Orion Soviet Tank Crewmen

Repeating here some photos from an old post that was wiped out when the site was hacked a few years ago.

Some of the figures are a bit “chunky”, others no too much so, but on the whole it’s a really nice set with plenty of raised detail which makes them easy to paint and they’re a great nice addition to my WW2 Soviet forces.

I especially like the fact that they are not all just standing around fixing tanks or in polite conversation with each other – you do still get some of those poses, none of which I’ve painted yet, but most are either running (presumably from their burning or disabled tanks) or have dismounted and are in the thick of the fighting with pistols and SMGs.

If you click on the following link below to Plastic Soldier Review, you can see their opinions on this set too. The link will open up in a new window.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1893

Shiloy Tshernez, the Spanish Blue Division in Russia, 17 January 1942

Shiloy Tshernez, the Spanish Blue Division in Russia, 17 January 1942

Uploaded a compilation of photos to YouTube from a game using a scenario adapted for use with Bolt Action wargame rules by one of my regular gaming buddies, Carlos. 

If you click on the video image below it will open in a new window

The scenario that Carlos adapted was written by Richard Baber and can be found on the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers (SOTCW) :  It's really worth taking a look, well researched and easily playable.

https://sotcw.co.uk/shiloy-tshernez-the-spanish-blue-division-in-russia-17-january-1942/

As always, we used 20mm (1:72 & 1:76 scale) figures, vehicles and scenery, and it was gamed using a sand table.

The scenario is  based on an actual action fought by elements of the Spanish "División Azul" ski company  on a combat reconnaissance patrol,  reinforced by 40 Latvians from the German 81st Infantry Division. Moving through snow, eventually coming to Shiloy Tshernez. The Spanish and Latvians tried to outflank and surround the village and to converge from all sides.

A good well-balanced scenario, and a game well played, thanks to fellow gamers who played this scenario, Carlos, Alejandro and Juan.

Operation Barbarossa - Bolt Action Skirmish Game in 1/72 Scale

Pictures of another recent scenario with three of the regular crew (Alex / Carlos / Juan). In the game we kept distancing measures in place, and face coverings when necessary.

The game was a skirmish operation roughly based on / around the time of Operation Barbarossa put together by Carlos, composed of a small mobile force of German Panzergrenadiers supported by a couple of Stugs. 

Russian infantry were defending a small village and as the game progressed they received increasing support from BT-7s.

 

 Germans start moving in towards the village

 

 

 
The Russian commander looks out at the oncoming enemy.

 

 

 A political Commissar in the meantime keeps to the rear to "persuade" any dubious Comrades to hold their ground.

  

The Germans continue their advance 

 

Mortar shells come raining down on the awaiting Russians.

 

Bolt Action rules allow you to add medics. In this case the lovely Svetlana made an appearance to help out the boys under mortar fire.

 

 German squads arriving on foot through a small wood reach the outskirts of the village.

 

Stug surfing ! On the road into the village, a StuG tears down the road loaded with a squad of improvised tank riders.

 

 More BT-7s make an appearance. 

 

The Germans on foot who reached the outskirts have a tough time out in the open and stack up more and more casualties. 

 

The Stug surfers dismount but pay a high price, the Russians holed up in the houses practically decimate them in a hail of gunfire

 

Another BT-7 enters the fray and causes a lot of headaches on the Western flank. The fast-moving tanks get in behind the Stugs and disable both vehicles.

 

Meanwhile the remaining infantrymen are pinned and the German player decides enough is enough, he can't win this time so he concedes he's fighting a losing battle, and the victory is given to the Russian player.

 

The Commissar looks on at the retreating Germans - this time he hasn't had to persuade anyone to stand their ground.

 

The game was difficult for the Germans, too much ground to cover and probably not enough forces for the attack - but who said battles were fair ? 

In any case, we were thinking of maybe tweaking the scenario and playing it again sometime. The Russians didn't really do much apart from just shoot every turn in a static defence and the arrival of four BT-7s sealed the fate of the Stugs. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and as always the only victims in this battle were just little toy soldiers. 

Keep safe and in the next update we'll try and maybe get some photos up of a pre-Covid colonial game played back in February, or some photos of a few Airfix US Paratroop conversions

Plastic Soldier Company Russians with new heads

I started these conversions more than a year ago, and got distracted
(don't we all ...), but finally they're finished, ...at last.

I changed the heads on these PSC figures for heads from Italeri and
Esci Russians.

Not really all that necessary if you're going to use just the PSC
figures in squads on their own but as I wanted to mix them with my
Esci / Italeri / Revell / Pegasus Russians, their heads were oversized
compared to the other brands.

Nicely sculpted figures in a hard-softish GW type styrene plastic
that's easy to trim, file and glue.

------------------------
Sent from my mobile

#PSC, #Russian Infantry

WW2 Russian Infantry WIP

Some pictures of the Russians I've been trying to finish off.  They just need matt varnishing and basing.

There's a mixture of figures here, mostly Plastic Soldier, with Esci and Italeri figures plus a Pegasus and Hong Kong figure in there too for good luck :-)


Anyone familiar with the Plastic Soldier figures will probably make out that I replaced all their heads, and did a fair bit of head swapping too with the other figures.

On the workbench - WW2 Russian Infantry Conversions

Last week I got a two new sets of the new "made in UK" Plastic Soldier Russian and German Infantry. The plastic is nice to work with, hard styrene which is glueable, and cuts easily and can easily be trimmed and sanded.

You can see some of the Russian infantry here with new heads, mixed with Esci and Revell figures for some Russian squads I'm putting together. With the smaller heads the poses mix well with the other Esci and Revell figures.

