Aerosan OSGA 6

More stuff for Whiteout, this time 2 Aerosans from Baker Company.

In Whiteout you can have Sno-Cats as equipment or find them as terrain-encounters. My take on the game is more pre-WWII Pulp, so I was after something else. These Aerosans looked just right.

The Aerosans were used during WWII by the Soviets, and captured ones by the Finns and Germans.

The kit, especially the metal parts, are not the best, and I changed the tin-rods for plastic ones to get a more stable and rugged model. The rig for the motor isn’t very like the real part, but this being pulp I just didn’t bother to convert it more than I did.

We’re in the Arctic, and I already got some Winter War Russians painted, so my baddies in Whiteout will be Russians. I painted the aerosans to work here as well as in WWII-winter conditions.

Finally I 3D-printed a hatch for when I need an unarmed vehicle. It’s hatch + plug so I can just drop it in place when needed.

They were this week’s painting challenge.

Komsomolets from Baker Company

I have a bunch of vehicles from Baker Company and the Winter War kickstarter they had a couple of years ago. Our Winter War project was placed on hold and the vehicles just laid there.

I had an idea of using some of them for pulp gaming, either 1930’s Pulp alley or 60’s/70’s 7TV. I did a truck a while ago and this time it was the Komsomolets tractor that got some love.

Evil minions are often seen riding on strange wheeled or tracked vehicles in their masters lairs (they seem unable to walk even short distances in cult movies) and a Komsomolets looks just the part.

I painted it dark green, so it could be used in an actual WWII game without looking totally out of place and an evil overlord would probably be pleased with the paintjob also.

I got two sets of crew; one could be used as Soviets while this one got a suitable minion-look paintjob.

Just as with the truck we have a really nice resin-body, but the metal parts are rather crappy and the crew are not the best out there. A pity as it’s a fun little vehicle.

Snow

This is the forgotten post. It was nearly ready just after I finished my Winter War Russians earlier this year, then forgotten until now. Enjoy!

For my Winter War troops I needed snow-covered bases. A quick check of the closest gaming stores got me two different snow-effect thingies suitable for basing.

I basecoated all bases in white before I started with the snow-effect.

Heki Shneeglitzer

Made for the railroad crowd and at 250 g it will last a long time. I applied a thick coat of white glue to the bases and dipped them. The result is very sparkling and it looks like ice-crystals. Suitable for dry snow.

Tamiya – Diorama Texture Paint – Snow Effect White

This rather big pot, 100ml, will last a while. It is a thick paste that is easy to paint on to the bases, it sticks well and looks like wet snow when set. Sparkly and nice.

Both works well, but my favourite is the Tamiya snow effect.

28mm Russians from Baker Company finished

These are the first batch of Russians I got from the Baker Company Kickstarter. Me, Thomas and Laffe got in on this together and split one Finnish and two Russian platoons, plus some add-ons.

 

1^st squad

2^nd squad

Anyway, the first box came a while ago, and I managed to finish these 28 Russians in record time. Record time for me, that is. You’ll find a short painting tutorial here. I tried a lot of different grey-green colours on the uniforms, not just those in the tutorial.

SMG-group

I’m not overly enthusiastic about these figures. The details are somewhat crude, some of the faces are, well, awful. I had to green-stuff a bit; a couple of miscasts and the LMG:s had to short muzzles.

On the other hand, when you have them at arm’s length, playing a game, they do look at least OK.

So, all in all, I’m satisfied with the outcome of the Kickstarter, but I will probably not buy more Winter War figures from Baker Company. Well, maybe a pack or two if we find that we need something more when we have played Chain of Command with them.

Command group

After this I need to relax with some fantasy figures, but after that the Finns will move to the painting table.

With this speed I might be able to actually paint all these figures in a reasonable time.

Painting tutorial – 28mm Winter War Russians

The first Russian troops from Baker Company’s Winter War kickstarter.

