GAZ Trucks for the Invasion of Finland... and More

Some of you may have heard of the Winter War Miniatures Kickstarter run by Baker Company. Well, we're coming up on the three-year anniversary, and I have yet to see a single mini despite a rather significant investment. I've only backed a handful of Kickstarters, and this is by far the worst. No minis, no communication, nothing. What's worse, I even placed an order with Baker shortly after the Kickstarter ended for some Vietnam minis. Never got them. At least he answered my emails and said they were shipped and must have gotten lost in the mail. Still never got them. That's the ONLY time I have ever had a problem ordering from a company "across the pond." All in all I think I'm out about $300. That does not make me very happy. And I really wanted those field kitchens!

Rather than delay the project any more, I ordered some Russian trucks from Warlord. IF (BIG IF) I ever get the Baker ones, they will simply be added to the motor pool. You can never have too many trucks. But for now, my foot weary Battle Honors Russians can take a break, and the political officer can get out of the cold to operate the radio, assuring those in Moscow that all is going well...

These were painted with a simple coat of Testors medium green, then washed with a dark green and drybrushed field drab and earth. I didn't put any marking on them, one because I couldn't really find what they would be, and two because I wanted to keep them fairly generic.

Of course these will also see double duty on other areas of the eastern front as later war Russians get painted. The lack of canvas covers makes them a bit unsuitable for Finland, but they will have to do.

I also have a T-26 from Warlord in the works, since those from Baker are still in limbo. (And a T-34/76 and a T-34/85 and a BT-7....)

Now I have my eye on some buildings from Sarissa for use on the eastern front. Squirrel!

Some Germans While I Wait

While waiting for more of my French to arrive, along with a new assortment of Vallejo paint, here are some Battle Honors Germans I did a while back. I'll need to do a lot more, I suppose, unless I can talk someone else into doing some. I also have some fallschirmjagers to do, but my likely opponent also has those, so those are low priority for me.

I'm very seriously considering redoing my BEF figs. I used a black wash instead of brown, and it is just way too dark. Fortunately I've only done one squad and a Vickers team.

I also basecoated five Zeroes last night for CY6. So that project is ongoing as well.

I'm actually excited, I don't think there is anything on the agenda this weekend at all. A true rarity. I'm sure there will be the usual cleaning and housework to do, but I hope to get some good painting in this weekend. And eventually I need to get back to the race cars, too!

From Russia, With Love

I should have posted these before along with the Russo-Finnish report. Just some more views of my Battle Honors early war Russians in great coats. The basic color here is Testors Dark Earth. Lots of it, as you can see.

When assembling this force based on the lists in the Skirmish Campaigns book, I contacted Old Glory 15s directly, and they were kind enough to put together a special order of 50 (or was it 60? I forget now...) riflemen only, no officers or SMG- or LMG-armed figs. I don't often need to order large amounts of figures for this period, but when I do, I use Battle Honors. (I am the most interesting gamer in the world. Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Closing the Trap - Russo-Finnish AoF AAR

As mentioned, last week my old adversary and I got together and played a Russo-Finnish skirmish game. While I've had the figures (and for that matter, the rules), this was our first time playing a true Arc of Fire game one-on-one. While we had some hiccups, overall I think it went rather well and we both came away agreeing to try again some day. Maybe even get into another theater?

Anyway, we played one of the scenarios in the Skirmish Campaigns book, Closing the Trap. In this scenario, a group of Russians are desperate to break through the Finnish lines and get home to Mother Russia. Not that they would be greeted warmly there, but I suppose that is beside the point.

Jon played the Russians, I took the Finns. The Russians had two rifle platoons, a mortar team, and a political officer. I had a small HQ squad, a rifle squad, an LMG team and an MMG team. As events turned out, the MMG team was the dominant force on the table.

The scenario calls for the Russians to enter down a road, eventually cross an open area, and overwhelm the Finns at a roadblock through sheer numbers. They never came close. The MMG team kept them at bay, with repeated morale failures leading to most of their time being spent rallying the troops. The political officer was useful for a while, until he suffered a K result. Then entire platoons started failing unit morale checks, and the Russians pretty much hunkered down in the woods. The mortar team did some damage, but wasn't as effective as either one of us thought to would/could/should be.

As I said, we really had just a few hiccups. For example, I read a chart wrong on the first turn and got excited when I thought I took out Jon's first platoon's entire command structure with one blast from the MMG. It wasn't so, but that was OE, nothing wrong with the rules. We're still not convinced we handled the mortar correctly, and were confused about what to do when firing into a group of soldiers when some are broken and some are not, but overall things ran pretty smoothly. We both liked the card-driven activation system and the randomness it created. It did play a role.

