Red Dawn - Soviet Airborne VDV

Hey folks,

I hope the week has been well for you on our respective side of the internets. Just a quick post to bring in the weekend, I finally got around to finishing up the BTR’s and the troops from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Assault Battalion. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I finished the BMD’s and its a good feeling to get the AAA and grunts finished.

The BTR’s are resin and metal…and I think I preferred the plastic BMD’s…the prep on them felt about the same and the metal figures painted up really well. All in all it didn’t take to much time to get the 2 platoons finished, along with the special Red Dawn command stand, and I think they look great…even with all their berets. I think I would’ve preferred a mix of headgear…but they look really movie cool,so there’s at least that.

The box came with some extra command figs, Officer and radioman, so I did them up as singletons for Force on Force and whatever other modern ruleset I can fit figs into.

Anywho, here goes with the pics…enjoy.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         100, +51

28mm+       43

Fabricated

Terrain        2

Bought        8

Progress   +137

Team Yankee - Soviet VDV BMD's

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your respective fronts. I gotta say, I'm not really digging this minimal snow-early spring weather...I do miss the subzero temps and white stuff on the ground. I'll have to find some way to manage...

As mentioned in my last post, I had been busy like Bob T. Builder putting vehicles together from the various boxes that I've bought over the past few years. At the tops of my list, and in line with some future Northern Dawn scenario ideas, I thought I'd start my painting with the VDV folks and their battlefield rides.

The models themselves went together fairly smooth, I think I had minimal issues...I guess I could re-read my post to verify...

Yup...fairly smooth. They painted up really nicely as well and I have to say it was very enjoyable painting up Soviet vehicles in something other than green...the camo pattern was a nice diversion. I think I stuck fairly close to the pattern in the Red Dawn book, but also reflected some of the reality that I saw when I did my googling. Either way, definitely some randomness to the elements reflecting the general pattern.

Here are a few pics - trying to show some of the straight on, overhead, side profiles, rear aspect, and in-closer views to give a few perspectives on the camo pattern…I hope you enjoy the pics.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         13 (BMD's and crew)         

28mm+        

Bought       00  

Progress   +13

More Battlefront 15’s - Red Dawn & Team Yankee

Hey everyone,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets. I’m working on getting through more of the backlog as well as keep up momentum on the Red Dawn figures that I picked up earlier this year. I managed to work through a portion of the second pack of Battlefront’s Red Dawn US Militia as well as the extra’s I had remaining from my Soviet Motor Rifle Company figs. Again, keeping these in mind for other rule sets and Afropia, I based them for Force on Force more than anything else.

I elected to go with a variety of base colours and textures…makes them fit in any FoF game set in Europe or Afghanistan (for the Sov’s) or Afropia. 

I do enjoy the figures, really like the Wolverines sculpts. Enjoy the pics. 

A couple of test paints for my Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF) infantry. Thought I would try out a different camo pattern to see how they it would look…not too bad, I think I’ll tweak and go with a darker green (I went with Green Grey)…

Painted 

15mm          118, +25

28mm+          42

Bought         131

Progress      +29

Painting Update - Random 15’s - Some Battlefront WW2 & Cold War

Howdy folk,

Todays post is all about painting up some figures with the idea of trying a few things out, making it so they fit in a few different game settings, and just working towards some small projects that I have stewing in the brainpan. On top of that, I found another find and got some discount Flames of War, so yeah…getting a variety of troops and settings off the work bench.

Anyone that has been reading the posts for the past year or so may remember my imagi-nation, the region of Afropia. While I have not gamed anything for that yet, I have continued to run a lot of mechanics and variables for those little countries in my head, all the while keeping mindful of the force structure and framework that would be applicable. The recent militia pack released by Battlefront as part of Red Dawn was an excellent source for insurgenty type figures that had a different setting or theme. Admittedly thanks to the GWOT and recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a lot of insurgent figures are themed around Middle East themes…thankfully with the militia pack, I can add some variety to my little angry forces. As such, I base a half dozen or so for Force on Force (because thanks to CanGames, I’m really itching to FoF again) and go from there. So you will see these figs have red and/or yellow markings on them to highlight that they are either support or leaders…or in the case of Pswayze, both.

On top of that, my force structure for Petoriastan includes a large amount of WW2 era vehicles, so I was able to do up a box of M7 Priests that will work for any Canadian WW2 force that I want to field, as well as a post-WW2 Petoriastan artillery unit. So, win-win.

Finally, I had bought a Soviet T-34 tank many years back to go with a WW2 Soviet force that I had in mind, so not only will that work for my Afropia setting (as either part of Alarus or Oponwana) as well as formation commander for a Soviet T34 Battalion. So again, win-win.

I hope you enjoy the pics and will see you soon.

Insurgents for FoF or Danger Close ruleset…maybe even Spectre Operations…Pswayze rocking the leadership and the RPD…

WW2 and post M7 Priests…a few minor mods on the stowage that they’re sporting. Saw quite a few reference photos that showed the wooden planks in the front of the vehicle holding various kit in line.

The trusty ole T34, star of Soviet Russia and post WW2 puppets…

Painted 

15mm            93, +20

28mm+          39

Bought         131, +10 (the priests)

Progress      +1

Team Yankee a Go-Go - more Combat Support

Hey folks,

I hope all is well on your end. Another week, another dump of snow…we got about another half foot or so thanks to some warmer temps compared to a few days ago. The year so far has been pretty productive and given the excitement around Red Dawn, I wanted to get a few more Team Yankee units completed and on the orbat.

For my Canadians and my 4CMBG force, I completed another 3 x M150 Tow carriers. Depending on the list you take, there are a few options for those launchers…I think you can have up to 2 x TOW sections (up to 3 x M150s per section) depending on whether your Battlegroup is Infantry or Armour based. Keeping with the overall theme of my 4CMBG build, these launchers are camm’ed up with netting and painted in NATO tri-colour. The main difference is that I haven’t included any national flags or emblems…there are some great pics online from back in the day of M113 carriers based in Canada that don’t have emblems or flags while their Euro-based counterparts sported the fancy decals. These carriers will fit in nicely with the Battlegroup, and they can also work for an at home defense Red/Arctic Dawn force for with whichever Canadian Brigade Group or formation would’ve remained.

For my Soviets, I was able to complete a flight of Su-25 Frogfoot...full disclosure, I have had these on my workbench since the time that Battlefront first released them as resin and metal cast…lol. But now is their time to shine, lol...anywho, I did some consulting of Google, found a really great modeling instruction that had a paint diagram and I also went to my stock of Osprey Publishing books and got inspired by their Air Vanguard book on the Su-25. Selecting two, I really like the variance of the schemes and for some extra fanciness, I di d NMM on the rocket pods and tried to give some impression of movement with the aircraft and added some extra highlights and contrast to give that sense...looks kinda neat, I'm quite happy with the result, and depending on the angle it makes me think that the aircraft are in a nose down attitude.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Canuck TOW toting M113's ready for action. These ones actually have the metal figs/gunners that were intended for the model. I had robbed a couple of tubes from the BF Humvee model for my first section.

Bring on the frogs!

See...speed highlights...works in my brain, not much else to say about that.

Painted

15mm            10, +9 (Frogfoot and M150 TOWs + crew)

28mm+          4

Bought         24

Progress      -10