More Um Bum

 So I got right into things!  I assembled all the Um Bum buildings, they go together very quickly.

First up is the chapel.  I've added some GNW figures for size reference. The grey ones are the new resin figures from Kordegardia, and the brown ones are the Warlord Games plastic WSS (marching pose) and Warfare Miniatures (the other ones) so there's a bonus size comparison!

The building interiors are detailed, and for the 'Mediaeval Town' series (including this chapel), easily accessible.  Buildings in this series size reasonably well with 28mm figures.

The rest of the buildings are 1/87 or HO scale, so are undersized for 28mm figures.  But that's not necessarily a problem, as there's a viewpoint (often expressed by Doug!) that buildings should be a bit undersized compared to the figures.  I've used a Perry Miniatures DAK rifleman for scale in the following photos.

First up is the 'Collective Farm Office', complete with a choice of three flags and three different banners!  The flags are for the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belorussian SSR.  You need to look at them pretty closely to see which one is which, however!  The three banners read 'Glory to Labour!', 'Five Year Plan in Three Years!' and 'Our Goal is Communism!'

The building interiors are decorated, but it's a bit of a bother to lift off the roof.  I won't be opening the buildings for a typical game! 

Here's the first of the two churches. This one is based on an 18th Century church from the Karelia region northeast of Leningrad.  

And this one is based on the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, dating back to the 12th Century.  This church is located in a rural area in the Vladimir Oblast east of Moscow.  Maybe not quite typical of a Russian village church in 1941, but too pretty a building for me to leave out!  And it's to scale!

This little factory is built around boilers - the idea being to boil water, then distribute by pipelines to individual buildings.  Again, I don't know if these would be present in villages, or if they'd be limited to towns and cities.  But for gaming purposes, it's nice to have the option to include a brick building, which can provide hard cover, compared to the light cover that the other buildings could offer.  The brick walls are not very sturdy - I'll probably need to scotch tape them if I want to use this on the gaming table, or else they'll be knocked over too easily.

And to round things out, here are the three new houses.  I was a bit careless in my purchases, the one with the green trim is a duplicate of one that I picked up last year.  My 20th Century Russian/Soviet village now potentially includes seven houses, two churches, a boiler/factory and the collective farm office, as well as a few sheds and other outbuildings.  I guess I should come up with some fences and/or hedges to  put around the various buildings!

Russian Haul

 I'm back!  And I've got a big pile of Russian stuff to work on.

First up, a big expansion to my Um Bum collection.  I currently have a 4 houses, which will be expanded to a small village when I add these.

The new buildings are HO scale buildings for rural Russia, suitable for mid-20th Century (say, for Operation Barbarossa), including three more houses, two churches and a small factory.  There's also a roughly 28mm sized Italian Baroque-styled church that I hope will fit in with my Sicilian terrain.

For the Great Northern War, I have some lovely new resin figures from Kordegardia.  This will be my first project with resin figures, so will be an educational process for me!

The figures are 25 musketeers and 10 grenadiers.

From Siberia Miniatures, I picked up 

- 24 Basmachi (12 mounted, 12 on foot) plus a mountain gun and crew (these are particularly inspired by the look of the Basmachi in the movie White Sun of the Desert).  Note separate heads, still to be added.

- modern Russian Presidential Guard (and president)

- Russian Civil War defenders of the manor

I also got a proper Ushanka, along with a Red Army cap badge.  The Ushanka is plenty warm, especially with the flaps down.  Especially lovely when the temperature drops to -18C!

If I'd been thinking, I would have picked up half a dozen of these cap badges to use as CoC patrol markers!

Um Bum Part 4 - ruined castle

Here is the last of my Um Bum purchases, a ruined castle!  

 It's pretty big, about 32 cm (1 foot) each side and 27 cm tall.

There's a side panel that can be removed to access the interior (or simply left off to make the caste even more ruined!).

The corner tower is also removable.

Lots of room inside for moving figures around.

As you can see, fits in nicely with 28mm figures.  Depending on how my Operation Husky plans proceed, it could fit in as an abandoned Norman keep, somewhere in Sicily!

Um Bum Part 3 - Going Medieval

My Um Bum  collection also includes a few items from the 'Medieval Town' range.  Not quite sure why I chose to buy TWO bridges, and only ONE 'normal' building, but there you have it.

First up is the 'Trade Bridge'. Nice and wide, with a small dock and a little boat to go with it!

 Some Pulp Figures added to the photos to demonstrate scale!

The roofs on the buildings flip up to allow easy access to the inside (not like the HO buildings reviewed in my previous posts!).

The other bridge is a foot bridge, just barely wide enough for a single figure, in this case Monsieur Parasol.  

And the footpath to the side is far too narrow for any figure with a base!  

Building opens to reveal the interior.

The last building model is the 'Town Hall'. What makes it a town hall, rather than any other type of building?  Beats me!  But fits nicely with my 28mm figures.

And, like the others in the Medieval series, easily opens to allow figures to be placed inside.