Waterloo Preview

Some pictures of my brother and I on the Lion Mound at Waterloo.  An amazing place to visit and I plan on adding some more pictures and info later.  I am hoping to actually write something on all the museum and historical sights I get to, we will see if that actually happens.

All Plastic Soviet Army for FoW

So I thought I would provide some details  on what my all plastic soviet strelkovy battalion for Flames of War looks like and the associated costs.  This army list was made to max out the points and involves the use of a few proxies.  The proxies are: The HQ Pioneers are just regular rifle teams. The horsedrawn supply wagon is a truck. The extra crew for the Katys is actually an ammo supply truck for each.  And the Shturmovik Tips are actually just regular Shturmoviks.  So it's not quite 'cricket' but it's good enough for a rugby player like me.        

Strelkovy Batalon

Soviet Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Strelkovy Batalon HQ  p.141	2 1 5 1	Cmd Rifle team Komissar team Pioneer Rifle team Pioneer Supply Horse-drawn wagon	130
Combat Companies
Strelkovy Company  p.142	1 1 21	Cmd Rifle/MG team Komissar team Rifle/MG team	335
Strelkovy Company  p.142	1 1 14	Cmd Rifle/MG team Komissar team Rifle/MG team	230
Weapons Companies
Strelkovy Scout Platoon  p.143	1 4	Cmd SMG team SMG team	165
Corps Support
Tankovy Company  p.130	5 5 10	T-34 obr 1942 with Cupola T-34/85 obr 1943 with Cupola Tankodesantniki SMG team	650
Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion  p.152	1 1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Observer Rifle team Truck BM-13 Katyusha (5+ crew)	155
Air Support  p.147	7	Priority Air Support Il-2M Tip 3M Shturmovik	290
Company Points:			1955

Source document: Fortress Europe


I live in Canada and ordered the miniatures for my army from one Canadian and one American online store.  I didn't notice much of a difference between costs and fees from either and customer service from both was excellent. 

To make this army I used.
2 boxes PSC Soviet Infantry from Woordrows Warstore at $49.00 total
2 boxes PSC T-24 tanks also from Woordows at $49.00 total
4 Katyushas order from The Warstore at $14.00 total
3 Shtrumoviks from The Warstore at $10.50 total
5 Zis-5 Trucks from The Warstore at $17.50 total
2 Packages of Battlefront Medium bases at $20.00 total
And 10 small bases worth say $2.00

The Grand total being: $162.00

There would also be associated taxes and shipping and I got a discount on my order from the Warstore since I ordered on black Friday.  But I think it is feasible to make a 2000 point Soviet force for under $200.

Going to be my last post for a while I'm off to Belgium and Northern France for 2 weeks and then some time in Turkey.  Hoping to get to Waterloo, Normandy and Gallipoli.

Adios

Zevezda Soviet Support, Katyushas and Shturmoviks

I have assembled some Corps support for my Strelkovy Battalion.  The start of a Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion with 2 soon to be 4 Katyushas. And an Il2 Shturmovik I have 3 of these bad boys but might hold off on the other two till version 3 of Flames of War is released which might change the number of planes you need.

\I did a bit of a step by step for the Katyushas so you could see how they go together.

The Finished Product

The Chassis

The launching superstructure is quite fiddly and it is hard to remove the mold lines off the tires. 

   
The soft plastic on both these kits is not nearly as nice to work with as Plastic Soldier Company's stuff.  It is hard to clean the mold lines off when the plastic bends away from the knife.  The Propeller on the Il2 was particularly frustrating and I finally gave up on.  Luckily no ones going to be looking at it too closely I hope.  Too cold outside to spray a base coat on these guys so I think I am going to keep building.  The remaining Katys and some PSC German Half-tracks are next.   

Also I purchased a Secrets of the Third Reich A.P.E.  to use as an Ogryn in my death squad.  Did a quick head swap and nothing else. Sorry the picture is far away I will take a better one once he sees some paint.

Test Paint Scheme for Death Squads

So instead of doing important life things I painted up a test mini for my Imperial Death Squad.  The camo pattern is supposed to resemble the Cadpat camo currently used by the Canadian Military.  Not sure why I decided to do a brown gun.  I'm also not certain on whether I want to keep the dark green body armour.   

  
For more info on Death Squads a fan made Warhammer 40k Skirmish game go here.
http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/

Poor Bloody Infantry

I finished painting (except for the dipping) and glued to the bases (but have not yet based) my German infantry.  The Soviet infantry has also been glued to bases.  I am really not looking forward to basing all these guys and they will probably all get a very similar sand and static grass base.  The one hiccup in all this is that I stupidly glued all the soviets down with white glue not plastic glue so some have been falling off.  I contemplated ripping them all off and doing it all again but can't handle that right now.  Hopefully the glue and sand will help secure them and any who fall off after that will get plastic cement.

For Flames of war the Germans make up 3 grenadier platoons and 1 pioneer platoon with a company HQ. 

A Grenadier Platoon

A basic paint job.

4 Platoons

The soviets are one full company of 3 platoons and one short company of 2 platoons. Also 10 SMG teams to either be swapped into the infantry platoons or to be used as tank riders, though the rules for them have changed in the latest book so not sure if they will get used as tank riders much.

Should have spaced them out into platoons, but you get the picture

 
The most time consuming part of the Germans was actually doing the equipment on their back which you can't see in the pictures and is hardly noticeable in real life anyways.  Another reason not to get too detailed at 15mm :)  Not sure whether I am going to start basing next or start painting something else. Or I could always assemble something.       

Panzer IV's

I have been focusing on my 10 panzer IV's from PSC for the past little while and they are now all done except for the decaling.  I have currently misplaced the sheet of decals I purchased so both my Panzers and my T-34's are standing by until they can be relocated.  I am quite happy with the panzers.  The camo pattern isn't exactly what I wanted, but it looks decent in my opinion.  Half of them have a more striped pattern and half have a more block pattern.
    The edges of the camo swaths are cleaner than I think many people get with an airbrush, and the feather edges is something some tutorials recommend copying with a brush but looking at pictures I am not convinced that this is any more of a realistic pattern than a defined and clean edged camouflage.  I was particularly happy with how the tracks turned out.  This was my first attempt at the red rust/ iron oxide look and I think they turned out fairly well although you can't see it in the pictures.
    The basing of the Russians is also on hold and I am making slow progress on the German infantry.  For something totally different I assembled a Space Marine battle barge and reassembled after they came apart it's accompanying escorts.  Maybe one day they too will face the brush.       

The one on the right has been washed in Devlan Mud and is the final product.