All,
Here we go, my WWII Soviets, ready for battle. Well, not quite, still working on some stuff, but close enough that I figured I'd show what I have done. And it's kinda crappy showing these, as other people did almost all the work on these, I just added some details, cleaned some things up, or added in the odd figure/stand. The vast majority of this stuff came from a gentleman on TMP who sold his collection at a very reasonable price, which was part of what drove me to make the jump from 10mm into 15mm. You know, one of those, 'man, that's such a great deal, how could I pass it up? Sure, I don't really do 15mm, but damn... Yeah, gotta do it.' No damned discipline...
As with most of the rest of the forces I've displayed this past week, the Soviets are set up along the lines of a Rapid Fire table of organization, but I've (hopefully) built enough flexibility into it that I can do other stuff. One thing is for sure, I need more Soviet riflemen! ;)
The whole mess, basically built to take me from Barbarossa to Berlin, with vehicles and support at left, infantry at right. Kindly ignore the infantry with snow basing, they're not quite ready for showtime; work continues, and I'll post pics of them once they're completed.
Here's my Soviet infantry, basically a three-battalion regiment (the top three rows), plus a Sub-Machine Gun (SMG) battalion (fourth row down, the ones that are based in a lighter brown). Almost all of these were painted by someone else.
I've also got some Soviet Pioneers with flamethrowers (the four stands at top), along with some extra 50mm mortars, Anti-Tank Rifles (ATRs), and Maxim machine gun (MG) stands.
Eh, how 'bout a quick peek at the winter Soviets that are finished? Moving on.
The Red horde.
So let's start with some command, the Soviet Regimental commander (left) and a Forward Observer stand (right). I painted the CO, the FO was painted by Gajo Minis.
Look at that dashing Soviet commander! "Keep pushing, or I'll have you shot! Your casualties are not my problem, comrade!"
Another look, love the radio operator sitting on a crate (of vodka, I'm sure).
The FO stand.
A Soviet rifle battalion, as per Rapid Fire OOBs.
Well, sorta, mostly. I can't help but build in commanders (left) and Commissars (right) at the battalion level. These were painted and based by the dude from TMP.
A 76mm Field Gun and Maxim MG. The dude from TMP did the MG, I did the M1927s.
Each battalion has a 120mm (left) and an 82mm (right) mortar. These were painted by Gajo Minis and based by me.
An ATR (left) and a 50mm mortar (right), painted by the TMP dude. The Battlefront plastic figures are nice, but I like the character of the metals better, and one of the problems with the plastics in the Soviets is quite of the few ATRs are bent all over the place, looking like tubas or something...
Each battalion has six rifle stands, representing three 8-figure rifle companies. These were all done by the TMP dude.
A closeup. Very nice paintjobs and basing.
Again.
A look at my SMG battalion, which has nothing but SMGs and a commander, no machine guns, mortars, or guns. I bought these painted and based by a gentleman in St Petersburg, Russia. They look very nice and are, if nothing else, authentic ;)
A close up. I'm undecided on whether I leave the basing alone (I think it looks great), or try to re-do it to match the rest of the force.
Another.
Once more.
And their commander.
A hell, one more, why not?
The Soviet flamethrower teams, done up by the dude from TMP.
A closeup.
Hey, there's a guy I painted (rifleman at center). I had to re-base some of the stuff, and when I did I didn't have enough figures from the TMP dude, so I had to paint some guys to fill in the rest of the bases.
Reverse.
And another guy I painted (the kneeling SMG gunner). Sorry I keep pointing that out...
And look at these damn things, absolutely beautiful! Two Il-2 Sturmoviks, painted by the TMP dude.
A closer look. Pure awesomeness.
And one more.
Some trucks I bought off the Russian guy.
Two 37mm Bofors AA guns, from the Russian dude.
A closeup of one of the guns.
Four 76.2mm 'Crash Booms,' painted by the TMP dude. You'll notice I'm missing the (also) iconic 45mm Soviet ATGs; I've got four sitting in a box, waiting to be finished.
Actually, looking at the barrels, these might be Zis-2 57mm guns, not Zis-3 76mm guns…
A closeup.
Another.
And one more. Very pretty.
Now check these out, two 12mm howitzers from the Russian dude, and look at that basing! Crazy!
The first gun and crew, very nice, but pretty conventional.
And the other gun/crew. Look at that cat sitting atop the giant stump (or is it a rock?), checking the fall of shot. I love it!
Then we get to Stalin's Organs, the dreaded Katyushas, painted up by the TMP dude.
A closer look.
And one more.
Some BA-64 armored cars. I bought these off Ebay, just pulled them off their bases and added decals.
A closeup.
Another Ebay purchase, some BA-10 armored cars. Since my Soviets are so full of revolutionary fervor, I again added decals. A common theme ;) I hope I didn't overdo them, but I like it.
A closeup.
Reverse.
Another Ebay purchase, seven T-26 obr. 1939 models. They were actually painted up as Finnish, so I repainted and put decals on them.
Another look.
And one more.
Some BT-5s, which I actually purchased and painted myself! You can see I painted them before I figured out the whole 'muddy the tracks and dry-brush the hell out of them' thing...
A closeup.
Another.
And how about a whopping ten T-70s? These were painted up by the TMP dude.
A closeup. I will no doubt be using these as early war T-60s, too.
Another.
And if you thought 10 T-70s was a lot, wait until you see my 15 T-34/76s! That's a lot of T-34s... Painted by the TMP dude.
Some closeups.
Very nicely painted. The one thing that surprises me about all the vehicles (minus the Sturmoviks) is that the guy didn't put decals on them.
Another look.
And one more.
And fifteen T-34s is a lot, but somehow eight KV-1s seems like even more ;) I'm not sure what kind of game I'd be playing to get 15 T-34s on the table, much less eight KV-1s. I guess some 1:1 Kursk game, but then I wouldn't be happy doing that in 15mm I think, not even if I was using my full 8' x 6' table.
Coming straight at ya; tell me that doesn't make you think about wetting your pants ;)
Really nice looking.
And reverse.
I bought this group of Su-76s on Ebay. They're plastic, but I'm not sure of the manufacter; my guess is Plastic Soldier Company. Very nice, just a bit lighter green than the rest of my Soviets and, more irksome, no humans visible in them!
A closeup.
Again.
I bought these Su-122s off Ebay, didn't have to do anything but repair some scratched up metal.
Another look.
And once more.
And if you've got Su-122s, ya gotta have ISU-122s. I guess ;) These were painted by the TMP dude.
A closer look.
And one more.
And that brings us to the last vehicles, a pair of of Su-152s, just massive beasts, painted by the TMP dude.
A close up.
And one more look.
And I found this gem at Nobleknight games, already painted, for $10!!! A total steal!
And a quick update on the Japanese: they're painted (well, except the four casualty stands, top right), just have to sand them, paint the bases, inkwash the bases, apply static grass, mark the units, and matte spray them. Almost there!
So, there are my Soviets, with more stuff being worked on. I'm very happy with them, and I hope you guys like them. I am absolutely dying to get back to Kampfgruppe Klink to get Operation Barbarossa started, but still have several other projects ahead of them. Yeah, I guess I've got too many projects I'm absolutely dying to get to...
So, let me know what you think, and my apologies, a smarter man would have spread these out over a more reasonable amount of time, one or maybe two posts per week, but I'm not a smarter man ;) I didn't mean to spam you guys with all this stuff, but I've recently completed a lot of this stuff and wanted to get it all out as quickly as possible, and move on to some other stuff. Yeah John, I was eyeing my box of unpainted 10mm Napoleonics ;)
V/R,
Jack
