Kazan People's Wire Spool Factory and Agricultural Collective 3rd Infantry.

Greetings, Komerades and allies of the October Revolution! This post is to give a brief overview of the heroes making up the bulwark of the Kazan People's Wire Spool Factory and Agricultural Collective 3rd Infantry and their fight against the fascist invaders and their lapdog puppets in this Great Patriotic War on the 28mm front stretching from the Baltic to Caspian. (I have to confess, I had this song going through my head when I started painting these guys.)

The figures are all from Warlord Games and the KV-1 and the Ilyushin II Sturmovik are from Tamiya.

Sincerely though, all in all, I had a lot of fun painting these guys. At times, I found the assembly of the figures a bit fiddly, and I am really not a big fan of the prone shooting pose for regular grunt troops, I would buy another box in a heartbeat to make some of the other units listed in the Armies of the Soviet Union book for Bolt Action. The detail in some of the faces was amazing as with some of the weapons. If I had any complaints about the sculpts, it would be that some of the strapping seems to get lost escpecially in the quilted winter uniforms. Then again, it could be my eyes' fault.

On to the 'Khaki Horde'! 

Here is the Air Observer and the Sturmovik. The Air Observer was a 'Free Mystery Gift' from Warlord when I purchased the book deal last October...during the Revolution. I added a little map and some binoculars to give it a wee bit more character. The plane is a Tamiya 1/72 scale model I bought in their store in Nihonbashi. I'm not a huge fan of model airplanes due to multiple modeling atrocities from when I was a kid. That said, I soldiered through and I think it came out OK. I decided to give it every bombe that came in the box just to make it look more menacing. The base is a section of wooden dowel, a jar lid, a plastic rod and some paper clips.

This is my armored support and the armor hunters. The KV-1 is a 1/48th scale model from Tamiya. Originally, I wanted a T 34, however, supposedly, Tamiya doesn't make them anymore according to the chappy working at their store. I had to choose between this or the Super Heavy IS-2. I thought a Super Heavy would be too cheesy in smaller games, so I went with the diet 'Heavy' version instead. The engine panel pops off so when the tank is destroyed during the game a burning hulk of the People's Metal can be simulated.

The three units are the Anti-Tank units I have at the moment. Two units tote captured Panzerfausts while the third, and arguably least effective unit carries the PTRS 41. 

Here is the sniper team and the command group. The sniper team is my favorite of the small teams in the army. I just like the way they turned out. The command group is the Lieutenant and two attendants. It gives him a bit more fire power and the chance to take some casualties if need be.

Here are the tank busters. They are armed with Anti-Tank grenades, molotov cocktails and a LMG to hose down any invader tank crews who think that can make a break for cover after their coffin on wheels has been dispatched.

I put together two 11 man infantry squads. I tried to keep the squads within reason and only went with 3 SMGs and 1 LMG per squad. I'm picturing 1943 as the time frame for this army, so I didn't want to go overboard with 9 SMGs and 3 LMGs as I thought it would be excessive.

There is just over 1000 points in this army as I didn't go for the 'FREE' inexperienced squad with only rifles. If I do pick up another box of infantry, I'll most likely assemble them. I have a few more things that I have ordered to fill in the holes. I'm currently waiting for a Medium Mortar and the Anti -Tank Dog Bomb units from Warlord. That way, I can melt the two Panzerfaust Anti -Tank teams into the other units.

In the meantime, I'm working on my axis force. These are the first 5 German Heer infantry I've painted. I'm going to paint them up as SS Walloonie, as it was the book Campaign in Russia by Leon Degrelle that somehow was the catalyst for me getting back into Second World War miniature gaming. Vive le Rex! 　(笑)