To take a break from all the camouflage I went with a batch of all khaki (with the exception of one KLMK camouflaged guy that slipped in). I painted them with the Transnistria War in mind, but most could be used for any Post-Soviet War, especially the wars in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
RH Models MULTBHAK; MULTBHRPK; MULTBHAK
RH Models MULT*RPG with head swap; MULT*AK with head swap; MULT*SNI with head swap
RH Models MULT20AK; MULTBAK; BANDAK; MULT20AK
RH Models MULTBHGREN
RH Models makes plenty of great radio figures so I was excited to paint these last two. I'll probably paint up more later, just because - not because I need more. I made the antennas with hairs from a dust bin brush.
RH Models MULTBHCOM; RUSRADB
Fighter (separatist?) walks by burned out truck in Bendery center (June 30th, 1992).
Russian-speaking nationalists look on slain fighter [censored] in Bendery, Moldova (June 23rd, 1992).
Government soldier taking a break with French photographer Patrick Roberts (October 26th, 1993).
Government soldiers in Senaki, Western Georgia (October 26th, 1993).
Monday, May 16, 2016
Camouflage ... Yup, I've had enough of it for a few weeks. I still love it, but I could sure use a break. Bring on the plain khaki!
To beef up my Pro-Russian separatist force I painted another batch of KLMK garbed fighters. I had fun with head swaps again. My favorite is the ranger style field cap.
RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; MULT20AK; MULTBHRPG
RH Models MULT20AK; MULTBAK; BANDAK; MULT52 with head swap
RH Models MULTBHPKM; MULT*AK with head swap
RH Models MULT*COM with head swap; MULTBHAK; MULTBHCOM
Transnistrian National Guard in Bender (July 5th, 1992).
For fun I added a Georgian fighter to this group. I was inspired by a photograph I found that was taken during the defense of Sukhumi. In the image the soldier is shown wearing a sphera helmet (no secondary cover), some sort of early Russian body armor and KZS pants. I swapped a head to get the helmet right, added a green stuff collar and extended the pants with more green stuff. I couldn't get the shoulder pads correct so I went with a slightly different style of early armor. I think the effect is similar.
RH Models RUSBARRPK with head swap (and green stuff)
Georgian fighters tending wounded near Sukhumi (July, 1993).
Some time ago I heard interview with C.J. Chivers on his book The Gun on NPR. Ever since that time I've wanted to read the book, but was reluctant to get it in hardback and wasn't able to find an audio version of it at or through my library. A couple weeks back I took the plunge and decided to just purchase the mp3 CD version of it.
C.J. Chivers
The Gun tells the history of the AK-47. While not my normal fare the book does have lots of relevancy to my Post-Soviet war obsession, after all it is the AK-47 and its variants that I always seem to be painting. It was a great listen. The book includes a biography of Mikhail Kalashnikov and a detailed discussion of the development of the gun its multiple variants, many knock-offs and true successor the AK-74. This material was certainly interesting, but equally interesting were the many side stories and chapters that Chivers includes to flesh out the story. My favorites were those concerning its predecessors the Gatling and the Maxim, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the development and initial problems of the M-16 and the exploitation of Cold War stockpiles. I will definitely have to read more about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and could one day see painting some figures for it. My main gripe is the book devotes too much time to the M-16. I'm not entirely sure this was appropriate, perhaps Chivers should have chosen to write a sequel The Other Gun: The Story of the M-16 instead. Despite that small complaint it was worth the 19 hours I spent listening to it. I'll definitely recommended this one to some friends and family members.
I had so much fun making and painting pro-Russian fighters for use in Transnistrian War battles that I decided to do another batch. For some of these figures I did some head swaps ... I can't stop myself! In this batch I began my transition to using Rolf's multi-purpose figures to represent the KLMK camouflaged uniforms without hoods I've seen in pictures. My next batch will be primarily composed of those. For two of the figures I decided to paint their chi-com ammo rigs medium blue to reflect a video I've seen with such rigs being worn in Bendery. It was a good excuse to use a color I don't use too much. Painting all these sun bunnies sure took a long time (2 evenings), but in the end I think it is worth it.
RH Models RUSAK* with head swap; MULT20AK; MULT*AK with head swap; RUSBG* with head swap
RH Models RUSRADB; RUSPKM* with head swap; RUSSNIV; MULT*AK with head swap
RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; RUSAKH
Cossacks in Moldova during Moldova/Transnistria War.
Pro-Russian fighter in Dubossary, Moldova (June, 1992).
For the figure below I was inspired by one of my favorite pictures of Pro-Russian volunteers in Bendery. The camouflage suit the man in foreground is wearing according to my Russian Camouflage book is called KZS and is made of some sort of cheap, burlap-like fabric. It doesn't look too comfortable and fades like crazy to colors that range anywhere from bright yellow to dark green. The picture shows a hole in the suit near the guy's elbow, so I did my best to reproduce that with some green stuff.
RH Models RUSRPG* with head swap
Russian-speaking nationalists fighting in Bendery, Moldova (June 29th, 1992).
