From TomG - Soviets in the Mud (65 Points)

"I'M BACK!"

In the words of an NFL quarterback last year, I bring you my return to this wonderful challenge! Since my last post I got one year older, now a whopping 35 years old, celebrated my second daughter's 4th birthday, and now planning the thirds 2nd birthday on the 18th. So a very busy time in Godson Manor, but not busy enough to stop me painting my first Soviets, all in preparation to play the Chain of Command campaign, Operation Citadel. 

Starting with my Ra-Ra-Rasputin Cheerleader, ready to call in a barrage of epic proportions! Now I know the bases should really be on different terrain, but I wanted to have Soviets that could fit plans for future games, so I challenged myself to doing thick mud bases. Initial thoughts included dead grass, but I didn't like it, so she's the only one. 

I loved painting this figure, she was not only easy to work with, but the miniature had such a great pose it allowed for subtle colour placement, alongside the bold red of the flags. If you give the image a zoom in, I even had a go at painting eyes, and it went well in my opinion. 

We next finish off the female presence of the set, we have a radio operator, and the ever important medic. Again both were a joy to paint, and with the addition of blue as a spot colour, really welcomed some character development pre-campaign. Warlord Games really delivered with these sculpts, dynamic and cinematic, but we'll grounded. As you can see just simple mud effects were used for these, and all following bases, just gives that atmosphere of a blasted mud season battlefield. 

Now for the chaps...

This Forward Observer brought up some interesting challenges when it came to painting; not only did I have to look up what the fur hats looked like (not that I ended up being that authentic) but I got the chance to do the glass in his binoculars. 

Next is flame-boy, another fun model to paint up, and due to a casting issue, he had a mess of a left eye, but that let me paint it up as a bruised and scarred area. Sadly I couldn't get a good photo of it, but I enjoyed painting it. I was fascinated to look up the Soviet flamethrower and to find it had a wooden stock, which felt dangerously low budget to me.

So here we have my least favourite model of the bunch, and also the last of the metal figures. The pose is great, but the casting around the face had made it very difficult to paint much detail in, but that's a first world problem for you! However as an officer he'll fit nicely in with the rest of the men. 

Below we have the 4 squad Serzhánt built from the box set by Warlord Games. Each one will only be designated by the smg however having two in helmets and two in caps helps me keep a record of them in game. 

They were, as always, easy to build and simple to paint. For all of my Soviets I wanted to give them a uniform more suited to the summer colours, as it satisfied my need for my buying new paint last month. Fortunately I enjoyed the process, and have used the "paintRack" app to keep a record of my choices and stages. If anyone is interested just let me know, I'm more than happy to share. 

Now on to some terrain, which I think is the only scatter terrain I've painted since leaving Games Workshop 12 years ago! Although I'm not certain where I bought them, I get the feeling they were bought from the Too Fat Lardies stand at Salute 2016/2017, so I had to get some dust off them first. 

The three pieces will work nicely as either road blocks, objectives or just debris, but I'm pleased with them. I did think about adding labels or product placement on the boxes but couldn't make my mind up in time, so just didn't bother. If you have any good ideas on what I could put on them let me! Maybe some Vat 69 for any of you Band of Brothers fans out there! As they would take up a 6 inch footing on a gaming table, but at only an inch in height, I've scored it at 10 points for the low height.

Well here we are at the end of all things, models and words brought together in a chaotic ride through the last few weeks of my painting, and it is time for the points. 

28mm infantry x10 = 50 points

Shadow 6 inch cube x1 = 10 points 

Total = 60 points

Thank you for reading, let me know your thoughts below, and in the spirit of the same quarterback mentioned at the start I'll now go sit down and be relieved of responsibilities hahaha!

Tom

Dave is having some tech issues, so has asked me to cover for him this afternoon. 

Those Soviets are rather characterful, especially the ladies. Lovely stuff, Tom! I'm not sure those supply dump pieces quite add up to a 6" x 6" x 6" cube, but I think it would be fair to score each of them as equivalent to a 28mm foot figure. Which is actually more points!

Tamsin