Stuff the Turkey - Crack on with the Soviets instead

It's been 9th October since I last posted an update on this project! What with a business trip to Europe, What-Khan, family visiting and GameHoleCon time to get on with painting has been sparse.

I really planned to have the Soviets finished by the end of November so that I could start gaming with them, so, with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching and with it having little cultural significance to me as a Brit in Wisconsin I took the opportunity to get cracking.

A lot of the figures in this update were painted during the lean times described above, just nothing was complete and ready for photographing. For fourteen of the Assault Group Soviets it was just a matter of finishing the bases, for the rest they were done from scratch over the weekend.

In all, this update I added 20 more Assault Group Soviet infantry this update, lovely characterful figures that paint up really well, but I'm having a little buyers regret. I planned to play these games during the Fall Blau operations of 1942 and these Soviets are definitely uniformed for much later in the war. The Germans I have done are definitely for a much earlier period.

I'm seriously considering selling these and replacing with Crusader Miniatures ones, my daughter visited from the UK last month and bought with me a small order from Northstar and I picked up a pack of the Crusader Soviet Infantry to give a test.

I'd already painted one of their Maxim M1910 and the figures are nice to paint and do suit the period I plan to game much better. Here is the pack of Riflemen with Pps-41.

Some of the support weapons are covered in neither the Crusader Miniatures or Assault Group ranges and I needed a 5cm Mortar to make up the platoon. Fortunately Warlord Games do one in a pack with a flame-thrower. Unfortunately they use their bloody awful separate head system that never seems to work. I've painted plenty of the Gripping Beast WWI French with separate heads and they go together nicely, not sure what Warlord do, but they never look that natural.

Also in the order from Northstar was a rather splendid resin 45mm anti-tank gun Nick obligingly supplied a couple of crews so that I could field it with a more appropriately sized five man crew and had another chap spare.

I based on a 2mm plywood base and textured the filler so that the crew can be removed as casualties, I quite like how this came out.

Here are a few more close-ups of those lovely Assault Group Soviets, as mentioned earlier, I have mixed feelings about them and may end up painting another platoon with models more suited for 1942. If you are interested in buying 45 painted late WWII Soviets get in touch and we can discuss a deal.

Having finished off all the Soviets I have it was a good opportunity to get them all out and have a look at the final result, I think they look quite formidable and I'm looking forwards to playing some Chain of Command with them.