Soumy Regiment in 6mm

Back in February I scribbled together a description of speed painting some Russian Hussars for the 1812 campaign (it can be found here ). Well, I finally got round to basing the Soumy regiment, so they are now ready to face the French Emperor and his minions.



All figures are Baccus

Napoleonic Russian Infantry

More 6mm infantry to add to the hordes gathering in the garage, this time some 6mm Russian infantry.

I continued my experiment of using a coloured base coat on these, this time GW's Caliban Green spray was used. Again, I was pretty pleased with the results with most of my mistakes being hidden from the casual observer simply due to the scale of the figures.

I have been painting my Russian infantry as generic so that they can be added to any unit but of course this is not the case for bases with standards. For reference the white standards represent Siberian regiments and the coloured one a Kazan regiment. The Kazan regiment is still carrying the 1797 issue flag (the others are 1803).

These were part of a productive afternoon of basing I had - note the other regiments were only based by me not painted (see Cheating ).

These included some French lancers, Imperial Guard lancers, Cossacks, Russian and French foot artillery.

Russian Generals

Some Napoleonic Russian generals to take command in the upcoming 1812 campaign.

Corps and Divisional commanders

Learned a couple of lessons from these, firstly using an alternative colour base spray really works - in this case I used Mournfang brown from GW. This gave a good coverage on the horses, most of which were going to be some shade of brown in any case.

I was worried that the lighter colour base coat might highlight patches I've missed (I have had some horrible experiences with white on 28mm in the past) but I seem to have got away with it this time.

Secondly I found painting on lollipop stick good as always but using PVA to stick 6mm troops to them just causes difficulties when trying to pop them off. Back to the venerated Blue Peter tradition of double sided sticky tape in future!


All figures are Baccus.

6mm Hussars - speed paint

Prevarication is my middle name, well not really but if my parents had bothered to give me a middle name (they felt it was surplus to requirements, possibly like myself) prevarication would have been high on the list.

Along with 'Oi you!', 'Don't touch that' and 'what have you done now'.

So rather than actually painting stuff I tend to deflect my attention onto reading how others paint stuff and generally achieve something in their lives.

But every so often I give something a go and one Saturday afternoon in February I decided to see how quickly I could blob paint on a squadron of 6mm Russian hussars. That's 9 figures, all Baccus.


14:50 All set for my dubious attentions

All were stuck on a lolly stick which Amazon sell in batches of a hundred or so at a ridiculous rate which can in no way be sustainable (either as a business model or a rain forest).

Undercoat was just a watered down slap dash of citadel Abbadon Black.

14:55 Undercoat splattering achieved!

Of course this takes a bit of time to dry so to encourage them I switched on the spare fan heater in the office. Don't know if it achieved anything but I felt at least I had done something. The industrious amongst you might have considered painting something else and I did glance wistfully at the 28mm Napoleonic French infantry battalion that has been sitting on the desk waiting to be PVA'ed onto MDF for over two years. But, I must confess, after all this time I find it difficult to establish eye contact with the blighters; its an old romance gone stale.

Drying done, then horses time. Straightforward coat of Mournfang Brown for the lot bar the trumpeter's that got dabbed in Celestial Grey.

15:08 Brown horses... other colours are available but not in my army

In future I'm going to do horses by setting the airbrush on them. This should mean I can get that colour done on an industrial scale, which is just as well as I have an industrial scale backlog.

Things quickened now as I could splat different colours on as others dried. Russian hussar regiments don't have the diversity of colours that adorn some nations. I decided these would be a squadron from the Soumy regiment mostly because they had red breeches and grey everything else and I thought that would break up the uniform bottle green of the rest of the army.

15:15 Grey pelisse, dolman and saddle cloths added

15:19 A dash of red on the trousers

15:25 Hands and faces on

15:28 Swords

15:34 White detailing.

The white braiding doesn't show up well in the photograph partially because of the scale of the figures but mostly because I didn't want to waste my eye sight painting it!

15:36 Sabretache red detail

15:50 Bases and tidy up

The completed squadron

In all it took 55 minutes... sure I can go faster and probably be neater/more detailed.

But that's them ready to hit the basing manufactorium in the garage.

Wait, did I just use the word 'manufactorium'? Games Workshop have a lot to answer for...

Somewhere on the Eastern Front...

The troops don't get out much (bit like their owner) but this weekend was the first battle in the new garage.

Went for a  Flames of War straightforward battle on a plain. It had to be straightforward as I hadn't actually played the game for four years and then only once (despite the large armies that have been accrued). The opponents were a Russian Tankovy versus a German Panzers force both weighing in at around 1800 points.

