From BenF: 6mm Cold War Soviet VDV force (115 Points)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all the best for 2018. For me, 2018 will be quite exciting. Laura and I have booked a trip over to Europe around Easter, and we'll be visiting a load of places which we've not yet been to. I'm particularly looking forward to spending Easter in Madrid (any tips on where to go/what to see Benito M?), driving around Greece to see a bunch of ancient sites, and seeing St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Speaking of things Russian, this entry is a decent sized force of 6mm Soviet airborne troops, the famous VDV or Vozdushno-Desantnye Voyska for my Cold War Commander collection. The figures are all the new Heroics and Ros offerings, which are simply superb. The detail that Andy has got into these miniscule figures beggars belief.

First off, some command stands. The VDV fielded a range of air-portable trucks and armoured vehicles, making them more akin to an airmobile mechanised force than a 'pure' airborne unit. On the command stands are regular UAZ-469 and GAZ-69 'Jeeps', GAZ-66 trucks in air-droppable and office body configurations, and a BMD-1. I've added aerials using brass wire for the ofice trucks and nylon brush fibres for the rest. The figures are Heroics and Ros, vehicles a mix of H&R, Scotia, and CinC. When painting these, I really wanted to try to approximate the camouflage suit worn by the Soviet airborne, but without the figures disappearing into the base. I'm relatively happy with the result, which was surprisingly quick, and to my eye does the job.

Next up is the core of the force, the two airborne infantry companies. In CWC2, you can upgrade regular infantry bases with anti armour capabilities. As most of my regular gaming buddies have armour heavy forces, I'll not often be fielding infantry without some kind of anti-armour capability. I've represented their AT ability with one battalion being equipped with RPG-7Vs and one with RPG-18s. The quality of the H&R sculpts and the variety is better than any modern figures I've seen in 6mm.

Next, the organic support for the infantry companies. Here are some Anti-Tank guided missiles, the 9K111 Fagot (AT-4 Spigot NATO designation), the anti armour teeth of the force. There are also some 9K32 Strela-2 SAMs (SA-7 Grail NATO designation), a PKMS MMG on a sustained fire mount, an 120mm mortar, a recce team in a UAZ-469, and a few SPG-9 recoilless rifle teams. Again, all H&R figures and vehicles.

The VDV were also supported by a variety of air portable armour, dropped on pallets fitted with retro firing rockets. Crazy stuff. Below are a couple of ASU-85 assault guns, a BMD-1 company, some BTR-D transports, and a brace of BTR-RD 'Robot' SP-ATGMs (these last are a conversion of mine using regular BTR-Ds, brass wire, and GHQ 9K111 launchers). All models are CinC.

Finally, some higher level support options. Below are a few bases of assault engineers with LPO-50 flamethrowers, two T-12 Anti-tank Guns and BM-21V 'Grad-V' rocket launchers. The Grad-V is the VDV's air-portable version of the regular BM-21 Grad rocket launcher, the successor to the famous Katyusha of WW2 fame. While you don't technically need to deploy artillery on table in CWCII, I do always like to include artillery and support for the sake of completion, and to allow me to try other rules. Figures are H&R, the equipment is Scotia.

Below are some group shots of more 6mm VDV than anyone in their right mind would need, a grand total of 29 vehicles and 113 infantry (and more dots of Vallejo pale sand than I care to count :) ) 

I've got a few bits and pieces still to paint up for these guys and then on to the West Germans, who thankfully are not wearing camouflage. The helos below were painted late last year and are included only for dramatic effect. The size of those Mi-26 Halos is surreal, in 6mm they are 13cm nose to tail!

Next up on the painting desk i'm working on some more 6mm scale stuff, but from 1940 not 1985. I need to paint up a couple of Battle of Britain era aircraft for Bag the Hun 2 which is becoming rather popular of late with the local gaming club. Hopefully they can make the cut for the 'Flight' bonus round which is closing up soon.

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Wow Ben, such beautiful work in this small scale. As you say, Heroics and Ross have done a great job with this new range and the attention from your brush really hits them out of the park. I wouldn't think doing camo in 6mm would be possible, or even desirable, but you've pegged the right balance between accuracy and visibility with these guys. I particularly like the bright turquoise berets, which I know are a shade or two brighter than required, but look perfect in this scale.

I know the vehicle aerials are a fairly simple addition, but they provide that extra touch of realism to the bases.

Your upcoming trip to Europe sounds marvelous. Madrid is fabulous and I know Benito will have some advice to the sights, tastes and sounds of that great city.

This formidable Soviet airgroup will give you 115 points. Well done!