From JeremyM 15mm Winter War Russians [Limbo] [130 points]

Hi all, I am starting off the challenge this year by going back to a stalled project from several years ago. I had painted up a whole whack of 15mm Winter War Finns several years ago but have no Russians to face off against them.

This is a Strelkovy Company from Flames of War for early war Russians that fought against the Finns in the Winter War. I struggled to figure out what colour to paint them. I’ve seen photos mostly of re-enactors and drawings from various books  as well as the box art for the figures that use 3 different colours, a dark grey, a khaki, and a light green. Unfortunately, those black and white photos of the war, don’t shed much light on which one to pick! For now this company will have light green as the predominant colour but I may decide to mix it up for future infantry which is always a nice way to help differentiate different formations. I’ve never been one to focus too heavily on historical accuracy when painting anyway, as long as its playable all I care about. And since in various theatres of this war the Russians had a massive numerical superiority (12 to 1 in some cases) I got a lot more of these fellows to paint up in the future.

15mm Winter War Soviets

For the photos you primarily see flames of war stands with 4-5 infantry with rifles, complete with those great early war hats with the nice big red star on them. There are also a couple of command stands with flags, a mortar stand and a lmg stand. Decent variety to make up the company.

I really got inspired to undertake this after living in Thunder Bay Canada. There is a large population of Finnish immigrants and I was actually a member of their historical society when I lived there a decade ago. I heard a few stories of Finnish history and the winter war ‘david and goliath’ fight was pretty inspiring how so few could hold out against so many. The other really interesting thing about the Finns during this period was how they went from being beloved by the western allies, to a hated opponent as they later joined with Germany against the Russians. Very interesting reading some of the accounts of Finns in Thunder Bay during this period and how public opinion swung so quickly against them after all the support.

I can’t wait to tackle some of the whacky Russian tanks from this period next. And we wonder were 40k got its inspiration from!

55 15mm figures 110 points + 20 points for Limbo = 130 points

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Hi Jeremy

Welcome back to the Challenge! I'm to see you  post before the "dreaded cull" 

As you know, since I'm not really a gamer, the nuances of uniforms  are lost on me BUT I can comment on how f@#$% cold the soviets look and the snow bases do 'look' like snow.

Congrats on 110 points of mini guys and 20 points for Limbo

Looking forward to your next post!

Sarah