Baltic Independence Wars: Estonian and Latvian Infantry plus Buildings

There are no dedicated lines of miniatures for Estonian and Latvian troops in the Baltic Independence Wars, so you must use proxies and conversions to represent these soldiers. Looking through the Osprey book, there were a lot of uniform/equipment options depending on the army and timeframe for the war: Russian, German, American, and British kit seemed commonplace. Photos of reenactors from the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Cesis showed them mostly using Russian uniforms with a bit of German equipment mixed in. Based on this, I decided to use Russian figures for my proxies.

My Estonian command was built from Copplestone Casting miniatures.  Two of the figures looked close enough to represent the Estonian M1919 uniform, and I decided to go with the blue dress version rather than the standard grey purely for the aesthetics.  The third figure had a distinctively Russian tunic, but I opted to still give him the dress pants and cap to better match the other officers.    

Creating the Latvian command was a little tricky, as they wore the Balodis cap and a French style tunic as part of their M1919 uniform.  I had one Copplestone figure in a greatcoat hiding his uniform that also had his hatband visible all the way around, so I trimmed his cap back and got a passing approximate. The second figure was created from a Wargames Atlantic Russian officer body. I shaved down the epaulets and tried to make his collar look as French as possible. None of the WA heads were appropriate for conversion, but I found a Warlord WW2 British officer's head in the bits box that I was able to modify into something reasonable. 

The first unit of Estonian infantry was created from the Wargames Atlantic Russian plastic set, with a couple of Empress RCW figures thrown in. When ordering the Empress figures, I didn't notice that this pack had brimless caps, but I don't think the difference will be too obvious on the table. While the WA Germans suffered from bodybuilder proportions in their arms/torsos, WA seemed to have listened to customers' feedback; the Russian are much more naturally proportioned. As such, the thinner Empress figures didn't stand out as much this time.

As with my Germans, I wanted each unit to be slightly different in appearance to help with tracking units on the table.  There again seemed to be a lot of variation in the Russian tunic colors during the conflict, so I embraced that here. I also decided I would use helmets on the veteran units to make their status more obvious. There seemed to be a fair amount of German helmets floating around the Estonian army, so I used leftover heads from my WA Germans, along with some grenades. 

Latvian Infantry. As with the Estonians, these were made from Wargames Atlantic figures with a couple of Empress miniatures thrown in.

Latvian veterans. Based on the Osprey book, M1915 Adrian helmets were very commonly used by this army. The unit was a pretty even mix of WA and Empress figures; the Empress helmets were a bit thinner, but I didn't think it was immediately obvious on the table. 

The last unit represented poorly equipped new recruits and was built from Copplstone Casting's partisans. The mix of figures in the pack was random, but I unfortunately got a poor mix; there were 3 pairs of duplicates and 4 of the figures were built off the same body dolly. I did my best to hide the repetition with the paint schemes, but still wished it had a bit more variation. 

And here you can better see how the figures from the various manufactures sized up. The Wargames Atlantic Russians are thinner in proportions than their Germans (including the heads), and now sit somewhere between Empress and Copplstone. It was also interesting to see a bit of size creep in the Copplestone figures; the Russian officers were a little taller and bulkier than the partisans from the same line. 

Copplestone, Wargames Atlantic, Wargames Atlantic, Empress, Copplestone

I also decided to take a break from painting figures and assembled the first of my new buildings. First up were a couple of Sarissa buildings, with modifications made to their roofing materials. While nice looking, they are actually quite small and at most you'd be able to fit around 2-3 miniatures inside. 

I also decided to try out the offerings from Things from the Basement. This house was much larger in size and could hold quite a few figures.

I still have a few more units to paint and some additional buildings to assemble, but the finish line is in sight and I can't wait for an opportunity to finally get a game in.

Baltic Independence Wars: German Freikorps and Landeswehr

A few years back, our local gaming shop franchise went through a reorganization that caused them to clear out their shared warehouse. They were offering non-GW plastics at steep discounts and I was able to obtain a box of Wargames Atlantic Great War Germans for only $5 US. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them at that time (my existing Great War collection was for East Africa), but I couldn't resist the deal and added the figures to the pile. Fast forward to 2024 and I decided I'd combine them with the Empress Miniatures Freikorps figures I'd been admiring to create a skirmish force for the Baltic Independence Wars 1918-1920.

Now I was no expert on this force and their uniforms and equipment; my knowledge didn't extend too far beyond the relevant Osprey Publishing titles. However, I did my best to paint something that will pass casual inspection. My reading indicated there was a fair amount of variation in the feldgrau and steingrau uniform fabrics due to material shortages and varying quality of fabric dyes, so I intentionally incorporated that into my painting to help differentiate the various squads.

Command Group: I really liked the character of the Copplestone German Mercenaries from their Back of Beyond range, so opted to use them as my command.  I painted one as a Freikorps commander and the other as a Landeswehr commander.  They were joined by an Empress medic and an artillery observer from Great War Miniatures' artillery crew pack.

Freikorps Infantry Squads: These were predominately created from Wargames Atlantic plastics, with a few metal Empress figures thrown in. The WA figures were sculpted in a heroic 28mm format with very bulky bodybuilder style arms that often stuck out at strange angles (other hobbyists have commented on this previously). This was particularly noticeable with the MG08/15 arms. As such, there was a significant style difference with the Empress figures, which were slighter and sculpted with thinner proportions. While a bit obvious at table level (at least to me), I think they blended in well enough when observed from above.

Freikorps Pionieren Squad:  Again, these were WA figures with the exception of the Empress flamethrower team. I added the skulls and crossbones to the helmets to help flag that they were an elite squad.

Freikorps Stosstruppen Squad: WA figures with a single Empress grenadier figure. The MG08/15 was removed from the squad and more Bergmann MP18s added for close assaults.

MG08 Team: Another set from Empress. I really had difficulty getting the machine gun handles to fit properly in the gunner's hands and overall found the gun fiddley to assemble. As a result, the gunners feet didn't set properly on the ground, so I did my best to hide it with rocks and grass.  

FK96 Field Gun: This artillery piece and its crew were from Great War Miniatures. The crew pack came with 6 figures, but as Wikipedia says it used a 5-man crew, I used the extra figure as the observer with my command group. There were no assembly instructions provided with the gun, but I was able to eventually figure things out with reference photos.   

Baltic Landeswehr Infantry:  This unit was created from Empress miniatures.  To help differentiate them from the Freikorps units, I used the Vallejo German Uniform color to give their feldgrau a bit more of a blueish hue. I also painted the Baltic blue and white pipping onto their shoulders; the pattern wasn't as fine as I hoped, but was the best I was able to create.

Baltic Landeswehr Cavalry: Great War Miniatures. I didn't find a good reference for the uniform these miniatures were wearing, so I did my best to make them look reasonable.

And here is a close up of the figures to allow a size comparison (L-R): Wargames Atlantic, Empress, Copplestone. The WA figures were the bulkiest, but didn't stand out too badly when compared to Copplestone. The Empress figures were definitely in a style of their own. I think they would likley fit in more with the Great War figures, but I didn't have a standing GW figure for the comparison shot. One interesting bit was that while the rifles were similar in size across WA and Empress, the WA MP18s were much smaller when compared to the other manufacturers.

With that, this half of the project was finished and I was was happy with the results.  In the future, I'll be working on a joint Latvian/Estonian force that will either oppose my Freikorps when I need to supply both armies for a game, or can be combined with them if I find an opponent with a Bolshevik force.