20mm Ivan for Winter War (updated 18.5.)

[Verderer]

But it's not only wrecks, I got two units of tanks ready for paint as well:



I swapped some of the scratchbuilt turrets on these T-26s so I can place some crew minis in them. The wrecks don't all need them anyway, right?



And elements of a scout troop:



And a teaser of how big the t-100 will be:



Enemy machines will be on the sky as well:



And Arty says hello as well:

[Verderer]

And a parting salvo of the Tumbling Dice Russians:


Tumbling Dice minis are the second from the left and the one on the extreme right. The shlem headed on looks pretty good, but the helmeted one is really bizarro, the face look very small and the helmet is huge and out of proportion too, very bizarre looking even if these bad photos don't show it well. I don't know if I am gonna use them as is, or do some headswaps from SHQ minis, we'll see.


Here's a good example of how decent these TD Russian can actually look. Again, sorry about the picture quality. This artillery crew is pretty useful, or is it a AA crew maybe with the seated mini?


Another example, this time cavalry. The horse comes in two parts - body & head (there are variants), and the rider is in one part but the rifle is separate. There are all kinds of rider options. All in all, the Tumbling Dice range seems promising, if you're looking Russians in overcoats, but I would steer away from the helmeted ones. Wide range of minis too with loads of options. It was a bit confusing to order them, and they didn't at the time have a decent website. I was told one is on its way though.

[Verderer]

Just some WIP update again, I am afraid, no new paintjobs yet. This time the assembled heavy hitters.




The Ostmodels T-100 is monster in every way. It's a nice model but the track units were a real pig to assemble. It took me two evenings to make them, what with first trying to figure out the correct order, and then finding out things don't really fit too well. The space between the return roller wheels and the fenders was far too tight to take the track, and the teething of the tracks made it even more difficult to fit them in. Real exercise in patience manual dexterity. What I had initially worried most was bending the tracks in shape (they come in about 5 cm lengths), but that was actually the easy bit with a hot air blower. I must say that one of the charms of resin and metal tanks for me is that you don't need to bugger about with the track units, usually you just clean them up and plonk them in. But this puppy completely nullified that. Good thing I only got one of these.  




Anyways, as cuprum informed me there were some prototype KV tanks in the Winter War, so I assembled two SHQ KV-1s to play the part. Close enough. And then I got two T-28's as well. I think I won't bother with more heavies, at least for now.







Another project within project were these Elhiem Russians in camosuits. They're pretty nice, but all of them (except the commander with pistol) are armed with SMGs (in the first pic), so I wanted to change that. I got me some Elhiem Summer Russians, and cannibalised their MGs and rifles. The conversion was actually pretty easy, once I figured out which weapon would go with which mini. Then I just snipped the weapons off, glued them on, and used some green stuff to neaten things up. Job done.

[Verderer]

Got the t-26 wrecks ready for painting, here are a couple of shots:

[Verderer]

Hey folks, I haven't dropped this project despite the long silence. Here are a couple of shots of the wrecks getting their first layers of paint:











More pics soon, I hope!

[Helen]

Outstanding work, love it all. I hope Lon can see this and revitalise the period in question.

Cheers,

Helen

[Verderer]

Thanks Helen, i hope to get more progress by end of the week, once I have cleared my work load....

[Mr. Peabody]

So happy I stumbled on to this!

What a great project, and so well executed. The projects that 'simmer longest', taste best. Looking forward to more.

[Verderer]

Thanks Peabody, I really do hope I will get this thing thing done.

In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of reading on WW and especially the battle in Summa on the Karelian Isthmus. I have managed to buy great many used books on the subject in a local secondhand bookshop. A particular treasure I found was a Finnish rifle & LMG squad leader's handbook from 1935. Lots of great details about tactics, weapons, field fortifications etc.

But the more I read some of the sources, the more baffled I get. The details on the field fortifications (mainly trenches) around certain big bunkers are really scetchy, very few photos or schematics (good ones on the bunkers themselves though) or even textual descriptions. I have to keep digging and making some educated guesses on that subject, unless I can manage to find more sources.

Thats' one thing. Another thing has been mentioned already earlier in this thread but keeps popping up. The descriptions on Soviet tanks faced are really vague, one example mentions a heavy tank with four turrets, of which two were equipped with cannons. Now the only one I can link this one is the t-35, but it's been established already that there were none used in the Winter War? Besides, doesn't t-35 have five turrets? I am thinking this is a simple mistake, and t-28 was meant? Who knows. This is like the photo which appears in two books I have, where the caption identifies the tank in the picture as t-35, when it's really an SMK heavy tank. Looks like intel on enemy tanks wasn't very good, neither at the officer or grunt level?

And one battle description mentions some heavy tanks which were described as painted yellow? Can this be true, and what might be the purpose of such colour, some sort of guide markings?

[cuprum]

Perhaps these links will be useful. For translation using Google Translator.

http://army.armor.kiev.ua/fort/findot.shtml

http://samlib.ru/img/s/shushakow_o_a/2nc_vrajiei_zemle_2-6/

http://models-ru.narod.ru/foto/

This is discussed in the Soviet experemental and limited-edition tanks.

http://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/st/0/topic322444.html

[Byblos]

Hi !

It's really a very passionate & inspiring work !!!

 

Bravo !

[pocoloco]

Exceptional work on the tank wrecks! And very interesting project, will be following keenly on this.

Being a Finn, let me know if I can check something out for you from Finnish sources.

[Verderer]

Hi folks, this week I have been mostly making buildings: two hay barns, two houses, and a sauna/cabin. In addition, I might do a couple of ruins with rubble and chimney stacks. Need to complete the roofs on these before painting, and I will add some rock foundations when I base them (that's why the porch is hanging in the air on the big house).

[Zwerch mit Ohren!!!]

Just awesome! Iam interested in the Winter War too and its cool to actually see someone else doing such an project.
Concerning Houses, did you had a look at the pegasus Karelian houses, they might fit your purpose, too.

regards
Zwerch!!!

[pocoloco]

Beautiful work on the building they do look like a real thing already.

Many parishes and villages were burnt down after the civilian population was/had evacuated before the advancing Red Army. In many cases people decided to burn down their houses and property by themselves.

So burned down ruins is a safe bet for scenery in that sense. Once again if you need photo sources etc I will gladly help.