RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR










LENIN CONVERSION
"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
Using a Dixon Old West figure (WG95 seen in the upper right corner) I was able to convert this "gent" into a figure of V.I. Lenin to use in RCW games. This figure was easy to convert as it is lead and not the harder white metal.
For this project I strayed from my usual use of Vallejo paints for no really good reason. The outer coat is Delta Ceramcoat Storm Gray, his vest a 50/50 mix of Ral Partha Dark and Light Gray and his trousers Payne's Gray. Each shade has been highlighted with a mix of the original shade and a lighter gray twice. The outlining is in charcoal as I find black too striking.
During painting I had to trim a few rough edges a bit on his hair and file his dome to remove a "conehead". One real problem I had was due to the repositioning of the arm - it came very near the right side of the head which made painting that side of the face a challenge. I will not repeat this error in future conversions.
I am very pleased with the final product and have only to base him before playing. It was nice, exceptionally easy and very fun project with which to end 2006.
"Working men of all countries, unite!"

MAGISTER MILITUM
10mm Napoleonics
Here are the painted 10mm figures. Yes, there is a lot of red there, thus showing my lack of Napoleonic knowledge. They represent lots of grenadiers, more than a single unit would possess (my friend Rob explained that) but I was going from info from a local library book and not usual Osprey books. Still, it is very easy to see how nicely these figures paint up. It is easy to imagine how beautiful fully (and correctly) painted units of these figures would look on the gaming table. Larger scaled battles are also now possible with these smaller figures – great looking, inexpensive figures, the beautiful colors of the Napoleonic armies and lots of them on the tabletop battlefield – fighting large battles of the Napoleonic era is going to be very interesting!

MAGISTER MILITUM
10mm Napoleonics
Magister Militum, available through by Little Wars, produces a wide range of 10mm miniatures for ancients. It is now producing a line of miniatures for the Napoleonic Wars. The pack available for this review was Unit 4 (French Line Infantry) that represented line infantry. I used to gray primer and light gray/white in an attempt to show off the rich detail available, even in a figure so small – there are straps on the backpacks! There are 30 figures in a pack with one officer, standard-bearer and drummer as well as 27 line infantry in an advancing pose; they measure 10mm from the base to their eyes. The six figures I selected to paint had little flash on them and were quickly prepared and primed. Since returning home this summer, my painting time is really limited to only less than two hours in the evening with frequent interruptions for diaper changes, sippy cups of apple juice, etc. I was able to easily get all six painted in one sitting and was really pleased with the results – esp. when considering I know little about Napoleonic uniforms! I can imagine it would take no time to paint a full unit of these great looking figures. To see an entire wargaming table of these figures would really dazzle the eye - truly a "Master of the Soldiers!"
http://littlewars.net/

THOROUGHBRED FIGURES
CSS Tennessee (TS28), the pride of my ACW fleet. I just wanted to add a photo of a ship that won a Gold medal at a summer Historicon painting competition several years ago. This ship is a very hard nut to crack and should be the primary target of any monitor on the river.

THOROUGHBRED FIGURES
CSS Baltic (TS71) is the latest in the line of ships available for the Confederacy in the ACW. This is the last of the models available for review and is the weighiest (a personal preference of mine.) She is cast in a similar manner to the other ships in the line - the parts fit so well together that when cutting parts off supporting sprues the metal spreads a tiny bit. Filing this makes the part fit smoothly - it is so satisfying to know the pieces will fit so well all the time. The guns on this ship are educated guesswork and she suffers from the usual problem of Confederate vessels - underpowered engines. Her design is also similar to the USS Indianola with some significant differences - her aft sections are unarmored. Using references and the Indianola card from "The Ironclads" rules set, I was able to make a card that gives a good representation of the unique qualities of this ship. I experimented with the dark red brown wooden colors and put sections of "rust" on the metal parts of the ship (drybrushed dark/chocolate brown, red brown and just the hint of orange as the high highlight.) After all, she is a Rebel ship!

THOROUGHBRED FIGURES
USS Chillicothe (TS72) represents the newest of the American ships available for the ACW. It is also cast in white metal and, like all the other ships in this line, needs very little work to remove what few casting lines there are. All of the pieces fit very nicely together so painting and construction was a breeze. The metal portions of the ship are black, drybrushed charcoal with steel highlights. The wooden portions are shades of light browns (I always try to drybrush through three different shades as I like the effects they offer - the darkest base color is covered with the main color I would like to use and a third, lighter color, highlights that - I find the highest highlight can cover any errors of the main color and adds some depth.) She mounts two 11'' Dahlgren SBs forward (on pivots) and two 9" Dahlgren SBs aft. This ship has similar ship characteristics to the USS Indianola, also available from Thoroughbred. Using the Indianola as a reference, I took artistic license to make my own data card for this ship based on reference books I owned in order to account for differences in the Chillicothe. Playing with the same type ships all the time would not be fun, right?

THOROUGHBRED FIGURES
USS Casco (TS61b) is a 1/600th scale ship to allow recreation of naval battles of the ACW. This ship represents the torpedo version of this class of vessel that was a less than successful design. Armed with an 11" Dahlgren Smoothbore on the open deck and two spar torpedoes, she is a challenge to play well. Cast in white metal, the ship is very crisply cast with very clean parts that need only a little filing or cutting with a hobby knife to prepare. All of the parts fit perfectly in the holes provided, a testament to the quality of the sculpting and casting, as are all of the ships in the Thoroughbred line. The ships paint up very quickly, esp. the Union monitors (you cannot go wrong with shades of faded black!) There are about 70 different ships from which to choose. One of the many great things I like about these ships and this line is the fact that, if you are gaming with other friends, you really need only to paint one ship in order to play! Of course, that was the way I started out and now own about 30 of these beautiful ships. The entire line of ships can be found at:
http://www.thoroughbredmodels.com/

FIGURE CONVERSION
Here's the back of the work in progress. The jacket buttons were trimmed off and a longer coat added. The jacket pockets were cut from a long rectangular piece of green stuff and placed after the jacket had hardened a bit (actually, they were an afterthought, that's why the jacket was a little hardened!)

FIGURE CONVERSION
This is my first attempt at a fig conversion using the "green stuff". I took a Dixon cowboy (WG95), removed the hat, repositioned the right arm, cut out the bowtie and removed most of his hair. I filled the cut in the arm, fashioned a necktie, a goatee, an inner coat and outer coat (with pockets.) It may be tough to tell here, but my intention was to try to make a Lenin figure. More later when I paint him up...
p.s. after getting some advice from a good friend, I'll be using some crazy glue to reinforce the green stuff. It should make it stand up better to the rigors of table gaming!