My Russian Diary

[Seuchenhexer]

A small update on my fantasy Lend Lease force, before I (probably) return to some more classic Russian vehicles.




I got a little sick of always having to paint two airplanes of the same sort, so I decided to add some smaller bombers, and heavy fighters to my force. Putting them up with one of my fighters as cover. And as I was working on my Lend Lease project, I decided to start with the de Havilland Mosquito (as one was really delivered to Russia), and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning as I really do like this one.


Next up are a bunch of new Shermans. I will later add the 76mm, that have been really delivered to Russia. But for now I wanted to do some Firefly's.


3D printed M12 155mm artillery, with crew from Peter Pig and Plastic Soldier mortar crews. As they are not placed on a base, I decided to add the crew directly onto the vehicle, even as this probably was not the way to operate those machines. But leaving them empty, as in controlled by ghosts seemed to be a way worse solution.

[Seuchenhexer]

After that much What If Lend- Lease stuff, it was time to get back to some real Russian metal, or a lot of plastic in this case.

 

Somewhat fitting to the title of this topic, I wanted to build a objective marker for every year of the war. Kind of like the pages of a diary.
Playing a lot Flames of War Bulge: Americans, and Bagration: Soviet at the moment (and with Berlin: Soviets on the far, but not too far horizon) I started with the objective marker for 1945, depicting a General overlooking the advance towards Vienna. Standing on the rear seat of his BA64 command car, with the upper section being cut off, and re-purposed windshield of a captured German Schwimmwagen.
The driver uses that downtime to flirt some with the nearby traffic coordinator.


Three 3d printed SU-76i, I want to use especially with the Bagration: Soviet command card, that allows for fielding captured German tanks. It will of course stand in for the StuG III.
The unit leader is slightly modified, and I added a Panzer III cupola to it.


The probably last edition to my Bulge: American forces at this point, three KV2 equipped with a 107mm cannon, as mentioned before.
With the first look at the Eastern Front book that will bring several KV variants, like the 3 and 5, I wanted to do something a little exotic.
I also added some captured German Schürzen to them so they got a tad more of a special look.
I really like them and used them already on a game this weekend. They added exactly what I wanted for that force, to give the whole thing a bit of a more Russian look, and not just be all US vehicles.


And last but not least! Plain old boring KV1 to crush the fascists.