20mm Ivan for Winter War (updated 18.5.)

[Verderer]

Here's the first batch of some 100 Winter War type Russians. Did some experimenting with winter bases and trying to sort  good colours for the mantels and shlems. The ruddy shlems look more like picklehaube but I wasnt' gonna go converting 100 minis, no way no how.







Pics are kinda crappy, sorry about that. I really need to sort out proper lights for shooting pics.

[inkydave]

Nicely done there fella The shlems look good to me. But I love the bases. the snow is fantactic!!

[infelix]

I agree the painting and the snow looks great!

[Marine0846]

The figures look damn fine to me.
Winter War is interesting to me.
Will be following where this leads.
Could you please tell us what did you use for snow?

[Saragarhi]

100? I can only count 20!  

Could you share which manufacturer the figures are from?
Also what material you used for the snow?
They look great and I'll be following this with interest as I have many figures and vehicles for a (28 mm) Winter War project waiting in the lead mountain.

Cheers, Andy

[Verderer]

Thanks people, I will try to keep the momentum and paint in small batches. Hence only 10 minis for now....That way the job won't seem so big. I have some tanks and other vehicles waiting for painting, plus of course a force of Finns too. These minis are by Combat Miniatures, I think. They're available from Stonewall at least. They have lots of character, but they're not without their faults of course.

The bases were really just an experiment which turned out quite nice, even if I say so myself. The pics make them look a bit too lumpy and two dimensional because of the material used. This is what I did:

1. Used sand and glue to flock the bases normally, and the painted them earth tone brown.

2. Applied some cyanoacrylate aka. super glue here and there on the base where I want some snow. I used an older bottle of gel type stuff which seems to have gone a bit off, since it doesn't bond metal too well anymore. Waste not, want not! It's perhaps better to use gel, so the glue won't run all over your fingers etc. Also don't apply too much at a time you can layer this stuff with stage 3.

3. While the super glue is still wet, dunk the base in a cup of baking soda. This makes the glue react with the soda very quickly with several effects: The glue hardens pretty quickly, and it forms a hazy (or frosty) body with the baking soda. As it dries so quick and is sucked into the soda, it's great for building up the snow around the feet of the model etc. With the quick dry up, you can build layers quickly. Another bonus is that the frosty texture looks a bit like icy snow, or slush, so you can leave this showing at places. Likewise, if you leave some places where there is only dryied glue, it would look like ice? Anyways.

4. After building the base as I want, I covered the whole base with a layer of satin varnish. I did this because I wasn't sure how the baking soda & superglue mix would react with the next stage. Also, I have heard that with time the soda might turn yellow, but I don't have any first hand experience on this.

5. Ok, the final stage. I applied sating varnish here and there where I wanted proper white snow surface. Then, while the varmish is still wet, I plopped the base into a cup containg the 'snow' powder*. This doesn't cause a reaction like the super glue and & baking soda, instead it acts pretty much like a regular flock, ie. sticks to the varnish and dries out white.

*In this case I used a product called Magic Snow which I bought from Grey Funnel Line in Germany a couple of years back, but I am not sure if that is available anymore? In any case, it's kinda fine powdery scenic snow, in texture it's not unlike baking soda, in fact. It says on the tin to contain aluminum oxide, which is why used a layer of varnish first. I am not sure if it won't react with the baking soda & super glue mix. Probably not, but better be safe than sorry? If there are some chemisty jockeys among you, please let me know. Or I could just mix the three and watch the flames...

As to the final stage with Magic Snow, I am guessing you can easily replace it with the regular baking soda? Would probably work as well with white glue or varnish etc. Like I said, this was just an experiment, and is not meant as definitive guide. Bu you will notice that no paint was used other than to paint the base brown in the beginning, so the shadows and highlights are result of the materials layered on each other. I feel the base looks more natural that way compared with merely painting the base with white etc.

[janner]

Very characterful - I like these very much 

[Jim French]

Nice work, Verderer.  I have always found the Winter War interesting simply because the Russians seemed so inept at everything that you would think they would excel at.  Whoa, convoluted sentence!
Anyway, be sure to post Finnish troops when you get them up.

