Wednesday 24 December 2014

From JohnM - Сталинградской: Winter War Soviets (156 Points)

I have been working feverishly to get my Stalingrad Soviets finished, this has been my biggest WWII project to date. Aside from 4 figures they are all from CPModels TQD line; and aside from one figure, I am quite pleased with the castings.

I used the Winter War OB published on the TFL site for the roster for these 1939-40 Soviets, these are very large platoons which will easily break down for middle and late war OB's.

The project required 82 figures to date and am very happy to have completed them. There are 4 infantry squads (three of regular infantry and one of NKVD) of 15 men each, a 3 man SMG scout team, a 5 man Maxim HMG team, a 3 man 50mm Mortar team, a 7 man Engineer team, a Sniper, as well as two Senior Officers and of course a Commissar to keep all the chappies in line.

Vallejo Model colours were used to paint the figures as outlined in my COLD submission. I used Golden Extra Coarse Gel on the bases with 4-Ground snow flock for the most recently painted figures. As these figures were going to be used for Stalingrad as well as Winter War, I needed something a little more like rubble.

I am presenting 39 new figures here for 156 points.

Two new squads marching through the destroyed centre of Stalingrad
Squad 2 this time in Ushankas
Squad 3
The only downside of the CPModel-TQD line is the number of poses. The only one I did not like is the firing figure in the Ushanka, the face is very poorly cast here and I just could not do a very good job. The helmets are wrong for Winter War. 
Back View
Minesweeping team, with the JL and the addition of the flamethrower team from below I have an engineering squad. I think a couple of these figures are from the CP line, but I am not 100% sure.
Flamethrower team.
Senior Officer with Commissar. These were painted before the contest in November. I believe the commissar is from the CP line.  He is a nasty looking fellow.
For completeness the rest of the platoon and supports:
NKVD Squad
NKVD Maxim HMG team with a two man SMG team as well as a sniper.
NKVD 50mm Mortar team.
I apologize for such a heavily photo laden post, but it was a big project. I believe that this brings me to just over 500 points (188 for Big Guns, 108 for COLD theme, 156 for Stalingrad) with the bonus of 50 points for the COLD entry. I am quite pleased with reaching half my goal before Xmas, this allows me to really focus on  my remaining entries as well as to start on the enormous collection of resin terrain I have received over the last two weeks, but more about that later...........

From Curt:Oh wow, these look brilliant John! Congratulations on getting this project under your belt - it's a great looking force to be sure. I really like the urban snow groundwork you've created for these - it's very evocative of a bombed-out winter city (very grim indeed). Your finished terrain looks great but I see what you mean about your upcoming project - some of those other ruins look suspiciously uniformly tan coloured. ;)  
Cracking work!

14 comments:

  1. Really great to see some mass with these..good job.

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  2. Quantity AND quality in this case! A wonderful looking force John. The NKVD chaps look especially good in the coloured headgear.

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  3. Superb stuff. Very well painted and plenty of 'em as well. great submission :-)

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  4. a very good job. sorry, there are many historical errors: for example, сommissar in civilian clothes.

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  5. Well done on these, a triumph.

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  6. Nice job. It makes me want to get started on my great patriotic war project. What are those buildings you are using?

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  7. Very cool, those are quite nice. I don't know how you paint so fast without losing quality.

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  8. Nicely done, you've really captured the quality of the Soviet mass-infantry horde.

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  9. Beautiful work! I love the snow and ruins! Damn....I have an urge to play CoD World at War or watch Enemy at the Gates now!

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  10. Your terrain and the painting really goes together John, gives a great atmosphere to the whole thing. Great work!

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  11. Congrats on getting these finished and they really look the part. I also love the urban snow bases

    Ian

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  12. Nice work John and congrats on reaching your target so quickly :)

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