"What do you mean I can't play with it. It's my army."
As I'm working on my project for the Russian-Anglo war in Central Asia and the British Raj using The Men Who Would be Kings (paid link), I envisioned it taking place in my fictional universe sometime between 1895 and 1905 to give me the maximum use of figures that I like for the game. As I mentioned earlier, I am not an expert on the Imperial Russian Army of this time frame and guess what? I bought the wrong Russian Maxim machine gun. This is what it should look like: The caption reads:
The caption reads: "In postion. Mounted machine gun before an enemy attack," and is credited to Special Correspondent V. Taburin of Niva.
The gun above is the PM M1910 and was used by the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and World War II. Interestingly, the gun saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Decisions, decisions. I found many manufacturers that sell the correct Russian Maxim for the period and they do look great. As you probably can guess since you can see the pictures of the completed models, I just decided to go with what I bought. Fictional War? My Universe? Too lazy to order another model? I report, you decide. (Don't be surprised when the British Indian Army show up wearing shorts prior to World War I!).
I'm using The Men Who Would be Kings (paid link) for the upcoming tabletop battles and a machine gun per the rules has a crew of 4, one of which is an officer. The Copplestone Castings White Russian Maxim blister for the Back of Beyond range comes with 3 men; I added a figure from the European Advisors in the same line to be the officer for the machine gun.
Капитан Ричард Брайтонов (Kapitan Richard Braytonov commands the deadly Maxim. He is wearing a privately purchased tujurka, a short grey coat for travelling.
Ефрейтор Патя Алексеева (Corporal Patya Alexeev) is in charge of the gun crew.
Neil - I feel that as you have invented a war that never actually eventuated, its entirely up to you to decide what can or cannot be included in the hostilities - knock yourself out and I look forward to seeing what eventuates from "The Great Game gone Hot"!
ReplyDeleterross,
DeleteThanks; that's how I felt (but the laziness factor did make a difference!). As more units get painted, I think the first game is going to be a border incident using the skirmish version of the The Men Who Would be Kings. Thanks again.
Neil
Obviously your choice to deploy the experimental version for field tests. Looks good whatever the story line.
ReplyDeletepancerni,
DeleteThanks. It was easy to paint, especially since I hate painting artillery or anything with wheels.
Neil
Great looking figures Neil. To be honest if you hadn't told us the Maxim was the wrong one, most of us would never have known.
ReplyDeleteLike you I'd just go with it.
Ray,
DeleteThanks. I accidentally discovered it was the wrong maxim and their are some models made with the correct carriage. During the Russo-Japanese War commanders experimented and cut down the carriage which lead to the present design. (But the laziness factor did work in!). I've used proxies before and if it's close enough, it's close enough. By the way, I've loved watching your project.
Neil
Those are both good maxims!
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
DeleteI agree. I may just break down and buy the other type to give some variety on the tabletop.
Neil
Great looking model ans as others have said. It's your game, use what you want
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! You should see what I have used as proxies in the past! Thanks.
ReplyDelete