Lastly, just for more fun I painted up a figure inspired by set of pictures I've found of Georgians resting in Gagry. The guy in the picture is definitely wearing the Soviet panama cap with the strap used to bend up the sides. A few of Rolf's bush hat guys seem close enough to me, so I painted one up to match the picture.
RH Models MULTBUSHAK
Georgian fighters in Gagry, Abkhazia (September, 1992).
For my last book I made a slight deviation and read Confessions of a Mullah Warrior by Masood Farivar. Confessions is a the memoir of an Afghan who in the late in 1980's fought against the Soviets. The Afghanistan-Soviet war definitely it isn't a Post-Soviet conflict, but I certainly find it interesting ... and I have a lot of figures suitable for it now. I'm a big fan of war memoirs so I went with this one.
Farivar (born 1969) grew up in a relatively middle class family in the town of Sheberghan, Afghanistan. His grandfather was a revered mullah and his father was a highly educated, prideful man. With his family he escaped into Pakistan and lived as a refugee. There he received a religious education, became more faithful and eventually became a mujaheddin fighter. After the war he was able to attend Harvard University and work as a journalist in the US. The book concludes by describing two return journeys he made to Afghanistan one while the country was under control of the Taliban and one afterwards.
Farivar's description of his experience as a mujaheddin does not include much interaction with Soviet troops (slight bummer), but he does a great job explaining the situation and motivation of the later fight and civil war. I doubt there are many mujaheddin memoirs in English or as balanced as this one, so although my knowledge of the Soviet-Afghanistan war is still somewhat limited I consider this book to be a true gem.
Inspired by a couple of videos I found on You Tube of Pro-Russian fighters (Transnistrian forces were composed of volunteers, Cossacks, elements of the Soviet 14th Army and handful of Ukrainians) street fighting in Bendery, summer 1992, I decided to paint a bunch of RH Model Russians.
The videos I've seen and pictures I've collected show the forces wearing all manner of headgear so lots of fun head swaps were in order. Transnistrian fighters appear to occasionally wear orange-red headbands and armbands so for this batch I added one of those (pro-Moldovan forces on the other hand wore white headbands/armbands). The figure in a panama cap was inspired by a picture of an Abkhazian I've found, but I suppose he could also be fighting in Moldova during this period as well. I experimented a bit with the green used for these. For half of the figures I went with a equal mix of Dark Green 860, SS Bright Green 833 and Yellow Green 881 to produce the more yellowish green used and for a richer green I went with Richard of Cold War Hot Hot Hot's 2/3 Reflective Green 890 and 1/3 SS Bright Green 833. There's evidence for lots of variation (fading?) so more mixes could be possible. For the Cossack officer caps I went with a mix of 2/3 Medium Camouflage Brown and 1/3 Brown Violet.
I've got a bunch more of guys like these in the queue, more KLMK dudes and then lots of khaki. The Cossack forces in particular should be fun to paint. Last week I won an award at work for a short project I did and I put the money towards a resin casting set. Fun stuff coming in the future!
RH Models RUSAK* with head swap
RH Models RUSCOMOFF; RUSRPK* with head swap; RUSAKBH; RUSCOM* with head swap
RH Models RUSRPGKNV (one with head swap); RUSAKB
RH Models RUSAKH; RUSAKB, RUSAKB with head swaps
Pro-Russian militia and Cossacks marching to defend Bendery in 1992.
Abkhazian fighters celebrating in 1992.
Russian troops (of the 14th Army?) on the border of Moldova and Dniepr (April, 1992).
Just like an old Fixx song one book leads to another. In the case of this book, 8 Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse by Lawrence Scott Sheets, I found out about it looking through the bibliography of another book. (It ain't easy finding and reading every book printed about Post-Soviet Wars in English!) The author's name was familiar to me because he was mentioned in several other books I read. I knew he was a reporter working in the Caucasus region in the 90's. I found out he was also a long time reporter of Russian news on NPR. If you've listened to NPR in the last decade or two you've certainly heard him report from Russia or thereabouts.
8 Pieces of Empire tells the tale of the demise of the Soviet Union in eight vignettes (the seventh is a bit Hodge-podge and the last is more like a conclusion). Sheets first visited the Soviet Union in the late eighties and spent the better part of two decades there reporting for Reuters and then NPR. The book first describes his experiences in a communal apartment in Leningrad as a student and running into petty criminals/aspiring free market entrepreneurs. Sheets then describes his time in Sukhumi during the fall of the city to Abkhazians, his witness to the refugee crisis in Azerbaijan and his time reporting on the Chechen Wars. The reemergence of Orthodox Christianity and the situation in Uzbekistan/Afghanistan are also recorded. Additionally, he includes bits on Chernobyl, Eduard Shevardnadze's downfall, the Russian Far East and the attack on School No. 1 in Beslan. He concludes the book with a return to his communal apartment in St. Petersburg. The book succeeds in impressing upon its readers the magnitude of the Soviet downfall. It reads very quickly. The conclusion is a bit of a letdown. After stating his reluctance to do so, Sheets reveals a bit of what it was like to report on a single topic for twenty years and the toll it took on his mental health, but this part was far too short. Despite this small complaint, the book is definitely worth checking out. If you're like me you'll finish it quickly, wishing Sheets wrote eight books instead of one and realizing he probably never will.
