wip 20mm ww2 russians (gs conversions)

[sundayhero]

Hi,

I wanted to find some russians visually compatible with my valiant collection.  Since I could not find the perfect match, I first thought creating my own minis. But sculpting, molding and casting is a work of itself, and I didn't want to spend  my worshop expensive materials (resin, silicon) for my personal hobby purpose too.

So an intermediate solution was to find some figures already available in the market, and modify them for my needs (=make big, tall russians figures). I tried several brands with no succes, until I try raventhorpe figures. Their russian range is small,  but the figures size is not bad, so I decided to use them for my project, adding details if needed. Best of all, it's a good sculpting pratice (since I do sculpting commissions, mainly small scale terrain accessories and war machines)

So I bought equivalent of a rapidfire bataillon (=a 1fig:1man platoon with assets), a resin ZIS5 (I wanted to test their vehicle resin range : really good product), and a few zvezda and psc vehicles and weapons (ZIS3 battery, 45mm AT gun, AT rifles, T34 platoon).

I decided to start my work with a squad/company, doing this to validate technical choices for the rest of the force. Basically, the work consists of head swaps, greenstuff detailing and/or resculpting. Here's the result of my first efforts.


the squad with LMG team  :






Comparison with valiant US soldiers :



The 2 SMG figures are completed :






The other riflemen are still under progress  :








I'm resculpting the DP lmg, it's still under progress too (once dry, I will finish the barrel and flash hider)



This is the result of 2 evenings of work, not bad it means that I can complete the conversion of a whole unit under a week, wich is still a realistic timing.

to be continued  

[sundayhero]

First squad/company completed !

I finished the LMG soldier, maybe I'll add a bipod later, if I find a sturdy way to do it :



I also modified some of the plastic faces (valiant german bits) :



Finally, I finished to fix a few defects, add some gear of some figures, etc... Russians are a good subject for this kind of project, since it doesn't look weird that they have half (or less) of the official combat gear package   

Tommorow night I'll base them this way :

3 riflemen



2 riflemen + SMG nco




LMG team

[sundayhero]

Her's a small update, no much hobby time these days...

First I recieved other things for my russian army : zis5, ZIS3 battery, 45mm at gun (I will modify it to make a 1942 version), and a T34 platoon.



 

The PSC tanks are perfectly compatible with armourfast ones, concerning size :



And the raventhorpe resin vehicles are really good :




I also started to work on a couple of at rifles bases. I modified some psc figures to make them bigger. I still need to add heads, reinforce weapons and make a 2nd figure for the standing rifle base. 









Compared to valiant normandy german :





I'm afraid it's all I did. I hope to have more time at the end of the week. I also selected paints for my us army, yesterday (a mix of citadel, revell and vallejo colors, since I didn't have all the vallejo model range).

[sundayhero]

I completed the modified PSC russians, here's some pics with also a comparison with valiant german.

[von Lucky]

Your drive and commitment to your projects is admirable. Nice conversions.

[sundayhero]

Thank you !

Last week end I took a couple of days off, but I was too tired (and suffered from health problems) so I could not make any improvement. I was hoping to start painting my US reinforced platoon. At least I prepared my bedroom workbench, selected the paint, so once I will be ready I will just have to take my brushes