I have a very good reference book for the uniforms and equipment: The Soviet Soldier of World War Two, by Philippe Rio and published by Histoire & Collections. Excellent with colour photos of reenactors dressed in the real stuff. I can’t recommend this book enough.

The M.30 Assault Pack

The M.36 Backpack with rolled tent section.

Paints used:

Uniform – different shades of khaki: Mainly Vallejo 880 Khaki Grey and 914 Green Ochre, but I will also use 873 US Field Drab, 924 Russian Uniform WWII and maybe some others

Shoes – black

Belt and ammo puches – 984 Flat Brown

Wooden stock – 981 Orange Brown

Gun metal – 863 Gunmetal Grey

Assault Pack M.30 – 912 Tan Yellow

Backpack M.36 – 894 German Olive Green

Tent section – 924 Russian Uniform WWII, 873 US Field Drab

Entrenching Tool, cover – 876 Buff

Entrenching tool, handle - 843 Cork Brown

Water Bottle – 924 Russian Uniform WWII

Red Star – Citadel Blood Red

Everything washed with Army Painter Strong Tone.

More Russians will be painted in the near future (as soon as my Wild West figures are ready) and with them you will see some more uniform details.

Also some thoughts on the miniatures themselves.

And a short tutorial on snow – I’ve tried three different brands with varying result.

BT-5 and BT-7 from Frontline

We need some spare Russian tanks for the participation game of IABSM at Stockholm Spelkonvent next Saturday and I had a couple of resin tanks in the box of unfinished WWII-stuff. These are from Frontline, rather simple with only four parts each (body, turret, left and right tracks/wheels) but they do need quite a lot of preparation. Bubbles need filling and in some places parts of the tracks had broken off. One of the track/wheels pieces were broken in four pieces (probably my fault), and that obviously needed some glue, and extensive rebuilding of the tracks. I removed damaged tracks, trying to get even edges, and cut pieces of plastic-card to fit. Thin slices of card were glued in place to build up the tracks.
The resin parts were washed to remove any oily residues.
I decided to paint them in different colours, mainly to be able to differentiate the different tank models from each other.

BT-5 before painting…

…and after.

The BT-5 was painted with Vallejo 978 Military Green and given a black wash. Wheel-rims black, tracks Citadel Tin Bitz with a highlight of Citadel Gun Metal. The green turned out to be far to dark, but that was partly rectified by a generous dose of pigments, MIG P028 Europe Dust and P232 Dry Mud. MIG Black pigment to simulate soot.

I have still much to learn about pigments, but they sure are fun to play with.

The the BT-7 was painted with Formula P3 Traitor Green with a wash of black. Otherwise as above, but with less pigments. I'm very satisfied with the colour of this one.

BT-7 before…

…and after.

Now, all they have to do is to survive their clash with the nazi aggressors. We’ll see…

T-26 by Frontline

First a quick view of my workspace. Crammed with paints, models, miniatures, modeling equipment and a computer. I’m working with the T-26:es shown below, a couple of Pz 38(t), some Italian 6 mm, a bunch of familiars for D&D, some odd fantasy figures and the blasted old GW giant (which I never get done), 20mm British 2-pounder that are waiting for me to mix paint for them, the infamous Finnish 37mm Bofors awaiting more cloth and some modern zombies. I’ll try to get everything on the table painted before I start another project. Maybe… probably not…

Well, first off the table are the three Frontline T-26:es we are to use in a participation game on Stockholm Spelkonvent.

They were painted with Vallejo 892 Olive Yellow and given a wash with Citadel Badab Black. Weathering with assorted Vallejo pigments.
The models were a bit of a pain to clean, they are made of resin, and rather crude. Had to fiddle with them quite a lot to get the turrets to fit. But they are relatively cheap, easy to assemble (four parts) and the result is OK.

They will be supported by this monster, a T-28 by SHQ. A lovely model I made last year.