Ilyushin Sturmovik, Airfix (1/72 scale)

Ilyushin II-2M3 of the 233rd Guards Assault Regiment, VVS 1944-45.

From the instruction leaflet:
"The Ilyushin Stormovik, which first entered service in 1941, became one of the best known of all the Soviet Air Force aircraft of the Second World War. It was designed specifically for ground attack and the support of ground force in the battlefields. The Stomovik played a crucial role in World War Two and was described by Stalin as 'as necessary to the Red Army as air and bread." Over 36,000 (36,183 to be precise) Stormoviks were built - more than any other aircraft type in history.

Armament consisted of two 23mm cannon and two 7.62 machine guns in the wings and a single 12.7mm machine gun in the rear cockpit. It could carry either a bomb load of 1000lbs (450 kgs) or up to eight rockets. The IL-2M was powered by a 1770 hp Mikulin AM-38F engine giving a maximum speed of 260 mph (416 kmp). Wingspan was 47ft 10ins (14.58m) and length 38ft (11.58m)."
 

I was deliberately heavy handed with the weathering and shading on this model as I wanted it to stand out on the table.

Ironically the Sturmovik was nearly identical (in appearance and performance) to the little remembered British little bomber the Fairey Battle, still considered one of the worst wartime RAF aircraft.

Partisans, Warlord Games

These figures present partisans or members of resistance movements during WWII. 'The French term "partisan", derived from the Latin, was first used in the 17th century to describe the leader of a war-party' - thanks Wikipedia, I never knew that.

Please note that these are the contents of two packs of figures. 

Group 1 Front

Group 1 Rear

 

Group 2 Front

 

Group 2 Rear

 

Group 3 Front

Group 3 Rear

 

 

Group 4 Front

 

Group 4 Rear

 

The packs are supplied with a mixed set of eight from a certain random number of figures. With the two pacts I've purchased thirteen out of the total sixteen are unique sculpts. The figures come with a mixture of civilian, military clothing and equipment (mainly Soviet but with a Thompson sub-machine gun and a German stahlhelm helmet thrown in for good measure). Suitable for resistance fighters in several theatres including Russian/Soviet, French maquisards (with their berets) or possibly usable for Dutch, Jewish, Polish, Yugoslavians partisans etc.

 

I had been struggling to think of suitable colours to use as I could find very little info or colour reference images of casually dressed (especially eastern) Europeans from the 1930's and 40's. However it was whilst sitting in my local pub that I happened to notice the television was showing the latest episode of Foyle's War (a British detective drama television series originally set during World War II). 'Hello' I thought, 'this may be helpful' so I settled back with pint in hand and noted that all the male civilian clothing which seemed to be variations of rather sober shades of grey, blue and brown. Therefore I have deliberately painted these figures with a relatively subdued colour scheme, which makes sense seeing as they are supposed to represent sneaky partisans ready to ambush any passing bad guys. 

Whenever possible in the future I'm going to do all my research down the pub. It certainly won't improve the quality or quantity of my painting output but I'll be too pickled to care.

Regular readers (hi mom) may have been somewhat surprised to know that I've actually prepared, modified, primed and block painted dozens of Soviet soldiers for my on going Bolt Action project but I do have various excuses for the distinct lack of finished miniatures: 

• I was waiting to pick up the official Bolt Action army book,
• Ongoing research into clothing and equipment,
• I lost my USB cable so haven't been able to download any photographs,
• I'm a lazy arse who is far too easily distracted.

With the death of Google Reader I've been missing numerous updates on the 500+ blogs I follow (Google+ is also getting on my nerves but that might be because I'm getting old and grumpy). It was whilst pondering this I remembered that I hadn't posted for a quite a time myself. In fact I realised that I had nearly missed two consecutive months, which would have been for the first ever since starting this blog. After checking it also dawned on me that this blog been going for five years (five years exact last Sunday to be precise) - doesn't time fly when you're having fun. So without making any promises I'm going to try and post on a more regular basis i.e. more than once every eight/nine weeks!

 

And, as always, thanks for reading.

Our First YouTube Bolt Action Game

aka "Hello Mom, I'm on the telly."

Well not quite. Last weekend my old mate Ade invited me over to the heart of sunny Shropshire to visit the Man Cave. This is actually a large purpose built shed at the bottom of his garden which for most people in the UK is probably the next best thing to a dedicated games room in your home.

From this battle-shed Ade has been playing and recording wargames, mainly Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine, just for his own amusement and to share the results with the wider community. Slowly but surely Ade has built up a loyal following of over 4600 YouTubers (or whatever the proper collective noun is) which is growing exponentially. He has been wanting to branch out and cover more game systems for quite a while and seeing as we are both collecting WWII figures at the moment he thought it was an ideal opportunity to play a few games of Bolt Action, the WWII skirmish ruleset from Warlord Games.

