15mm armoured train

[sukhe_bator]

Rolling off the production line finally - my heavily converted/scratchbuilt Russian Ov. 0-8-0. Buried underneath an entirely reconfigured superstructure is the Peter Pig Wild West train mounted on a balsa chassis with walschaerts running gear entirely sculpted in green stuff. The position of markings and lining are based on museum examples.  Seen here in speculative markings of the Central Asian Railway (TransCaspian) Ov. No.1875 (a loco number that holds particular significance for me). Just some minor tweaks and weathering to go before it gets a coat of varnish

[sukhe_bator]

Meanwhile, despite lacking the Joy valve gear and part-armoured side skirts, 'Avenger' a.k.a. 'the lash express', an entirely scratchbuilt part-armoured Ov. 0-8-0 receives loco detailing in a similar manner to 1875, namely whistle, smokebox, buffers and headlamp.

[sukhe_bator]

Russian Civil War motive power continues to develop... 2 variants of the ubiquitous Ov class 0-8-0 and an approximation of a Putilov works 'Ya' class (1896-1906) 2-6-0 emerges...

[sukhe_bator]

Turn of the C20 Russian motive power emerges on the workbench, seen here given a unifying livery. There are still many hours of work necessary to complete them but this is a morale boosting photo op to galvanise me into sculpting several sets of valve gear in green stuff!

[Byblos]

It's a big fleet of steam engines 

[marianas_gamer]

Impressive!

[sukhe_bator]

It seems a lot but it works out as 1 armoured/part armoured and 1 unarmoured loco per side for use in two separate military theatres 1) RCW in Central Asia along the Trans-Siberian Railway and 2) Turkmenistan and the Trans-Caspian Railway.

[sukhe_bator]

Ok it probably is a lot thinking about it... A recent hurried group shot of the collection to date... 8 locomotives, 4 armoured, 4 not, with attendant wagons en masse. The locos are derived from just 2 Peter Pig 15mm locos and 2 are scratchbuilt. Approx half the wagons are from the PP ranges with the rest scratchbuilt or heavily converted... it looks like I need some more track!

[Byblos]

A very important amount of tracks 

[DintheDin]

Your job is fantastic and entirely original! Many congrats!
It is amazing how many sources you may have searched to create these artworks! 

[sukhe_bator]

Thanks DintheDin, I'm very pleased with how these are turning out!

It is amazing how many sources you may have searched to create these artworks! 

My chief inspirations are the Osprey Vanguards on the Red and White Armored units by David Bullock and Steven Zaloga's Armored Trains, plus the excellent Damien Wright's Churchill's Secret War with Lenin and Jamie Bisher's The White Terror; Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian. There are an increasing number of photos on the web, many surprisingly by American sources from the YMCA to individual collections in libraries and universities from individuals involved in the RCW. Teague Jones and Ellis provide background on the Malleson Mission in Trans-Caspia too. All of these are backed up by the encyclopedic knowledge of Cuprum and the Studio Siberia Miniatures Forum. The international nature of this forum makes projects like this sooo much easier...

[DintheDin]

I greatly thank you for your reply!
Keep up the good job! Cheers!

[sukhe_bator]

Finally tackling 3 sets of Joy valve gear while another Peter Pig delivery this morning has added another Wild West loco for conversion into an 0-6-0 loco seen on the Trans-Caspian in early photos. I haven't tracked down the loco type yet.
For a taster of life in Turkestan at the turn of the century for BoB fans check out the web for photos by French photographer Paul Nadar who travelled in the region shortly after the Trans-Caspian was built in the late 1880s. Albums of his work were exhibited in Paris and copies are in the Bibliotheque Nationale the Getty and elsewhere...

[sukhe_bator]

3 sets of Joy valve gear later...and only 3 more to go
Meanwhile another PP loco gets the treatment... to be converted into a T class Russian 0-6-0 as depicted here. I strongly suspect the driving wheels are smaller than on an Ov but hey, its only an approximation. Extraneous detailing removed for reuse later, boiler profile redefined with milliput, continuous plasticard running plate added and chassis and wheels reconfigured... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_steam_locomotive_classes#/media/File:Russian_loc_T_series_type_132.jpg

[sukhe_bator]

It looks like the T class had a n other set of valve gear - it looks like Baker which was the main rival to Walschaerts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_valve_gear
So that's yet another type I have to study and approximate in green stuff.
Meanwhile the forming of the overall shape using balsa blocks and fine white milliput continues... this time the chassis is somewhat different from the others on both loco and tender requiring extensive detailing including springs etc.