Trev gets Bolshie

[trev]

Hi Captain Darling,

Here is the earliest concept shot I have of the train.



Also see the bottom of this blog post where I have added a few more early WIP shots.

https://thebitsbox.blogspot.com/2020/03/starting-railway-war.html

Inspiration and ideas were also ripped off of these old LAF posts.  We stand on the shoulders of giants. 

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=104778.msg1303835#msg1303835
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=94653.msg1168519#msg1168519
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=27590.msg335009#msg335009
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=53701.msg634323#msg634323

[trev]

Hmmmm...

[juergen c. olk]

very nice...love the train.

[cuprum]

Siberian army?! "Rare bird")))

[Captain Darling]

Thanks Trev, good to see...

[trev]

Thanks Trev, good to see...

Glad you liked it.  PS Love the Tsar tank on your blog!  That has got to be the most ridiculous armoured vehicle ever actually built.  I wonder if it was used in the civil war. 

[trev]

Hi Michael,

That photo was really just to show how shiny my anti-shine varnish turned out but the troops are indeed meant to be the Siberian Army.  Those are the start of my 16th Ishimsky regiment.  I might do some of Denikin's Volunteers later but I wanted to start in the east.  My Whites are based on (maybe just inspired by) the 4th Siberian Rifle Division especially for the fighting around the railway bridge at Vyatsky Polyana in May 1919.  I will no doubt use them for lots of other scenarios too but I wanted to pick a general theme for the painting.

This is OOB I found.  I have been trawling through Russian web sites with the help of Google Translate.  There is a lot of good information out there to find this way.  Please correct any mistaken translations you notice though.

4th Siberian Rifle Division
Major General I.S. Smolin

13th Omsk Siberian Rifle Regiment (Staff Captain Medvedev)
14th Irtysh Siberian Rifle Regiment (Colonel Dombrowski.)
15th Kurgan Siberian Rifle Regiment (Colonel B.G. Vezbolovich)
16th Ishim Siberian Rifle Regiment (Colonel A.G. Metelev)
4th Light artillery division (Colonel V.A. Plotnikov) 
4th howitzer artillery division (Colonel Cherepanov)
4th rear personnel regiment (Colonel P.M. Guede)

The 3rd Siberian Air Squadron was also attached at this time with the following aircraft. 
One each of:
Morane-Saulnier N https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_N
Farman HF-30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farman_HF.30
Voisin III https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voisin_III

The aircraft are older and less common types but It would be nice if I could get a 1/48 kit for one or all of them.

For uniforms I found this on the Kolchakiya page for the 16th Ishimsky regiment.   
http://www.kolchakiya.ru/uniformology/16_Ishim_reg.htm
My eyes and hand-eye coordination aren't up to tiny skulls on the shoulder straps but hopefully the white blobs I did manage look about right at a distance.

For the other units I couldn't find anything specific, so I have gone with Mark's supposition to follow imperial practice and used 'raspberry' shoulder boards.
http://pygmywars.com/barendspages/steppehosts/semirechenskinfantry/semirechenskinfantry.html

I might do another regiment in a different colour for variety later.  Perhaps Green or Blue as they are found elsewhere in Kolchak's forces.  This should give me some 'line' units and some 'Assault' units for a bit of diversity in the games.  These units were based on the Officer detachments from the cities around Omsk and seem to have outclassed their early Red guard opponents but had expanded a lot by May 1919 and probably lost much of their early 'elite' status while the Reds were slowly getting their act together.

For flags I think the Russian national tricolour was used by Kolchak's time and that looks right for the Whites in my prejudice but I wanted to get some Siberian colours in hence the white and green splodges on the hats.  Again I'm blaming my failing eyes for the lack of skill.    I did find on Mark's pages and elsewhere some details for the flags of these and other associated regiments but I think I might go for something more generic to tie the force together thematically.  Maybe I can use the more diverse historical flags as well.  Flags are good. 

[cuprum]

Hello!

You did a good job. And for the collection of historical information, and for painting figures.
At the moment, only the uniform of the 16 Ishim Regiment is known.

Here is the banner of this regiment. The Siberian army, after joining the Kolchak army, sought to maintain its traditional "Siberian" differences (white-green color), despite the ban on "separatist tendencies":



The banner shows the coat of arms of the city of Ishim, on the other side - the cross of the militia.


But the uniform of the later Siberian regiments is known. I think if you reproduced their differences, then this would not be a big mistake (naturally on the Russian uniform, and not on the British):

http://www.kolchakiya.ru/uniformology/Sib_rifles_units.htm

I think the banners can be reproduced on the same principle - I can find for you the coats of arms of the cities that were the patrons of the regiments you are interested in.


Morane-saulnier G 1/48

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSD-4801-Morane-Saulnier-type-G-WWI-Airplane-model-kit-1-48/114018236550?hash=item1a8c043886:g:FQAAAOSwqHFceizC

That's what he looked like in the Siberian army. Good price and a simple color option)))

[trev]

Michael, you are sent from wargaming heaven. 

Great find on the aircraft kit.  Thanks.  I ordered the last one at that price but there are others still available. The original text didn't specify the type of Morane-Saulnier, I just guessed based on the Wiki saying the N was used by Imperial Russia, but as that kit is clearly Russian it's just as possible it was a G.

I like the idea of adopting the Ishim flag scheme for the other cities.  Do have suggestions for the crests?

For Kurgan the Wiki page has this crest with a very similar pattern to the Ishim flag in the top left, with two 'mounds' unsurprisingly. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan,_Kurgan_Oblast#/media/File:Kurgan_coat_of_arms.png

For Omsk this website has again a similar crest.
https://www.greatrussiangifts.com/omsk/

So a fish for Ishim, two mounds for Kurgan and what looks to me like a wall for Omsk is a pattern to follow, with each below what is perhaps a crown flanked by flags and axes.  Is Irtysh just the river or a city as well?  The regiment seems to have been raised originally from volunteers in Omsk andf Kurgan.  I doubt the crests will look much like any of these if I paint them but it's good to know what you are trying to achieve.   

This is the second unit I've started with the Raspberry shoulder boards.  Thankfully on these I used a different bottle of anti-shine.

[cuprum]

Glad I could help.

I am not sure if I understood your question correctly.
The Omsk coat of arms depicts a golden pyramid in military decoration (banners, halberds and drums). The lower part shows part of the fortress wall.



The Irtysh is just a river, so this option does not fit into the scheme that we invented)))
Well, I propose using a banner based on religious subjects - for example, as in the 18th Tobolsk Rifle Regiment. Make the banner field as the color of the shoulder strap, border and cross - the corresponding border to the shoulder strap. Raspberry and white?

[trev]

Thanks.  That makes sense.  I see the drums and pyramid now.  I thought that was a crown.  Copying the Tobolsk scheme is a good thought too.

[Doom Beard 78]

That's a fantastic train conversion. Perhaps you could add some weathering to make it look used and break up the mom chrome olive

[Kiwitoddy]

Amazing stuff, I especially love the train. and its cool to see a Siberian army out there.

[trev]

Here's the first two completed white units.  I'll probably add more troops later but these will serve for the core of officers and volunteers.

13th Omsk



16th Ishim



I have done all four flags for the regiments of 4th Siberian Division now.  I didn't like the result of my attempt to copy the Tobolsk flag, so I extended the Ishim flag theme by copying the Omsk Oblast flag as the lower half of the arms.  I guess it is based on the river anyway.

[cuprum]

Cool!
The upper part of the coat of arms is the province. The lower part is the emblem of the city (or locality).