General Mulder in da house |
These are an inexperienced rifle squad. The Soviet special rule is that you get one of these for free. Yup, inexperienced troops are so chaff worthy that we get a squad for nuffink. Other nations get snazzy guns or more leadership. Us? More men to throw at the guns. Very Soviet. Painting wise, I will confess that these are not the best painted models. Mostly because the models themselves range from very good to ooookay.... Some of the eyes are lopsided and a lot of details are soft. They're ok for what they do though. Just don't expect top of the line. There is a lot of argument about Soviet army colours. Most people go with brown because that is what Osprey's illustrators default to. Trouble is, they're actually mostly green-brown with varying shades because the factories just used whatever dye or cloth was closest to the colour they needed (Quantity not Quality comrade!). As the army was distinctly late sprine/early summer weight clothing I didn't have the brown greatcoats to do either. Using a paint guide for Battlefront's Flames of War models I set to work. Vallejo Russian Uniform was used as the base coat with occasional bits of Khaki and Flat Earth mixed in to give that variety. All the webbing, blankets and the like got picked out then a whole load of Agrax Earthshade got deployed.
These are the nastiest squad in the army. Submachine gunners were a big part of the Soviet plan. The Winter War against Finland had taught them the usefulness of large numbers of small-bore automatic weapons. In Bolt Action they are lethal, especially on the charge. I expect these lads to be rather heavily shot at in future games... Once the Agrax has dried I picked out the flesh in the usual way (little darker for the steppes lads) and the helmets in Val Camo Olive Green washed in Athonian Camoshade. Black boots and some basing and we're pretty much done!
Snipers team, anti-tank rifle and the officer (destined for a metal replacement as the face is... not good) with his ADC. Officers in Bolt Action really do lead, you need them to get pinned guys back in the fight, to force men to advance when the bullets are flying. Another "feels right" sort of rule.
Finally we have my ZIS-3 divisional gun. The Soviets were big on artillery and this thing was called "the god of the battlefield"! It's a versatile piece able to fire as either an anti-tank gun or a high explosive howitzer. Very handy. The model is a tricky build, tiny contact areas and ill-fitting axles. Worth it though, looks cracking. Easy to paint too as it is essentially one colour all over! In order to prevent the gun from falling apart all the time I mounted it on one of Renedra's large oval bases with slots for the crew.
sad gun has no crew |
And that is that! The first 500 points of the Soviets. Will definitely be increasing this army as I've already got a gorgeous Hobbyboss 1:48 T34/85 to add to the force and intend to add even more basic infantrymen. Proper Soviet tactics. Overwhelm them! Then it'll probably be little reinforced platoons of other nations, British Commandos are on my mind, but then so are Desert Rats, Afrika Korps, US and UK paratroopers... the list goes on...
TTFN