Monday, 28 December 2020

Russian Civil War Bolshevik Sailors - W.I.P.

 Just a quick progress report on my Copplestone RCW Sailors. So far, I have completed three stands, with two more plus an HMG crew to go. The naval personnel were amongst the staunchest and most militarily competent of the Bolshevik forces during the Civil War but ironically were wiped out almost to a man a couple of years later when they mutinied and were demonised as counter revolutionaries....

As always with Copplestone, these are fantastic sculpts and a real joy to paint with all the detail popping out at your brush!







33 comments:

  1. These look great Keith, and doesn't it make a difference when you have some decent castings that you enjoy painting? Lovely work.

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    1. Cheers Lawrence...yes, there are a few manufacturers I really like painting..Copplestone is one and another is Front Rank. Detail is so clear and simple, they are a joy to do.

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  2. Awesome troops, Keith. What rules do you plan to use with them?

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    1. Thanks Dean...we have used Red Actions by Perfect Captain, which are a nice quirky set of card driven rules that give a fun game.

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    2. Ah, interesting. I'll have to check these out. Thanks!

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    3. Please do- and post some images of your troops in action! I would be interested in your opinion of the rules too.

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    4. Apparently, I was told today, the guy running Perfect Captain had to close it all down, so the rules may no longer be available?

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  3. Those look very nice Keith and the Copplestone sculpts are always very nice. Are they for skirmish level games or something at a bit higher level?

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    1. Thanks Steve..the games are at a higher level than skirmish but still pretty small scale with scope for the personality of individual unit commanders

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  4. Agree totally the Copplestone figures are lovely to paint. Yours are particularly nice 👍

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    1. Cheers Matt...great figures always help the paint work!

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  5. These sailors are superb, Keith! Interesting history about their fate too. I don’t recall having ever purchased Copplestone castings.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. Copplestone are lovely figures but as far as I recall, he only does late nineteenth century onwards and the bulk of the ranges could be loosely described as "Pulp" era. There are some historical ranges such as WWI in East Africa but again, not really main stream periods.

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    2. He started doing fantasy for GW & Grenadier UK in the 80's. The Wars of the roses figures he did for Grenadier UK are great & still available from Mirliton (both Julian & I have some of them in our medieval lots)

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    3. Thanks for the biographical information Andrew!

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  6. Very nice, loving the stripped tunic, I must be honest I only picked the jackets for mine, just could not steady my hand enough.
    Great stuff
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Cheers Stu...yes, the striped t shirt took a while to do and isn't perfect but looks fine from the usual gaming distance! The figure was just one of the ten randomly supplied in the blister pack. Personally I would have liked a couple more, to add some variety to the unit!

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  7. Terrific work Ross. They are such lovely figure to work on.

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    1. Thanks for the return visit and comment Curt, yes, Copplestone are VERY nice figures to paint!

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  8. Splendid stuff Keith...

    I do like Mark Copplestone’s figures... they are full of character.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you Mr Morrison! I particularly like the "chiseled " faces, which are great to paint!

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  9. Wow, awesome sailors, I do like them!!

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  10. Lovely figures, great finish and interesting bit of history!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain - they are great figures to paint! Happy New Year when it arrives there.

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  11. Excellent blog! I enjoy the hard work you guys put into them. It was however hijacked and posted on The Miniatures Page by Tango01.
    http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=543541
    Both he and the owner of TMP, Bill Armintrout, feel that common courtesies such as identifying someone's work by name is unimportant.
    Some have been Dawghoused and even locked out supporting bloggers.
    Just a heads up, and again please keep up your good work!

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    1. Thanks for the tip - according to everything I have read about the twat that runs that site, he wont do anything about it anyway so I dont really care that much....

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  12. By the way, if any of my regular visitors are Tango 01 on TMP - no offence to you, I really don't care if something is reposted there!

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  13. These look brilliant Keith. Lovely figures as you (and all above) have noted. I especially appreciate the 'sensible' proportions and interesting and useful poses.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you James, I completely agree on all counts - they are great figures and in good poses, although it would be nice if one or two were actually firing their rifles...I may add a couple of packs from Brigade Games as they have 8 different poses and the figures work pretty well together.

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  14. Very nice work, Keith. Alarm! Bolsheviks reached NZ :)

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    1. Spasiba Tovarish - спасибо това́рищ - Dmitry! Auckland is surrounded by hundred year old naval defences that were built before WW1 because a Russian invasion was feared - so maybe these sailors are just a bit behind schedule - but better late than never!

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    2. As Lenin said: «a World Revolution is inevitable!» These comrades simply came to shake hands with the oppressed workers. And nothing more:)

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