From PeterA - 15mm WW2 Operation Spring Awakening (184 Points)

No sooner did I get some 20mm WW2 infantry done than I was distracted...again. I blame the new Battlegroup supplement, Spring Awakening, recreating the last hurrah of the Panzer Divisions in Hungary in 1945. I already had many of the models needed for the scenarios and I was able to pick up most of what I still needed in a recent Plastic Soldier Company sale. The only slight drawback was some was already painted but I wasn't happy with the look of them. And it was all in 15mm; still at least it gets me another Squirrel point I think.

First up are the PSC purchases - 3 SU76s and two SU100s, all by Zvezda. Unfortunately the SU76 kit doesn't have any crew figures, so I will have to add them later. These were quick and easy builds and go together pretty well. I had another go with the AK weathering pigments, going for a heavily weathered look - some look better than others!

Next we have some re-painted armour - 3 T34s (PSC), an ISU152 and 2 IS2s (both Zvezda). To be honest, I prefer the way the PSC kits go together; no matter what I tried, the Zvezda stuff ended up with a gap between the lower and upper hull. It's not too noticeable, so I can live with it. Again, heavily weathered, although I varnished them after weathering, and promptly lost the more subtle effects! Still, lesson learned.

Deliberately (honest) crude white air recognition stripe

One of the bonuses of the PSC kit is that you get turrets for both the T34/76 and the T34/85, so a quick turret swap and you have the later version, perfect for Hungary in 1945.

I also finished a platoon of great-coated Russian infantry (Battlefront). These are organised as per the Battlegroup rules - 4x 8-man squads. Given the smaller scale, I used different basing to differentiate between squads - some use GW snow 'flock' and others use the GW textured paint (Valhallan Blizzard I think) - the latter looks much better, so the flock is being retired. I also painted one squad in lighter greatcoats, partly to differentiate them and partly because, well, because erratic Soviet logistics.

I also did an 8-man squad to use as a recce foot patrol and a small platoon HQ element - the flag is artistic licence and a thinly veiled excuse to paint something other than a shade of green or brown!

Finally, I added some German heavy metal in the form of a Tiger II (Zvezda again). I wanted it to look like the crew had hurriedly whitewashed the tank, so first painted a camo scheme and then very lightly over-sprayed it with white primer, so that the camo could just be picked out showing through. A quick wash to add some depth and all that was left was to add lumps of snow (GW textured stuff again). Although I like how this looks on my 20mm stuff, I am not sure it works as well at this smaller scale, so the next Tiger will probably not be winterised.

So 44 infantry and 12 tanks should net me 184 points and 1 Squirrel point. More surprisingly (for me), it brings me to within 100 points of my target! Right, back to 20mm, must focus...SQUIRREL!

---

Nice entry and one step closer to that target (and nicely in under the wire for entry today). It seems a lot of people are doing Russians of one kind or another and these are very nice. Obviously - me being a tread-head 'n all - I love the tanks and I like the whitewashing you have applied to the Tiger II. If you'll excuse the pun... very cool! 

Lee