The main purpose of my visit therefore was to record, hopefully the first of many, a couple of games of Bolt Action. Regular readers (hi mom) will realise I rarely, if ever, mention playing games on this blog. This is because I'm primarily a model maker/painter/collector so if you looking for an in-depth report on tactics, formations etc. then you'll have to wait a while until I can fully comprehend the game. If however you'd like to watch a relaxed game between to old mates then watch and enjoy.

Wargaming For Fun - 1st Bolt Action game*

*Be warned the video contains implied strong violence against toy soldiers, poor jokes, light hearted banter and heavy midlander accents (well mine is thicker than black puddin').

Soviet 76mm infantry gun M1943 & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This is the second model taken from the 28mm plastic '45mm Anti Tank Gun' set from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC), the other can be seen (here) . This model depicts the 76mm infantry M1943 which used the same carriage.

There will eventually be a online video showing how this base was made detailing in particular the tree roots. This will be on Ade's own website (Wargaming for fun) and on YouTube (Wargaming For Fun).

Ade does a great job of editing his videos which actually takes a substantial amount of time. This video will have a new voice-over as the original involved a fair amount of industrial language as it doesn't show the bit where I managed to superglue my fingers to the acrylic base, or the important bit (i.e. making the actual tree roots) when I didn't realise the camera battery had run out.

Soviet DP28 Light Machine Gun, Plastic Solder Company - Part 2 of 2

These figures are also from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' set - others can be seen elsewhere on my blog (click here). These are the final group of miniatures from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) for the time being, except for another piece of artillery, that I've completed from that particualr boxset. There are more in the set that I have block painted but I can't quite motivate myself to finish them. They are perfectly adequate for gaming but they don't (without wishing to sound too pretentious) inspire me  to spend the time on detailing them up to my own preferred standard.

 

 

Next up, if I can take some decent photographs, will be a few pieces/figures I've recently finished for use with Bolt Action rules.

Soviet DP28 Light Machine Gun, Plastic Solder Company - Part 1 of 2

The DP28 or Degtyaryova Pekhotny "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun" introduced in 1928 (hence DP28 code, the Russians had a very simple and logical method of creating their equipment codes). The pan magazine could hold 47 rounds firing at a rate of approx. 500rpm.

This effective weapon saw service throughout the WWII by both the Soviet forces and the Finnish army, which captured thousands during the Winter and Continuation Wars, and was later used in large numbers by Communist forces in Asia.

 

These figures are from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' set. 

 

  

 

The tree stump with roots was made using the same method described in a previous post (click here). It adds a little detail to what would otherwise be a relatively bland base.

Soviet 82mm mortar team, Plastic Soldier Company

Finally this is last group I painted up taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set, Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) - for the Plastic Soldier Review (click here). As you may notice from the review there are other figures within the set but I don't need them at present.

 

 

Once I've completed my Warlord Games plastic Soviet infantry I'll add any spare weapons, rifles, sub-machine guns etc. to these groups as they look a bit vulnerable at the moment.

 

Also in the same boxset:

Soviet Maxim M1910 Heavy Machine Gun

& Soviet 50mm Mortar 

 

Soviet 50mm mortar team, Plastic Soldier Company

Another group taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set by the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). For a proper review (click here).

 

 

Soviet Maxim M1910 heavy machine gun & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This group is taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set, Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). For a proper review, although of the 1/72 scale kit version, take a look at the Plastic Soldier Review site (click here).

 

 

The tree stump is made from a real twig picked up from my local park and stuck into place with PVA glue. Alternatively if you have more money than sense you can buy a 0.5oz (14g) bag of sticks..sorry 'Broken Stumps' from Woodland Scenics (for between £3.75 and £5.99). To quote their website:

"Use this natural, realistic product to model fallen or standing dead trees and stumps. It has the look of aged wood with gnarled branches, knots with some smooth, weathered pieces."

Or, as I've just said, you can pop outside, look under a tree, bush or hedge and grab a handful of dead wood for free.
The roots are simply made by twisting a suitable length of tissue paper. Glue one end, (you'll have to use super glue) near the stump. Once dry twist the tissue paper again and carefully glue the other end into position, being careful to avoid gluing your figures to the base (not like I'd be daft enough to do that, of course). Then apply super glue over the length of the paper to set it so that it doesn't unwind itself. Simple as that.

The most notable problem with this set is that there isn't any ammunition being fed into the machine gun. This would be less obvious with the 1/72 scale version but I will have to add an ammo box and belt sometime in the future.

Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun M1942 & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This model is taken from the 28mm plastic '45mm Anti Tank Gun' set from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). This model depicts the 45mm anti-tank gun M1942 and is one of three available options you can make. The boxset for the 28mm version contains enough parts and figures to make two guns complete with crew.

 

 

There is a far better detailed review, of the 1/72 scale kit, on the Plastic Soldier Review site (click here).

Soviet PTRD anti-tank rifle & Crew, Warlord Games

Taken from the 28mm plastic 'Soviet Infantry' set from Warlord Games this set depicts the Soviet PTRD-41  anti-tank rifle.

 

 

 

The PTRD-41 was the Soviet anti-tank rifle that saw service from 1941. The single-shot (14.5 dia x 114mm) weapon became less and less effective against Germany armour as the war continued.

