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Author Topic: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War  (Read 4301 times)

Offline doctorphalanx

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28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« on: January 15, 2022, 11:29:46 AM »
I want to gather (or preferably recycle) some 28mm wargame scenery suitable for the Southern (Don Cossack) theatre of operations in the Russian Civil War.

I've googled for contemporary photos without much success. Can anyone point to pictures of a wargame table which they think has a convincing look and feel?

Offline has.been

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2022, 01:14:11 PM »
Quite a few out there. here are some:-
Quote
http://www.barrageminiatures.com/
Quote
https://www.grandmanner.co.uk/January_Raw_resin_event_ends_31st_Jan_2022--post--183.html
Quote
https://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/
Quote
https://blotz.co.uk/

I'm sure there are lots more & there is always E-bay.
Don't forget LAFs own market place, place a wants list.
You never know what is out there on someone else's shelf.

Offline doctorphalanx

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2022, 01:19:32 PM »
Thanks for these leads.

Just after posting my query I noticed the pictures in this thread:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=131468.0

which are attractive and convincing. The scenery is also 'real' wargame scenery and not the fancy boards you see at shows.

Offline Bogdanwaz

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2022, 01:46:31 PM »
A few years ago, I ran a pulp game set in Ukraine during the Polish-Soviet War.  There's some pictures of the scenery on my blog here:

http://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-twelve-chairs-treasure-hunting.html

Offline Kourtchatovium104

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2022, 02:38:56 PM »
For my RCW games, I used the 4ground russian and ukrainian cottages with scratchbuilt ones. They fit with the south Russia of the Don Cossacks, as it can be seen in photos of this time. Alas, I've never seen any manufacturer doing the typical cossack house...

Offline doctorphalanx

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2022, 02:48:34 PM »
The right sort of buildings will add flavour, but I’m not aiming to do a cityscape. Trees and streams and roads/tracks are going to be fairly universal. I like the idea of fields with modelled crops even if they don’t have any effect on gameplay.

The areas I’m less sure about are details like the types of fences and hedges. If I was doing something like ACW there would be plenty of reference points.

Offline Pan Marek

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2022, 06:01:44 PM »
Doctor-

For trees, think tall pines/firs with long trunks, like in Dr. Zhivago.  Also, stands of white birch.

If you're doing south russia, lots of it is flat.  Nearly table flat.  Rivers meander, and are bordered by marsh in alot of areas.   Villages are strung out along roads,  as there were few roads.   If you're going for a big battle,
do not overcrowd the table.  Russia, Ukraine and lots of Poland are pretty darn flat and empty farmland.

I've been pondering RCW terrain myself, and have been reading the PygmyWars site, and spending alot of time on google images. 
« Last Edit: January 16, 2022, 04:23:38 PM by Pan Marek »

Offline cuprum

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2022, 01:55:08 AM »
The south of Russia (Crimea, Ukraine, Don region) is practically the absence of forests - it is an endless plain.
Here, houses are built mainly of adobe bricks and painted white. Roofs in that period were mostly made of reeds and straw.
Here is a fairly authentically designed table for the area (see game footage):

http://pb-wg.blogspot.com/search/label/Гражданска%20война%20в%20России.

Typical houses in the South of Russia:

 http://pb-wg.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-post_15.html








Offline carlos marighela

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2022, 08:59:17 AM »
Pegasus Hobbies do some nice pre-painted typical Ukrainian houses. They are nominally 1/72 but with some smart basing they work with 28mm.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/pegasus-hobbies-7801-ukrainian-house-1--226712

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/pegasus-hobbies-7802-ukrainian-house-2--226713

They also make some plastic isba style wooden houses suitable for northern Russia, similar remarks re scaling.
Em dezembro de '81
Botou os ingleses na roda
3 a 0 no Liverpool
Ficou marcado na história
E no Rio não tem outro igual
Só o Flamengo é campeão mundial
E agora seu povo
Pede o mundo de novo

Offline Bravo Six

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2022, 09:08:08 AM »

Offline doctorphalanx

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Offline Pan Marek

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2022, 05:19:50 PM »
While we're on this topic, I have a question.
As I said earlier in this thread, I too am looking into the terrain of the RCW.  If one wants to know about how a typical English village appeared at any time in English history, one can obtain information ranging from children's history books to dense, dry academic/archeological tomes to websites for various historical restorations.

Not so for Russia, at least in English.  I've seen plenty of period photos of turn of the century Russian villages, but I have not seen one picture of any kind of retail establishment, or any kind of tradesman shop (like, say, a shoemaker or cooper).    Is this because they didn't exist?  Certainly peasants wore footwear, clothes and hats.  Had metal implements and needed people who could make wagon/cart wheels and other things farmers required.  How did they get them?

Offline doctorphalanx

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2022, 06:21:34 PM »

Offline Mark Plant

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2022, 08:15:06 PM »
Cuprum and Marek have answered the main points. One detail -- the houses in towns often had fenced gardens, but there were generally no fences, hedges etc out in the fields. You can see in Cuprum's pictures how many of the model buildings have fencing attached.

The lack of density in the terrain explains some of the fighting. If there is a village in the area, then the fighting will be for the village. If by night the attackers haven't taken the village, then they are in effect defeated, even if having inflicted greater casualties. They will have to retire to find water and food (and roofs for the night if cold). That's not to say that they have to attack the village directly -- often a flank attack would make it untenable -- but the aim was to capture the village.

Extra terrain can be added via crops. Modern wheat, barley etc are dwarf varieties, designed to be shorter to aid harvesting, and older varieties were much taller. In 1920 it was quite possible to ambush out of wheat or barley fields, and you read of many examples of troops doing so. Maize even more so, since it grows so high. Obviously this was only at certain times of year though.

============================

With regards to shops, Marek, I have noticed that also. As they get larger, villages got a church, then might add some government (Zmestvo) buildings, a school etc. But never a strip of shops. I can't recall in any memoirs about shops being present, either for supplies or having been noted as looted, so it is not just that the buildings were very similar.

The long winters give time to do other options, which filled some of the roles. So one farmer might also be a cobbler, another some carpentry. Women would weave and sew, so clothing was covered that way. There were markets in which to exchange the goods made.

More technical items were obtained from travelling salesmen or by going into town. You do read about peasants after the revolution complaining about how they can no longer get tea, sugar, nails etc that they used to get from the towns, but not about how the shops are no longer full.

Makhno took a couple of towns so his men could loot them for the items there that they needed.

Offline Pan Marek

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Re: 28mm scenery for Russian Civil War
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2022, 08:23:04 PM »
Doc-
That's a great article.  Clearly, there were artisans of some sort, of which I had no doubt, but little proof.
But did they have shops?  Or were goods peddled only on outdoor market days?   Or taken around by itinerant peddlers?   Its all about what to build for a typical village or small town.

We all know what we'd put in an Old West set up.  Did Russian villages have taverns (there's one in Fiddler on the Roof!) or barbers or general stores or blacksmiths or flour mills?   Was their economy closer to that of medieval times in Western Europe?   Its mostly a blank to me, which in and of itself bothers me, because I'm naturally curious, and in this day and age its odd that one can't find the necessary information on a topic.

I know a bit of Russian, but my computer doesn't type in Cyrillic!

 

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