Elbowski starts Battlegroup Soviets (again...)

[CapnJim]

Aces to you for looking after your buddy.  Well done!

Nice minis you've done up, as well...

[Elbows]

Oh, we've made lemonade out of the lemons...he's decided it's time to start British and he's already ordered some.   

[Elbows]

After blitzing through the Kasserine box like a rabid squirrel...I've painted my last tank from the box for a while, a Panzer III quickly converted to a Panzer III N - adapted as a Flammpanzer.  Removed the side visor ports from the turret, made a "tank/pump" out of a spare Churchill unit, added some hosing from a Tiger tank exhaust and added a thicker "faux" barrel to the front.

So, since getting the box on Thursday I've smashed out:
2x 50mm Guns
3x Panzer III L's
3x M3 Grants
3x Stuart M3A1s
2x Panzer III N's
1x Panzer III Flammpanzer.

The rest goes into storage of gets flipped on eBay to recoup some of the cost of the box.

[CapnJim]

Nice job on that flammpanzer.  Looks good!

[Elbows]

So, since this project is at the "playable" status, I don't often crank out 15mm stuff.  However, it's a nice break from all the 28mm fantasy and sci-fi stuff I've been doing.

I picked up the absurdly well priced 'Kursk' box recently and have been adding some more cats for my German force.  Some buddies expressed interest in more Normandy based games, so I want more options for the later war German stuff.  Weirdly, I also did not have a single Tiger for my FJ support.







I have a large batch of 3D printed Eastern Front buildings on the way too, so I hope to add to my table sometime soon.

[Elbows]

Adding some post-Kursk armour to the Soviets.  Nothing too exciting, just more...green T-34's.  This time with 85mm's.

[Elbows]

Expanded my Soviet village into a Soviet town with some 15mm 3D printed buildings (FDM) from Patrick Miniatures on Etsy.





Really solid buildings.  Decent prints (for FDM), and they disassemble for using the interiors nicely.

[Elbows]

Finding myself with a somewhat uncharacteristic backlog of miniatures (too many projects on the go at once, I s'pose), I decided to find something quick and simple I could get out of the painting queue.

A platoon of 15mm Valentines in Lend Lease use with the Soviets (Flames of War minis from the Kursk box I picked up recently).

[Gunner Dunbar]

 Nice thread, I do 20mm, but I appreciate a nicely painted 15mm figure.

[CapnJim]

Well, that's more great looking stuff!  The tanks look spiffy, and I love what you've done with those buildings...

[Elbows]

It may seem like sacrilege...but as a Soviet player, I'm not a huge fan of the T-34.  I'm a KV guy through and through.  However, almost every FoW starter box comes with T-34's and they're definitely a staple for Soviet forces.  So I threw together my last three (well I have one more on sprue I likely won't bother with) T-34/85s.  I didn't bother building the shorter barrel turrets though I may do that in the future if really bored...

I now have maybe 7-9 of the short barrels, and six of the T-34/85's...so that's enough T-34's to see me through most scenarios.  I am also really tired of the FoW T-34 kit as it's old, poor to assemble, and its mold is showing a lot of use.  The tracks lean in, the front fenders don't line up, there's a lot of sprue flash, and the plastic is mediocre.

[Elbows]

Using 15mm to get me out of a non-hobby funk over the past two weeks.  I grabbed the PSC 231 8-Rad kit and whipped up three of the five.

[CapnJim]

They look great!  Good job!

[Harry Faversham]

Just spent a fascinating half hour, reading this thread, and drooling over the piccys.
Elbowski, I reckon they should make you a Hero of the Soviet Union!

 

[Elbows]

Da, comrade!