From DaveD - 1 Tachanka, 2 Tachanka (100 points)

This week sees some more mobile firepower in the form of Tachankas . On the WW1 eastern front , RCW and in the Back of Beyond the roads are often poor quality or virtually non existent. Likewise internal combustion vehicles are likely to have poor maintenance a lack of spares or just fuel . Just the thing to get around these issues of course is a horse drawn carriage - and let’s stick a Maxim on it . High speed manoeuvrability and Dakka Dakka . What’s not to like.

3 would of course be a better number , but 2 will do for now! 

28mm options seem fairly limited or overly expensive. Warbases have filled a nice little niche , offering the Tachanka as an MDF kit for £5  , then crew and horse as seperate items . I am not of fan of the Warbases horses so I have used Pendraken 28mm draft horses , which are nicely proportioned and have correct horse furniture . (link -draught-horses-red-h02) The warbases crew figures are little stumpy , but they work well enough on the carriages.

The MDF kit for the  carriage is neatly designed and goes together well enough in a short time . For the crew I had to take a file and knife to them to scrape off the shoulder boards as my Bolos don’t have those . 

These should provide my cavalry force with some decent firepower 

A bit of extra work was done to make some reins from garden twisty wire about 300mm folded in half this is fed  through a hole drilled  through the drivers hand and then the loose end attached with solder to the bridle at each side the the middle horse .The traces from the horse to the carriage are made from thin black card . I had an interesting delve into how the horse furniture and attachment were generally done , and most seemed to have leather rather than rope or chain that I could see so the black card looks to have done a decent job replicating it . 

My storage trays box for these is now completely full . So I guess that’s it for now . I do have a larger boat to complete , but not sure that will be this side of challenge end 

My Bolos army has 3 large battles coming up in our ongoing campaign, so wish em luck.

Points 

2 x 28 vehicles = 40

6 x 28mm crew = 30

6 x 28mm horses =30 

2 guns = 20 

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More tremendous hobby engineering here Dave, and the subject is one of those bits of kit that are icnonic for a given period. You see these, and you immediately think "Russian Civil War". Well done. Also a nice touch that you touch the time to remove the shoulder boards from the crews, as of course those symbols of Imperialist oppression are just a no-go in the fight for the brave new future. 

I am sure they will look amazing in your approach game - but the only fate I will ever wish on Bolsheviks is to be mowed down in droves :)

A slight adjustment to the points calculation, as the guns and vehicles are together on this complicated little assemblage, but you still end up with a tidy 100 points - and a fitting cap to this incredible project!

GregB 

From BillA: The Ever-Glorious Workers' and Peasants' Red Army! (70 points)

Inspired by MarkG and DaveD's exemplary efforts this Challenge, I've begun work on my own set of Copplestone figures for the Back of Beyond. I've admired these figures for a long time, and in 2024 I started buying quite a number of them with an eye towards...something, gamewise, with the Back of Beyond? I've quite enjoyed reading histories about the region and its conflicts in the Interwar years, but whether or not I can translate that into something on the table (the various local wargamers who'll touch historicals at all, unfortunately, believe historical wargaming begins and ends with WWII). I did two packs of White infantry and an artillery piece over the course of 2025, and primed a couple packs' worth of Bolsheviks, Chinese and some Cossack cavalry ahead of the AHPC this year. So to start off, here's a dozen Bolsheviks:

This is one pack of Bolshevik infantry, and I decided to try some different things paint-wise with these, since I'd treated myself to Mark Hargreaves' painting guide last year, and used more washes than I usually do - predominantly Army Painter Soft Tone. Tunics I did all the same, but there's a total of four different colors used for trousers (two browns, two greens), and the rolled greatcoats are done in two different shades of dark gray, one warmer and one cooler. 

Accompanying them are a Commissar and one of Mark Copplestone's wonderfully characterful Bolshevik Heroines, sporting a Mauser C96 broomhandle. The Commissar was given a black leather jacket in my usual way - Reaper's "Coal Black" highlighted with "Midnight Blue," which was also used on all the boots. He's also got a heck of a lot of character to him, with that exaggerated yell he's got going on. I might have gone a little bright on his teeth! 

Finally, I've got a set of objective tokens to go with my Maya, and they're a grisly set indeed - three piles of severed heads, produced by Acheson Creations as single-piece resin castings. These were painted pretty quickly and intended to look like putrefaction had set in - a base coat of Reaper's "Ghoul Skin," washed with GW Druchii Violet, and then drybrushed heavily with another layer of "Ghoul Skin" followed by "Moldy Skin." They're on a raised integral base that's been glued to a 40mm Renedra round base, and are probably pretty close to 28mm tall overall. 

That's 12 28mm figures, for 60 points, plus whatever my illustrious minion considers the head-piles to be worth. And I'll claim a Squirrel point for "Back of Beyond," bringing me up to 5 (Maya, Modern Horror, Modern Africa, Dinosaurs, and now BoB).

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Sylvain: Very colorful figurines indeed, both in palette and in character. I find your collecting choices very interesting because I'm a big fan of Corto Maltese, a graphic novel character created by Hugo Pratt, who had adventures in the back of beyond, among other places. As for your heaps of heads, how about 10 points for the three of them for a total of 70 points? Fabuleux!

 

 

From PeterA - 28mm Bolsheviks (81)

After a rather paltry effort (1 figure) last week, I managed to get a bit more done this week.

First up is the second unit of 11 Bolshevik Infantry for The Back of Beyond. Like my previous effort, these are all lovely Copplestone Castings figures and paint up pretty quickly.

They are joined by a command element of officer, Commissar and standard bearer. I know that the latter was pretty unlikely to feature to close to the sharp end, but he does add a dash of colour to a rather drab unit! The Commissar figure is one of my favourite poses, calmly 'encouraging' his charges forward for the glory of the Revolution!

And here they all are together.

I also did an officer and Commissar for my first unit - pictured here with the already completed standard bearer.

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Splendid work Peter, I'm glad you were able to get more done this week (I note a second entry in the queue as well!). These are nice castings, with plenty of character in them. I may have to take a closer look at this range myself. 
Sixteen figures in all will earn you 80 points plus an extra for the standard. Nicely done sir!  
Lee

Yet more Bolsheviks - MartinC (140 Points)

I've finished my Bolshevik infantry, for now. These are more of the Copplestone Figures and have some bad mould lines that I should have worked on more. The painting is OK but I'm still ramping up my painting. Always takes me a couple of weeks to sort out my technique after a long break - I kinda forget how to paint, and I never knew how to photograph.

Infantry

Infantry

Er....Infantry

Cavalry, no wait, Infantry

Lewis gun support

Officers and Commissars - love the megaphone

Maxim gun

The basing is simple and is supposed to represent the Steppe in Autumn - mud.

That is 26 infantry, 3 prone figures and a gun. 

Time to move on to something different.

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More Bolshie reinforcements, Urahh! 

Those two Commissars are suitably inspirational (though I suppose anybody is 'inspirational' when they have a Makarov pointed at your head) and I really like the emplaced HMG team as well. Wonderful work Martin. I really quite enjoyed this project of yours and am sorry to see it come to a close. Nonetheless, you've inspired me to get some more of my RCW done so they've moved up the list a few spots - thanks for that! :) 

149 Points for your sterling efforts. Well done, Martin!