Röda nävar

Right then, last week I was away on holiday on sunny Mallorca so not much got done hobby-wise and consequently no update on the blog. I didn't get to do any historical sightseeing, apart from walking past the impressive cathedral in Palma. But this, coupled with the sight of the arid landscape, was enough to give me much inspiration for one of my "could-be" projects. As a result I'm 99% sure I will actually do the project, and it will probably be one of the first for next year. I'll let you know more when I post my plans for projects for 2014 around New Year.

It was a bit of a shock coming home though, as it apparently autumn has arrived while I was away. I went from 28 C and sun to 8 C and rain! However, the good thing is it's now perfectly acceptable to stay indoors and work away on my hobby-stuff.

Well, that's enough of my ramblings for now – on to the miniatures. This week I have finally managed to finish the miniatures for my own faction for our A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict project, the Röda nävar communist militia.

Röda nävar (Red fists) is one of the most well known of the many smaller Red militia bands formed during the battle for Gothenburg. Mostly drafted from the workers of the city's shipyards, they made a name for themselves after capturing the Pripps' Brewery, an important strategic victory and a major symbol for the Red's resistance.

After the battle, they have fought in a number of defenses against White forces trying to re-capture the city but mostly they have been on guard duty – a boring mission which they fail to see how it will further the cause of the people's revolution. As a result, they have answered the urgent call for help from the Red forces on the new front line in Bergslagen, and are now ready to bring their fighting selves into the fire once more!

The whole force, ready to bring the White scum to their knees in the name of the people:

Röda nävar is led by Karl Weiron Ottosson, a former foreman and staunch union activist of the Götaverken shipyard. He is charismatic and well-liked by his men, but lately he's been getting a bit paranoid, looking for possible traitors in his own ranks. Maybe it is time for a purge to root out those without the true revolutionary spirit? Good thing he has The Book to help him in his struggles.

The miniatures are all from Musketeer Miniatures' Interwar range. The leader's head is from a plastic Warhammer Empire flagellant, his hands and the rifle are from the WW2 German Infantry plastic boxed set from Warlord Games, and the book was made from a piece of plasticard.

There are some minor conversions, like headswaps, on some of the other models as well. And all the miniatures have armbands made from grey stuff.

Some more pictures:

 

  And a parting shot for good measure:

So there you have it. I hope you like them.

Thanks for looking – have a great week everyone!

Röda nävar WIP

My next project will be a couple of small forces for the club's A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict campaign. The first of these is the revolutionary Marxists of Röda nävar  (Red fists). They are a bunch of hardcore communists from Gothenburg – a traditional "red" workers' city in Sweden. In our campaign Gothenburg is therefore of course a strongpoint for the Reds, having captured it after very hard fighting in the streets.

More about the background of Röda nävar when I've finished them. In the meantime, here are some WIP shots.

I've added some simple armbands from grey stuff and on the model to the left (armed with an LMG) I've added an extra ammo pouch, although it's on his back so you can't see it in the shot.

On the miniature to the right I did a head swap. I still have to do some filling in on the neck as you can see.

This miniature will be used as the base for the leader. I will do some semi-heavy converting: he will get a new head, and I will replace both his hands – in the left hand he will get a rifle and in the right hand he will get something interesting, something to inspire the masses ...

Also, I'll probably add stick-bombs/grenades to some of the models, as I had a couple of points left when working out the force list and grenades were pretty cheap.

All miniatures are from Musketeer Miniatures' Interwar range. Overall, they are very nice models, but I think the faces are a bit too similar and would have liked some variation there.

Hopefully I'll finish all the conversions soon, so I can start painting these models up. I will be going away on an "extra" holiday in two weeks time, and I plan to have them finished by then.

Thanks for looking! Have a great week everyone!

A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict

The guys down at the club have been working on a fun little project called "A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict". It's more or less a Swedish version of "A Very British Civil War", were the Ådalen shootings serves as a starting point for a civil war. But being Swedish, it's of course a more "lagom" conflict, and not all out war.

It's a great project, loads of fun in the AVBCW spirit, and the guys have worked hard to get all the bits into place: Dalauppror has built some great terrain and tweaked some rules to use, Ulf and Matts have written a background complete with an alternative timeline, and Björn has even commissioned his own range for the project. Very cool indeed!

Last night was the first game of the project, and naturally I tagged along to join in on the fun. And fun it was! We were 9 players in total, plus our very patient umpire Dalauppror – with this many players I imagine it was somewhat like herding cats.

The scenario revolved around an attack by the Reds on a filling station (fuel being in short supply, both sides wanted to have control of this) while the Whites (or the Army in this case) tried to hold them off. Dice were thrown, laughs were had, and men fell on both sides (but mostly on the Red).

In the end, despite receiving reinforcements and even taking out the army's tank, the Reds had taken such a beating that they found it best to retreat and fight another day. Or as they said, "To root out the bourgeois traitors in our ranks".

You can find an excellent AAR on Dalauppror's blog – do check it out.

I played on the Red team, and although we lost the game, I haven't had this much fun in good while. So ... I'm now seriously pondering taking the leap and paint up some Red militia types in the form of anarcho-syndicalists. A group of 6 models and a leader should be enough to get me started – especially if we're doing more multi-player games.

Now, to find some suitable models ...