[Saragarhi]

Verderer,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I have some of the snow "flock" from Woodland Scenics, but your bases look superb, so I may try your method instead!

Cheers, Andy

[Verderer]

You're welcome, and the added advantage is that these bases will endure pretty much anything, they're tough.

I forgot to say I may yet paint the red rifles collar tabs on the overcoats, but on some of these minis the area round the collar tips is pretty crowded and it's hard to get a brush in there without messing things up.

Will try to paint a new batch this weekend hopefully 20 odd more.

[Verderer]

Painted 12 +1 (don't ask) soldiers this time:



Closer look:


And all of them together, does this qualify as a smallish horde?

[Verderer]

Did a couple of SHQ Russian light support vehicles to break up the tedium of painting infantry, and to try out some techniques. I don't usually base my vehicles, but I thought it appropriate for this project. I need to polish the basing technique a bit for vehicles, it seems. It wasn't as easy as with infantry.













Together with some infantry:

[inkydave]

Fantastic stuff V. Great painting and weathering on the vehicles   Nicely done

[Verderer]

My enthusiasm for painting was dimished a little, as I tried to entice some companies to sell me some infantry (Tumbling Dice, I am looking at you!) But just to show I haven't been idle on this project, I've been busy buying, assembling and priming some serious hardware. Here's some shots of the assembly line:





A bunch of SHQ and Frontline hardware for Soviet tracks. The SHQ tanks are 5x BT5, 5x T26, 2x T28, and a couple of trucks, a Komintern tractor and a 203mm cannon fro some bunker busting. The Frontline tanks are more BT5s and T26s. I wanted to buy these to make some wrecks, because they're so cheap. No sense wasting those expensive metal tanks for that, is there? Pity they come with closed hatches though.

The photo below shows that the Frontline t26 is actually pretty much smaller than the SHQ equivalent. The height is partly due the Frontline tank not glued together, so the hull is resting on the track units. But the SHQ one is also several millimetres longer.



Then  a real cute BA20 AC. These might be pretty new to SHQ, at least I don't remember seeing them before. The model is pretty good with sharp details (indicating a new mold?) Ain't she purdy?



And finally some real life reference from Parola tank museum:

[Verderer]

Saga continues, I started making some wrecks, using the cheap Frontline models. From what I have read, the tank wrecks were actually factor in the battle for the Mannerheim line, because they severely obstructed the Finns' MGs shooting from the bunkers. Soviets tanks actually did on purpose drive their tanks just in front of the bunkers to block the MG's LOS, to protect their infantry. And when tanks got destroyed (and the Finns did destroy many), the ground in front of the bunkers was littered with wrecks. So I mean doing these for a specific purpose in the game, not just for window dressing.

When I examined some shots of tank wrecks, it became obvious that the Frontline tanks (and indeed the SHQ tanks) would not be ideal as wrecks, simply because they're very simplified models, and all their hatches are modelled closed (the same with the SHQ T-26 and BT-5),. In fact, the only tanks I got with open turret hatch are the T-28, a single Milicast BT-7, and the armoured cars. So I solved the dilemma, I would do my own turrets with open hatches! Scratch building isn't too hard really, as the turrets are pretty basic in shape and detail, and they're almost the same for the BT-5 and the T-26, or at least the differences are negligable in the models at this scale. Anyways, open turrets would be one way to portray the rubbish heaps that the tanks have become. Of course, not all of them were blown into pieces, and I assume damage from Molotov Coctails, AT guns, 'kasapanos' and mines would look somewhat different. So I will try to make them each look maybe a little different. Not all need open hatches, if the crew didn't escape, for example.

But to cut a long story short, here's two progress pics of the turrets:





I will make 7 turrets, and maybe put one of them on the 'live' tanks because as I have said, they dont' have too many open hatches. I am not sure if I will bother with the gun breech in the interior? It won't show much. But maybe do one to see how it looks.