Raising the standards

I have quite a large collection of RCW figures. Amongst the masses I have a handful of standard bearers. Painted with empty flag poles.

Here’s 8 lucky figures about to be completed. Three whites and Trotsky’s train guard in the front. A “red” Latvian and three Makhnovists in the rear.

I printed off a few flags at work. Some of the flags I found were a little pixelated but I don’t really care. The white flag on the right I’ve had for several years waiting.

The “red” Latvian and 3 Makhnovist flags on top and the Trotsky’s train guard and 3 white Russian ones on the bottom.

I have a few others who have yet to receive their flag pole and another whose flag I forgot to print. So I’ll do a part two later on.

I fold the flag in half, and use a glue stick to glue the sides together and onto the pole. If the flag comes loose later on, a drop of super glue fixes it tight.

I leave the white ends on to help with alignment and bend the flags to look like they are fluttering in the wind. When the glue is dry I trim the sides off.

Here’s the Makhnovist/anarchist flags. I have no idea what they actually say but the internet says they aren’t offensive.

Here you can see the pixelation on the white flags but from 6 feet away they look ace.

The “red” Latvian and Trotsky round out the group.

What I like about the RCW is that there is room for the whimsical, the odd and the imaginative mind.

Finished and Based

So here they are! In all their glory!

20 Infantry and a standard bearer, leader and Lewis gunner for the HQ element. I picked up a 2nd banner bearer off of eBay but need to rebase her to match.

I based them last week and added the grass tufts yesterday. Didn't have tweezers on hand but whatever. It works.

I just realised that this is the most I have ever painted in a single year, let alone a 3-4 month period.

The maxim support gun. The loader is propped up on his own washer which is still visible from above so I'll need to fix that. Maybe some more grass tufts? 

I added First Corps Miniatures  Austin Armored Car v2 that I picked up sometime in 2016.
Painted black. Lined grey and then washed. Added a wolf howling at the moon transfer from a old Space Wolf transfer sheet. (Actually added 2 but forgot to seal with nail polish and one got damaged and had to be removed). It was my first time using transfers. Luckily a guy at work plays Bloodbowl so he walked me through it.

The other side. Added a mud effect by flicking paint from an old toothbrush. Worked like a charm. Thankfully I finished this up and hopefully the impetus will push me to finishing all of those pesky Copplestone Chinese I bought.

Bolsheviks Finished

Well, I finished those Bolsheviks. I'm pretty happy with the results. Total working time was about 10 hours which was composed of 8 lunch hours and 2 at night when the kids were asleep.


They say pictures or it didn't happen.

Here are two units of 10 and the commander.

A close up of the left squad.

A close up of the right squad.

A close up of the commander. Gave him a white mustache just because.

All I have left to do now is base the suckers and paint a Lewis gunner and standard bearer for the HQ element, and a Heavy Machine Gun for support.

Then on to those pesky Chinese.

The Bolshevik's are coming!

Just wanted to share a quick post about what I've done recently.


After failing miserably painting those Copplestone Chinese troops (still only 1 painted), I though I would start anew and build up some paining mojo before diving back in (read, oh shiny, look). I have some Copplestone Red Russians in the desk at home that also need paint but I also have fewer so it's not as daunting.


I painted during my lunch break yesterday and the day before and managed to finish these four, minus the bases. They are supposed to be Trotsky's Red Train guards. I'm pretty chuffed about them to be honest.


Army Painter Pure Red Basecoat
Assorted Reaper, GW, and Vallejo paints
Army Painter Strong Shade

So, in 2 hours, I painted more Russians then a 6 month allotment for my Chinese. What did I learn?


I do like batch painting but need to focus on smaller numbers. With the Russians, I was doing groups of 4, while the Chinese were groups of 20.


What does that mean? Well, two hours got me 4 troops completed. Confidence, mojo, drive all increase fairly quickly. Changing colours often, not painting the same parts, over and over and over again in an hour keeps it fresh.


Doing larger groups is slower overall progress, and seems daunting. I felt no desire to "power through", just one more colour.


So hopefully, in the next month, I'll have these pesky Russians done and can resume with the Chinese.


Aaaand on a side note, Hotlead, Southwestern Ontario's premiere  war-gaming convention is this weekend. I am super excited.

Back of Beyond

I've been toying with the thought of getting into this era for quite a while now, well over 3 years in fact.

At Hotlead this year, I stumbled across an excellent deal at the Bring and Buy. I found a package of Copplestone's Russian Sailors for $10.00. Retail is roughly $24.00. However, at a quick glance the package had more than 10 sailors in it. Upon purchase, I realized it also contained the Russian Sailor Command Pack as well.

A quick query on LAF and I landed some European Mercenaries, Chinese Bandits and Russian Cossacks.

My Russian sailors are out art the painters now. My plan is to add a second  10 man unit and a machine gun. The Cossacks will be their cavalry wing.

The Chinese Bandits need a lot more love. I want to field 2x 15 man units and have some cavalry also and vehicles and and and.....

I'm trying to do this on the cheap as new hardwood floors at home have depleted my funds.