Strelkovy - 2nd Platoon

Here's pictures of my 2nd Strelkovy Platoon.  This almost completes my first Strelkovy company.  I need to paint up a couple of Maksim machine gun teams and then I'll take the group shot.  After that it's on to the second Strelkovy company.

Strelkovy Company (Guards)

1 - Rifle Command   (Done)
1 - Kommissar Team (Done)
1 - Rifle Platoon  9-Rifle Stands (Done)
1 - Rifle Platoon  9-Rifle Stands (Done)
2 - Maksim HMG Teams


Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Rod

Fallschirmjäger - HQ and 1st Platoon

Last year I completed a British Armored Squadron for Flames of War gaming.  With the late war battles of Market Garden for inspiration and the sound track from "A Bridge Too Far" blasting in my head I set about painting the Irish Guard.  That army saw a lot of action at my favorite game store, but now that I've moved to a new house it's a bit of a drive to make it to there to play.  There are stores that are closer but they don't play Flames of War unfortunately.  So now if I want to play I have to invite a buddy over.  Which also means I have to supply a second army.

So, while I'm working on my Mid-War German and Soviet armies, I will occasionally side track and paint some Germans to fight my Brits.  Best part of painting Germans is that I can use them for both Eastern Front and Western Front.  So who knows?  These Fallshirmjager may see action against the Soviets, or my SS Panzergrenadiers may end up fighting my Brits.

Here's the HQ for my Fallshirmjagerkompanie.  I've painted both command stands without Panzerfaust so they can be cheaper, but I have one extra with a Panzerfaust just in case I have some points left over after I add the other toys.  There's two Panzerschrecks to add some punch!

Here's my first Fallshirmjager Platoon with 3 full squads.  You just can't have enough infantry right?? 

And... just to add some more terrain I got some trees from the hobby store and mounted them on bases.

That's the latest updates.  My 2nd Platoon of Strelkovy are still in progress.

Rod

Russian Church

My birthday was last week, and my wonderful wife surprised me with all kinds of goodies.  She had asked for hints on what kind of gifts I might like so I suggested I'd like some of the Eastern Front WWII terrain from Total Battle Miniatures.  I was really just expecting a building, maybe two.  She got me two houses and a barn... AND A HUGE CHURCH.  I had to say I was totally shocked when I unwrapped this thing.  Obviously, I couldn't wait to start painting it!  Unfortunately the postal service decided to have an impromptu football match with the package before delivering it to my doorstep so I had some repairs to make before I could even start.  But with some glue, green stuff, sweat, cursing and eventual tears I got it fixed enough to start priming.

Here's a some pictures...

The building consists of 4 pieces.  The bottom piece is a heavier type of resin than the other pieces.

And now the real question.  Just how big is this church?  Huge.  It will definitely be the center of attention when its on the table.  Here's a picture with some proud 15mm troops waving the Soviet flag.

I have to say I'm really impressed with this model.  Also, according to my wife Total Battle Miniatures rushed the order to get it here on time.  So I definitely recommend them as a class act if you happen to be considering ordering any of their stuff in the future.

Thanks for dropping by and having a look friends!

Strelkovy - 1st Platoon

Moving along with my Soviet horde, I'm now working on my 1st Company of Strelkovy.  I have the option of having 3 platoons in each Strelkovy company.  For now I just decided to go with 2 platoons per company.  That's still a lot of figures to paint, but I might eventually expand each to 3 platoons.  We'll see.  There's no rush that's for sure.

A Strelkovy platoon (mid-war) has 9 rifle stands and 1 command stand.

Now I have to buy more troops, so while I'm waiting to get the next round of Strelkovy I'll pull some other stuff out of my lead pile and get to painting.

Eastern Front Log Cabin

For my Flames of War Eastern Front campaign I started shopping around for some terrain.  I wanted to have some buildings to scatter around the battlefield.  I found a company called Mark IV Miniatures that has some really nice buildings.  I ordered a couple just to see what they would look like in person.  You never know when this stuff will be hit or miss.

Anyway, this is the first of the two log cabins I ordered.  I really like the look of it.  What's really neat is that it has an interior too.  It was really easy to paint up and I'm quite pleased with this purchase.  I think I'll be picking up a few more buildings in the near future.

More stuff coming soon.  Hope you all are having a good week.
Rod

The Men in Charge

I really set myself up for some special kind of pain when I decided to paint a mid-war Strelkovy Batalon.  In Flames of War terms this really is going to be a horde army when it's all done.  I plan to play it smart and pace myself.  The other thing is not to buy more infantry until I have painted the one's in my lead pile.  One thing I've heard about people doing Strelkovy Batalons is that they buy all the troops quickly and then lost their motivation looking at all those unpainted figures.  So, I'll paint a platoon before buying the next.  We'll see how that goes...

This batch I just finished is my Batalon commander.  When you buy this blister you get 5 command stands and 3 stands of komissars.  This will be handy to bulk up some of my other units as well.  

Now to start cleaning and prepping my first rifle platoon.

Rod

A fresh start!

I was a pretty active blogger, posting pictures of my games and miniatures before I went on a bit of a break.  My old blog was called "Close the Ranks".  What did I do during this break?  Well, I happened to meet the love of my life, dated her, married her, bought a new house and finally we got all settled.  Now I'm painting again and so I thought I'd start another blog.  Why?  Because for me it's a fun way to see how much I've accomplished.  Also, it's motivation to paint, because I hate to let my blog go too long without any activity.  So, here I am and I'm starting a new project.  This project will be for the Eastern Front of WW2 around the time of the Battle of Kursk.  Who doesn't love big tank battles after all?

The first unit I got is a gift from my wife, an artillery unit of 76mm ZIS-3s.  One of her favorite things about this unit when she was picking them out was a dead cow on one of the bases.  When I unwrapped it she pointed at it and said, "Because... DEAD COWS!"  Now you see why I love this woman!

And so... here they are.

I read and saw lots of pictures of vehicles covered with mud because it had been raining so I took this as an opportunity to play around and see if I could make some muddy-looking bases.  Unfortunately, as a side effect I think my soldiers came out looking a little glossy.

The dead cow... also slightly muddy.

Anyway, it feels good to be painting again. So there will be more to come!
Rod