civil War and as such I keep the officers based separately. The HMGs are from the Hat WW1 Russian Heavy Weapons set.

Summer uniform with budenovka folded up

Winter uniform, all in greatcoats and the budenovka folded down
Overall a nice pair of sets, but I would have preferred there to be no lying figures. I had to use the ones with greatcoats as they included the Vickers LMGs.

Barges in action

Over on my Frundsberg blog the barges are in action with the French crossing the Rhine.

Crusader AA

Here's my latest acquisition a Ready to Roll Crusader AA bought from Colin Rumford at York, plus the last of my Minimi vehicles a Humber Heavy Utility, just the job for the divisional staff. I would have preferred an unbased tank, but I decided it was too much effort to remove the base myself.

Now the Crusader AA is finished I have all the options covered for a 1944/5 British Armoured Regiment equipped with Shermans, so here is the full regiment.

Not bad for a collection spanning over 30 years that has seen a lot of action.

Pontoon bridge

While clearing up after completing the latest battle in my solo campaign I spotted the opportunity to use my new barges together with my rafts as a pontoon bridge.

French vehicles

Next up is a couple of Peugeot DMA 2 tonne trucks for my 1940 French Army. Again these are Minimi 20mm resin but without the normally cast on base.
And yes I do know that Peugeot DMA prototype appeared in mid-1940, too late for being used in the Battle for France (May-June 1940).

In the period March 1941- September 1944 almost 16,000 samples of this truck were built (including the Q5A version), of which 87% were requisitioned by the Germans and employed in great numbers in Africa, Europe and on the Eastern front.

Italian Transport

It's been rather slow, but here are my latest vehicle for my Italians. they are finished as per the rest of My Italians in a Tunisian /Sicilian camouflage pattern.

To the left are a pair of Fiat 626 trucks from Minimi. In the centre is an additional camionette desertica from Ready to Roll that I failed to buy in time for the 2008 big game but acquired at York. On the right is a pair of TL37 trucks again by Minimi.

Hopefully the picture show how well the Minimi vehicles look without the base.

Simple Barges

I have always had an intention to create some simple functional barges for my armies ever since seeing one in Charles Grants "The Wargame" . So at long last ,after 30 odd years, I've got round to creating some. They are built to a specific size to take exactly two bases of troops (12 figures) with space at front/back for crew and possibly guns.

Construction was relatively simple. I used foamcore rather than balsa as I have a plentiful supply, the bow and stern posts are just scraps of balsa and the sides are thin card, the sort from the back of pads. I picked some that was as thick as possible while still being flexible. Hopefully the pictures give a sufficient idea of the construction.

Why build them now? Well my Frundsberg solo game is just at a stage where a river crossing using barges is about to be fought.