The Russians had the initiative and were nominally on the attack. 11 T-34s assaulted a position held by 5 Panthers.

 And the result was well...

Having had a starter of T-34 the Panthers moved on to a main of SU152 and finishing off with some SU 100s before heading for the Soviet artillery park.

The Russians had some success. The 88s were taken out by an accurate rocket bombardment and the 2 supporting Tiger Is didn't last against the SU 100s.

But it was a pretty one sided affair.

 

SU100s

Some more late Soviets to provide fodder for the Tigers and Panthers out there. Mind you these guys do pack a punch themselves.

These are from the Battlefront plastic box set released last year. Painted using my standard method of base colour, black wash, dry brushed and then edged highlights.

The spray paint I used for the base coat failed leaving several of the tanks with a strange, crinkled paint effect. I don't know what caused it, the can was nearly empty and past its best or I hadn't cleaned them up properly.

Guess the Russians won't care once they're on the table. 

T-34s

The last of the Soviet tanks rolls of the production eh... desk. These Plastic Soldier Company models have been sprayed with Battlefront's Soviet Armour paint then given a black ink wash followed by two light drybrushes of Vallejo's Russian Green and Russian Green in 3:1 mix with white. Not my best work by any means but repeatable and quickly onto the war games table to deal with all those Stugs.

What I’m Working on Now…

Tanks… lots of tanks…

T-34s Plastic Soldier Company.

Shermans from Plastic Soldier Company

A stack of Plastic Soldier Company Stugs

Plastic Soldier Company Tigers and some Battlefront APCs

Bolt Action Tiger with Battlefront APC for scale.

Finished Unit - Guards Rocket Battalion

Stalin’s favourite artillery – all set to make some noise.

Figures and terrain Battlefront

What I’m Working on Now…

Switching fronts for a while. Battlefront Guards Rocket Battalion. These 4 BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers have been sitting on the bench for some time part of the ever growing (and ever more depressing) lead, plastic and resin stockpiles!

Soviet Gallery

Some shots of the Soviets in action… well on a green table somewhere at least!
T-34s – Ones on the road Plastic Soldier Company, other and terrain  - Battlefront



Strelkovy company – Battlefront



Sniper teams – Battlefront



HMG company – Battlefront


ISU 152’s (with a T-34 in the background) – all Battlefront

Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company T-34 Side by Side

Until recently I was a Battlefront acolyte when it came to Flames of War miniatures mostly because I could buy them in proper rule friendly company proportions. But like many others I’ve recently been tempted by the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). Ashamedly this is not due to quality but price and the natural toy soldier addicts desire to field as much hardware as a table will take without collapsing.
So here are a few pics of PSC and Battlefront models side by side. PSC models are on the left.

As can be seen the PSC’s T-34’s are a little smaller. Not noticeable unless side by side so mixing units is probably out. My feeling is Battlefront’s tanks have more detail or at least the detail is more recessed than PSC’s making the paint job a bit more effective (I like inks). There’s a weight differential too, PSC’s are, naturally, much lighter but I guess I could get used to it.
On the plus side for PSC the models are much easier to assemble and have good enough detail to keep me happy, these are for wargaming after all not a painting competition. Also with both 76 and 85 turrets in the pack there’s the opportunity to have one squadron double as both mid and late war variations.
And then there’s the cheapskate in me looking at the price…

Picture – To be honest the crew of this Puma aren’t too concerned whether those are Battlefront or PSC T-34s (PSCs on the left). Terrain Battlefront.

Russian T-34s Step By Step Painting Guide

This ain’t no master class! I have a Soviet army ready for action that’s in dire need of some armour reserves, quantity being the road to a Soviet general’s soul (or his commissar’s).

So here’s my quick and dirty wargames Soviet tank painting guide.

• Assemble and prepare for spraying

 

• Undercoat T-34s with Games Workshop Chaos Black spray can.

 

• Spray a base coat of Soviet Armour Green from Battlefront.

• Ink wash with GW Badab Black.

• Edge Highlight with Vallejo 894 Russian Green.

• Second Highlight with Vallejo 894 Russian Green with a little GW Skull White added.

• Paint tracks with GW Chaos Black.

• Dry brush tracks with GW Boltgun Metal.
• Add in any detail you fancy.

• Apply transfers – these are from Battlefront.

• Varnish with Vallejo 520 Matt Varnish.
• Forward to victory comrades!