From Ben F: Вставай, страна огромная! 6mm Soviet Tank Regiment, 1984 (71 Points)

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope 2019 is a good one. For me, the 14th of January is D-Day, when my first baby will be born, so we're very much of the countdown now.

The title for this entry means 'Arise vast country,' and is the opening lines of The Sacred War, a staple of the Soviet wartime repertoire by the same composer as the Soviet national anthem. For my 6mm 1984 'Cold War Gone Hot' campaign, I needed Soviet armour and lots of it.

First off in this entry is a Soviet horde of T-64s and BMPs. The T-64s were the best-of-the-best when they were released, but tended to be plagued by technical problems due to their overly complex suspension. In 1984, the T-64A was being superseded by the T-64B (with better quality armour) and the first of the T-80s were beginning to filter down to frontline units.
As the campaign will be based around an attack by 3rd Shock Army across the North German plain, opposed by the BAOR, Belgians, Dutch, and West Germans. In 1984, all four Tank Divisions of the 3rd Shock Army appear to have fielded T-64As, with a handful of battalions beginning to field the T-64Bs - thats the way the campaign will run them anyway.

These are T-64As from CinC. They are great little models, even if the 'true-to-scale' gun barrels are very difficult to keep from bending. The UAZ-469 staff car is Heroics and Ros.
This is enough to field two tank battalions (plus a few extras) at the 1 base = 1 platoon level we play at the club. I find it challenging to make soviet armour interesting, and so for these I painted an approximation of the guards bade on their spotlight covers, as well as painting numbers on the turret side.

Next up is a Motor Rifle Battalion's BMP transport. While I have a few battalion's worth of BMP-2s painted up, the 1984 setting primarily needs BMP-1s. These are from GHQ, and are excellent little sculpts. The BMP KSh command vehicle is from Heroics and Ros. As with the T-64s, it's tricky to make these guys look interesting, so I added vehicle numbers to the turret side and the coloured markings to the 9M14 Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger) anti-tank missiles. I do need to paint up another 9 of these, so that I can field two Motor rifle battalions at once.

Next, some odds and sods. Here are two 9K31 Strela-1 self-propelled SAM vehicles, perhaps better known by their NATO designation SA-9 Gaskins. These are from Heroics and Ros.

Finally, something which is completely useless for normal tabletop battles, a 9K72 Elbrus tactical ballistic missile launcher, better known as a SS-1C SCUD. The Scud Launcher and the chemical troops are from Heroics and Ros. While it's not going to be used in most games, but might be fun for a small scale game with NATO special forces attempting to avoid security troops and destroy it.

The T-64s and BMPs have already seen action against my mate Steve's BAOR in a trial game between Christmas and New Years. As with all freshly painted troops, they took a lickin', but not before they destroyed the better part of a territorial battalion and knocked out a Chieftain platoon. Here are some pics from happier times early in the game, before a USAF airstrike arrived to ruin their lovely drive through the German countryside.

So by my accounts for this entry it should be 71 points.
70 points - 35 x 6mm Vehicle
1 point - 2 x 6mm figures
Total = 71 points

Here's a picture of the entry, though please ignore the BRDM recce vehicle, that's going to be going into my recce bonus round entry.

That's it for this entry. The next entry will be a bunch more Soviets, this time for a Naval Infantry Brigade. I'm also working on a 6mm scale autobahn and an airfield. I've been having fun trying to paint an approximation of the Soviet Naval Flag on the side of a variety of soviet vehicles. How we suffer for our hobby.

Ben, you certainly are cranking out some great microarmour before your baby arrives! I really like 1:300 as it looks 'right' on the tabletop, particularly with this amount of materiel. Although it can get hard to distinguish between tank subtypes...

The Scud is great tabledressing and I want one.

Best wishes for next week, and I shall appeal to the Snowlord for clemency if your posts are less frequent...

Barks