OK ... so, I couldn't get any of the previous pagedlist items to work for me.

HOWEVER, I did get this to work ... creates a paged list with bootstrap pagedlist controls.

Here's the code from a partial view I created should anyone need a solution that doesn't require a surfaceController-Model-View combination (although I'm sure that these are "cleaner" and more "elegant" solutions than what's listed here):

@inherits Umbraco.Web.Mvc.UmbracoTemplatePage

@{
    var pageSize = 6;
    var page = 1; 
    int.TryParse(Request.QueryString["page"], out page);


    var items = CurrentPage.Site().FirstChild("articlesMain").Children("articlesItem").Where("Visible").OrderBy("CreateDate descending");

    var totalPages = (int)Math.Ceiling((double)items.Count() / (double)pageSize);

    if (page > totalPages)
    {
        page = totalPages;
    }
    else if (page < 1)
    {
        page = 1;
    }


}



<div class="container-fluid">

    <div class="row">

        <div class="container-fluid">
    <!-- START for testing code-pagination functionality -->
    <h1>Testing pagination</h1>

    <p>Page size = @pageSize</p>
    <p>page = @page</p>
    <p>items = @items.ToList()</p>
    <p>total page = @totalPages</p>
    <p></p>
<!-- END for testing code-pagination functionality -->
    <div class="row" style="margin-top:25px;">

    @foreach (var item in items.Skip((page - 1) * pageSize).Take(pageSize))
    {
        <div class="col-md-4" style="min-height: 540px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:15px;padding:10px;">
    @{
        var image = item;
        if(item.HasValue("newsImage"))
    {
        <img class="img-responsive" src="@image.newsImage.Url" />
    }
    }

                    <h3>@item.Name</h3>
                    <h4>@item.NewsSubtitle</h4>
                    <p>@Umbraco.Truncate(@item.NewsBodyText,150) <a class="" href="@item.Url"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></span><span class="popHorasBold"> Ler Mais</span></a></p>




        <a href="@item.Url" class="btn btn-default btn-lg btn-danger"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></span> Ler Mais</a>

        <br />
        </div>
    }

    </div>

    @if (totalPages > 1)
    {
        <ul class="pagination">

            @if (page > 1)
            {
                <li class="previous"><a href="?page=@(page-1)">Prev</a></li>
            }

            @for (int p = 1; p < totalPages + 1; p++)
            {
                var active = (p == page) ? "active" : string.Empty;

                <li class="@active"><a href="?page=@p">@p</a></li>
            }
            @if (page < items.Count() && page != totalPages)
            {
                <li class="next"><a href="?page=@(page+1)">Next</a></li>
            }

        </ul>
    }
</div>

    </div></div>

Appreciate the help getting this far ... I hope this helps someone else.