The heads etc., are just dry-tested / stuck on with a bit of blu-tac, I'll get around to pinning them sometime over the weekend.

Some of the brave figures who donated their heads to the Great Patriotic Cause....

Pegasus 1/72 scale WWII Russian Naval Infantry

A picture of some the the superb new Pegasus 20mm scale WW2 Soviet sailors.

These were painted by a friend and fellow gamer, Carlos de la Concha, and were used in one of our wargaming club's recent Stalingrad type wargames.

20mm Wargame Photos - Stalingrad - City Ruins & Street Fighting -

With a few members of our gaming club, we recently finally got ourself enough 1/72 scale city ruins to get a decent sized game going.

We decided to work on this about 6 weeks ago and together we scratch-built various ruins, and also finally painted some resin ones that had been lying around unpainted for a long time. The results can be seen below.





One of Carlos' modified Altaya Sd.Kfz 250, now converted into an early war mortar carrier with 2 Pegasus figures and 50mm mortar inside



A Revell Russian sniper (very effective during the game by the way) in one of Juan's scratch-built ruins.



Matchbox Sdkfz 251, one of Carlos' repainted Altaya Pz IIIs and in the background a scratch-built factory by Iván.



The interior of Iván's factory (with my double-pinned Russian infantry hiding out in there).



That's what you call a "fire-engine". One of my Russian SMG squads tries to flush out some Germans (The squad is made up from Chinese copies of old Esci hard-plastic 1/72 Russians, which in turn are scaled-down copies of the old Airfix 1/32 scale Russians ..........if all that makes sense.....) Complicated anecdotes aside, these fellas got thrashed as they came onto the table by one of Juan's "last-man-alone" German squads !



Intense house to house fighting. The ruins are resin I bought off a friend, Rob, some time back. They've been hanging around for about a year now, and were painted last week by Carlos for the game.



Pegasus German Infantry Gun and crew in a crater made by Juan.



Nice atmospheric shot, Revell and Airfix grenade throwers silhouetted by a smokescreen thrown up by the Germans to cover their advance.



Airfix and Revell Russians trying to take the factory.



For the game, the we used a system of entry points into the sewers and Juan made these excellente stands with manhole covers as entry points a couple of days before the game. They added a really nice touch and the opposing squads were able to enter and exit at different points on the table.

Stalingrad, reinforcements on the outskirts

By Mark Thomas (original article formerly on the miniaturezone.co.uk website)

Photos of a big Stalingrad 1/72 scales scenario we played in late Aug. 2001.

The table is 6 feet x 12 feet long, and we are using modified "Spearhead" ww2 gaming rules.

Some stuff out of town, including a 15cm hvy. Inf. gun battery (revamped Lyzard's Grin 1:72 metal).





In the back, RGT.HQ, and a ESCI 3 ton half track prime mover towing 5cm PAK (modified Matchbox 7,5cm PAK 40). Horch kfz.19 is 1/76 resin. Wagons are Airfix & homemade.







Several of the buildings were from Scenic Effects, while one is from Queen's Hussars, and one is 1/87 from Pola, also one from Ian Weekly, and the old reliable Airfix French farmhouse. I also made resin cast of brickwalls from old Bandai 1:48 brick walls set, which made for 5 ruined brick houses. The remainder of buildings are homemade, using either wood, or sheet styrene w/ brick paper affixed.



A tractor factory assembly hall was made from a widened cassete plastic storage box. The brick chimney stacks came from Pola & Walthers Co.,of Milwaukee, USA. A resin cast was made of a used turbocharger brass bearing, to make sewers in the streets: the lid was a mold of a large wood screw. ( I am a diesel mechanic).

The Russian church is homemade. Most multi-level buildings have removable roofs, for the placement of troops.





























The wagons were from Airfix pioneers & also homemade using ACW Airfix cannon wheels.A stuka is from Revell.

Barbed wire is from Faller. Many artillerymen are conversions.




Russian:

7 infantry companies (3) Guards SMG, (1) Naval Inf., (2) Line/ Rifle, (1) Workers Militia (aprox. 17 figures per company), w/ headquarters stands comprising an additional 12 figures.(1) 45mm ATG, (1) 76mm inf. gun, (1) 76mm ZIS-3, (1) maxim quad AA pedestal mount, (1) 37mm AA gun, (4) ATR stands, (3) 82mm mortar stands, (1) 120mm mortar stand, (1) T70 light tank, (1) T34/41 med. tank.......offboard (across river); (2) 122mm how., (1) BM-13.

German;

(1) Inf Regiment, aprox. 200 figures, plus (2) Assault Pionere companies, (1) Rumanian Inf. Co.(1) 3,7cm PAK, (1) 5cm PAK, (1) 7,5cm light inf. gun, (1) 15cm hvy. inf. gun, (2) 10,5cm how, (1) 15cm gun, (1) 17cm gun. (2) ESCI pzkw.III, (1) ESCI pzkw.IV, (1) ESCI pzkw.II, (2) ESCI stug.III, (1) Airfix stug.III, (1) RHINO 1/72 resin 15cm auf pz.III SP, (3) ESCI 251/1 spw, (1) ESCI kfz.250/1 (mod.)(1) ESCI kfz.250/3 stabswagen, (1) ESCI kfz.11, (2) ESCI Blitz, (1) Hasegawa pkw & BMW R75. (1) BP Horch, (1) Hasegawa mod.) G4 staff car - 2 axle, w/ tilt down.

© Mark Thomas, Oregon USA