"We'll keep the Red Flag flying here!" - Warlord Soviets arrive

I had expected today's post to be a more in-depth overview/review of the new experimental close quarters rules from Forge World, Zone Mortalis. However, a speedy delivery from Warlord Games has scuppered that plan - in a pleasant way.

Along with my comrades-in-arms, Colonel Scipio and Brother Knight I've been embarking on a WW2 project...






My plan had been to get some early war French. I'm one of those strange people that likes the look of them, love the Schneider P16 half-track, and find the early war very interesting. However, with the Colonel going for some very nice later-war SS (intended to be primarily Latvians - see his posts here and here) and Brother Knight getting some lovely Fallschirmjager, I reconsidered. I considered the possibility a bit of alternate history, with the French lasting longer into the war, but decided to put them on hold (when I do get them they'll be doubling up as Vichy and the odd FFL squad occasionally).

A big interest of mine is the Finns, but with my 2 main opponents playing Axis (obviously there's the 44-45 Lapland War...) I decided to look elsewhere. I'd ruled out Americans (nothing personal) and considered British (intended to be Lincs or Notts & Derby Sherwood Foresters - both very dear to my heart). However, we share a general lean towards the Eastern front, and both myself and the Colonel share an interest in the Ruskies and I knew he was planning on getting some next - so I thought I would go for Russians (who will also pair nicely with my Finns when I get them).

Anyhoo, to the point, my Russians arrived today after only ordering them on Sunday. Bonus point number one. This is the first time I'd ordered from "Bolt Action" since they'd been bought out by Warlord. I don't know whether the sculpts have been altered at all (as they are currently doing with the Finns).

The first thing that is notable is there is a lot of very visible flash, including some hefty chunks, but it does all look pretty easy to remove. Out of 23 models there is only one duplicate and there is a nice variety of poses with a decent quality overall. There's a bit of a mix with the M35 and M43 gymnastiorkas, which is a good thing in my book. Really like the the eponymous red flag which has a raised hammer-and-sickle which makes painting easy and makes it look sewn on rather than painted - as it should be.

With the plan to play mostly squad-level games like Nuts! and platoon-level games like Troops, Weapons and Tactics, Platoon Forward and Disposable Heroes - I basically have my army sorted! Brilliant compared to the way GW is going these days (although I will only do Kill Team, Patrol Force and nothing above 1500 on the most part, thankfully I have a group of gamers with whom I have this option unlike many).

Of course the plan is to build them up, including a razvedchik scout squad and perhaps some ski-troops (Brother Knight was on about doing some of the infamous Russian patatroopers that deployed from the wings of TB-3 bombers....) and of course Colonel Scipio is doing some Ruskies next so we'll have a pool of minis to make use of whilst being able to split the cost.

Similarly, my next project is some German Volksgrenadiers and Volkssturm that can be mixed with the Germans of the others in larger games. I've already ordered these minis from Artizan so look out for a post on these and the one promised on Zone Mortalis

Comments

  1. I'll testify to the quality of these minis - apart from some hefty flash (including some tricky bits), the details are very well researched and thought out, I'd be interested to see things like shoulder boards, collar insignia and weapons distribution and see if they tally as closely with real history as some of the other sets.

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    1. My views exactly, as you say most of the flash seems easy to remove, there are a few awkward mould lines that will be put under the knife and file.

      I've had a proper look at them in the light of day, and the breakdown is:

      10x Telogreika (going generic seems to be a good option)
      9x M43 without shoulder boards (they have M43 collars - going to green stuff them on 3 or 4, might try sculpting M35 collars on a couple)
      1x M43 with shoulder boards (NCO)
      1x Officer with shoulder boards
      1x Officer with collar tabs
      1x Sniper in amoeba camo smock (he can be seconded to my razvedchik)

      Armament breakdown:
      5x riflemen (all Nagants it seems)
      2x DP-28
      5x PPSh-41 (Sickle mag - and definitely 41s)
      2x PPSh-41 (Drum mag)
      Sniper has Nagant with scope as far as I can tell

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    2. The NCO is the one they specifically list on their website as an NCO, and is the only with shoulder boards, not too sure about that one...

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    3. Was also just thinking I'll paint the wounded officer up as a Commissar (adding the red star sleeve insignia) and just noticed it's already sculpted on - bonus)

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    4. One minus point, they all seem to be a little well equipped with entrenching tools, bit that's a minor quibble - overall I prefer these sculpts to Crusaders. I consolidate my waffle here into the next blog post properly.

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  2. Have a look at http://www.uniforminsignia.org/ ... very comprehensive overview, especially the subtle changes throughout the war and better than the old Mollo tables that everyone copies lol

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    1. Ah tis your Bible, many thanks for that, I'd stumbled across that before for the Manchukuo Army stuff but couldn't remember what the site was. I was thinking of taking a little creative licence with the Kommissar, i.e. painting the insignia up with kommissar's black trim but probably playing it as a politruk in most games - although they should have the same trim as the unit they're attached too... the horror lol

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