One other big mistake I made was I thought my table would be too small to put on a decent game, so I went with the small scale distances rather than "large scale." This had the effect of really minimizing the Russian advance speed. Of course, they were struggling through deep snow, but still. We'll definitely go with large scale next time. And maybe we'll have a bigger table.

For now, here's some photos. All figures are Battle Honors.

The Russian viewpoint. Where are those Finns?

The Russian onslaught. Will numbers win the day?

The Finnish MMG team, which really took its toll.

Finnish LMG team.

The Russians tried, but just couldn't do much.

Manning the roadblock: A Finnish rifle squad.

Russian mortar team.

More Russians. Note the broken and confused markers.

Come on, Mother Russia awaits!

Merry Christmas, Comrade

This is how we celebrate in Soviet Russia... by invading our neighbors.

Here's the first in a set of photos of the Russians to complement the Finns of the past couple of days. I'm not sure how much I will be online the next few days, so I thought I would take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, in accordance with the wishes of our political officer here.

If I do find the time, I will post more of these. But with travel plans, and honey-do lists, it may be next week! I also have a tentative game session set for New Year's, which will be nice. And then the one con I manage each year just two weeks after that.

For now, these are also Battle Honors minis, painted with the usual mix of Testors and Vallejo.

More Finns - On Skis!

The workbench focus remains CY6 aircraft, as well as finishing the Guerriere and starting the Constitution, along with that Foyt Olds that really just needs an afternoon to finish, but it seems an appropriate time of year to continue showing some of these Battle Honors Finns.

Today's installment shows some of the ski troops, as well as some of the heavier weapons. At the end is an overview shot of all the Finns I have painted to date. There are no immediate plans to do any more, but that could change if I get a game going. Unlikely at this point, but you never know.

Again, a good word on the Battle Honors minis. A good variety that pretty much covers anything you need for this period, and they are easy to paint to boot. Recommended.

Coming soon: The Russian hordes...

Talvisota - Winter War Finns

Finland has one of the more fascinating national stories to come out of World War II. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place - Stalin on one side, Hitler on the other. There is no good choice there. Yet, somehow they managed to pull it off. Call it sisu, I guess.

From a gaming perspective, the Winter War has great potential. Small, well-trained and motivated units on one side, bigger, poorly equipped and prepared troops on the other. And darn few (expensive) vehicles and aircraft. One of these days I'll put together some games using Skirmish Campaigns' excellent scenario book and Arc of Fire. I played a few solo at one time, but have never put together a "real" game, despite having painted enough troops for both sides. I haven't been able to justify any additional troops or vehicles until I get an opponent. Skirmish WW2 hasn't been a priority, but if anyone's willing, I'll get back at it.

Hard to see from this angle, but that's a suomi machine gun at left.

Molotov cocktail!

So since I don't have any new pictures of what I've been working on, today let's dig into the vault and look at some Finns I painted some time ago. All figures are Battle Honors 25/28 mm, which I actually like rather well, though you don't seem to see them that often. Painted primarily with Vallejo, along with some Testors acrylics. Based on washers. White is tough to pull off; these are simply white washed with light grey. Good enough.

The Regulars Are Coming!

Let's start the gaming portion of this program with an era I have probably put the most time and effort into - and played the most games over the years: The AWI in 25/28.

Truthfully, the vast majority of my AWI figures are American. I really have very few British, as one of my very talented colleagues took up the task to paint up that side of the conflict. We don't see each other often anymore, but did get together in March to play out a good game of Weitzel's Mill, a precursor to Guilford Courthouse. It was a case of me trying to defend too many river crossings with too few troops, and some good tactics by my worthy opponent carried the day. Alas!

Anyway, as I said, I have rather few British, and pretty much you are looking at the only line troops I have done. While I like to depict actual units whenever possible, especially with specialist units like Dragoons and such, for basic line troops I don't worry about it so much, especially with the British. I mean, a red coat is a red coat, right? So essentially these chaps will do for any early war unit with green or blue facings.

A word on figures as we go on: The bulk of my AWI are from Old Glory, but I also use Front Rank, Dixon, Foundry and Perry, as well as Battle Honors, which is what these happen to be. I don't think you see too many Battle Honors, but as I was very pleased with the WW2 figures produced by them, I thought I would give them a shot. I think they paint up quite nicely. The only problem as I recall is some of them had epaulettes, which I simply filed off.

I had hoped to get some of the Americans posted, but they were stashed pretty deep in the stash and I didn't feel like digging to get them out for their photo op. Soon.