 

The Warlord boxset offers a multitude of options and enables you to create unique combinations of miniatures. I thought this set was reminiscent of the old Airfix multi-part plastic 1:32 scale figures. I have modified a number of the models from the plastic boxset but haven't had the opportunity to paint them up yet.

Although the Warlord figures are better models (in terms of both scuplting and detail) than those produced by Plastic Solder Company (PSC) they also work out more expensive per figure (as always, you get what you pay for). I'll be posting a number of models from various PSC sets set over the next few days.

T34/85 Medium tank, Warlord Games

"Arguably the best tank of World War II, the T34/85 with its new turret and upgraded weaponry added to the sloped armour, saw extensive action during World War II and long afterwards. This iconic Soviet tank performed well in Korean and Vietnam wars as well as the battles in the Middle-East and even the Bosnian war of the 1980's."

 

Well that's what it says on the box anyway. It was definitely the best medium Soviet tank of the war. This 28mm WWII Soviet medium tank is available from Warlord Games (currently £20) with which I plan to use to smash my mate Ade's forces into smithereens when we play Bolt Action games (this is a vain attempt at psychological warfare as Ade is a far better player than me).

The main body and turret of the tank are resin with the tracks, barrel and commander/hatch in metal. The kit comes with various different commander figure options including just the hatch which can be modelled closed which is a nice touch but the scale of games I intend to play are limited to only one tank by the Bolt Action rules.

 

I had a couple of issues with the model itself, but nothing I couldn't fix. Fortunately the metal tracks are designed with handed locating pins which ensures that you can't fix the tracks on backwards. Unfortunately with this particular model the resin body appears to have warped slightly which meant I had to carve away some of the resin body to make the tracks fit. This still left a gap which ran the length of the tracks but I used greenstuff to fill the gap and to act as a glue as the contact wasn't good enough for the superglue to work properly.

 

The hole in the turret for the barrel was also slightly too large so I used some more greenstuff to fix this in place.

The tank was completely painted with Russian Green (Vallejo 894) then given various washes of green, brown and black ink. A highlight was then also applied. The slogan was painted on freehand.

 

I could have left the model in the factory fresh state but it was at this point I went to work on it with weathering powders. In this case I used MIG weathering products (there's also new sets available from Humbrol). I had bought these years ago, put them into a drawer and promptly forget all about them so this is the first time I've ever actually used these products in anger. So far I've been impressed by the results.

If you've never used these before they are really simple to apply. Put a small amount of the powder into a suitable dish/plastic container, add a little thinners or white spirit/turps and then brush the mix on to the model. Then leave to dry. It really is as simple as that.

For this I was testing the following MIG pigments:

Rubbel(sic) Dust P234
Industrial City Dirt P039
Brick Dust P023
Standard Rust P025

 

The white spirit evaporates leaving the powder in place. If you don't like it you can either wipe it away using a cotton bud (cotton swabs/Q-tips for our American cousins) dipped in white spirit/turps or you can just rub it off. However there is a chance you'll remove the base paint but it's easy to touch up with original colour. Building up various layers helps with the overall look. Once you get more confident you can even flick the mixture onto the model to give even more realistic results.

WIP WWII Russians, Plastic Soldier Company

And now for something completely different!

Regular readers ("hello mom") may recall that I visited the latest Derby Show held at a new venue at Castle Donington with my brother and old mate Ade. There we played a small demo of Warlord Games new'ish WWII rule set Bolt Action. After a game in which we somehow managed to completely wipe each other out Ade and myself decided to invest some of our future time and efforts in this game system. Ade bought the rules there and then. As mentioned previously, Ade intended to go with US forces and his rather spiffing first lot of figures can be seen here. 

 

I however opted to take on the mighty Red Army, purchasing a box of The Plastic Soldier Company's (PSC) plastic 28mm WWII 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' from Wayland's Forge in Birmingham. Leaving the shop I noticed Warlord Games (WG) plastic Russian set and went back and bought those as well, justifying the purchase as I wanted to recreate the 'human wave' effect in games as cheaply as possible.

The Plastic Soldier Company's set has a certain retro charm but suffers from a lack of sharpness of detail compared to the figures in the WG set. I believe the masters were designed for 1/72 (20mm) scale and then scaled up to 28mm but suffering in the process. I'll detail the box contents once I've finished at least one lot of sprues worth of figures.

Added Russian M52 helmet & Ushanka fur hat (even if he is wearing summer uniform).

The box set contains three identical sprues but the majority of figures are single mouldings, not multi pose like WG but regular readers ("hello again mom") will know I enjoy chopping and changing figures whenever possible as I like to add some variety to my red horde. Having numerous spare heads from the WG box I decided the chop and change at least one of the three figures per sprue.

In this first batch I've only changed the heads (and a single hand), I hope to modify a few other bits and pieces with other figures. All the original, unaltered, miniatures are the first figure the left hand side (except for the second photo because I forgot) but hopefully the differences should be obvious.