Guards Tank Company

Here's what I'm thinking about for my Gvardeyskiy Tankovy Batalon.

• Company HQ: 1 T-34/85 w/ cupola 80pts
• 1st Company: 5 T-34/85s w/ cupolas 395pts
• 2nd Company: 5 T-34/85s w/ cupolas 395pts
• Guards Heavy Tank Company: 3 IS-2s 470pts
  
• Decoy Tank Company: 1 Panzer IV and 1 Panther A 155pts
• (Tank Rider Company: 2 Platoons at 1750 for 250pts)

Totals: 1495 and 1745 pts.

I don't think that cupolas are actually that useful in 2nd edition, but there's not much else to do with the 25pts that they cost me, and the models come with them already cast as part of the resin turret, so modelling them without them would be a huge pain.

Much like my first mid-war list, this is very much a "get it on the table" list. Sixteen tanks shouldn't take me that long to paint up, even if I spend a bit more time on the two decoy tanks. I do need to paint more SMG carrying infantry for the Tank Rider Company, but I can proxy rifle stands if I need to.

I could easily see swapping the IS-2s for ISU-122s and using the freed up points to equip some of my tanks with tankos, but I'd like to try out the IS-2s first.

Edit: Dropping the Panther in exchange for a second Panzer IV would free up enough points to add the warrior Komissar MA Dedov, which is something I'd probably want to try at some point as it would be nice to have a 2iC in a Soviet tank force for a change.

Brainstorming Bagration

Now that the Bagration books are out (and gee, wasn't it nice that us Eastern Front guys got two books of army lists, after five for the western front [edit: my bad, I was under the impression that they were done with Bagration, but there's one more book coming out for it]), I'm actually considering building late war armies for Flames of War. There are two Soviet lists and one German list that interest me.

First, I'll go into the Soviet lists. Right now, my main consideration for choosing a list is how fast I can get it painted, and how little it's going to cost me in terms of dollars. The latter probably being the more important of the two factors.

The first Soviet list that caught my eye was the Gvardeyskiy Tyazhelyy Tankovy Polk from Stalin's Onslaught, this is basically the Allies' answer to the Tiger company. IS-2 heavy tanks that don't suffer from Hen & Chicks. Two companies of three each with some infantry in support would be a nice little force, and most likely the only thing I'd have to buy is the tanks, since most of their support options I already have, some of it already painted as part of my mid-war force.

The weakness of this force is the lack of support options. The new force structure chart means that while they have three choices for infantry support, they can only use one at a time. That means if you want to defend both your objectives, then you're going to have to have one of your tank companies do it, because the only other options (Katyushas and anti-aircraft guns) won't be able to defend it from an attack with any strength. I can see some ways around it, but it really leaves the list feeling a lot like a one trick pony.

The list I'm more likely to try to build is from Hammer and Sickle: the Gvardeyskiy Tankovy Batalon. This is sort of a toned down version of the Gvardeyskiy Tyazhelyy Tankovy Polk. Instead of IS-2s, it has T-34/85s, and they suffer from Hen & Chicks, but they have a gun capable of threatening the big German cats, and cost a lot less in terms of points. Plus, they can take IS-2s or SU-122s in support so you can at least have some vehicles that don't suffer from Hen & Chicks.

They also have a lot more support options, including multiple infantry options, and the deal clincher for me: the Decoy Tank Company. Finally, the Soviets have a chance to field captured German tanks! I've already bought a Panther in anticipation of painting it up in Soviet colors, and will probably eventually get a Tiger and some Panzer IVs. Of course, just as the Germans were able to use Soviet tanks better than the Soviets, German tanks in Soviet hands are worse, but that's made up for a bit with the new Forward Detachment and Decoy rules that let these tanks penetrate into the enemy lines without getting shot at, if they're careful and a little bit lucky. It looks like they'll be fun both to model and to play with.

In terms of dollars, I already own all the infantry and most of the support options I'd need. I also already have five T34-85s, so I'd only need to buy 6 more, plus 3 IS-2s and a Panzer IV or two. Unfortunately, a lot of what would be used in the list isn't actually assembled yet, so I'd still have a good deal of painting to do, although I could at least proxy the infantry with what I already have, so I could probably get it on the tabletop as soon as the vehicles were assembled if I can find an opponent.

The final list I'm looking at, a German list, is also in Hammer and Sickle: the Schwere Panzerkompanie. Yep, the cheesiest of the cheesy, a Tiger Company. My decision is centered on two major factors, neither one of which is how effective a company of Tigers might be. The first is that I already have most of the models. I've had the Tigers Marsch box since it came out, as well as the Wittman box, giving me a total of six Tigers, one more than I actually need for the list. I have the infantry models I'd need, as well as four out of five of the half-tracks from a box of mid-war panzergrenadiers I bought for my planned mid-war German force. I also have a box of 88s leftover from one of my earliest purchases for the game, although I may go ahead and get the newer box for various reasons.

The second attraction is that the list can take Hetzers as a support option. I love Hetzers, and this would give me an excuse to buy some. Hammer and Sickle marks their first appearance in Flames of War 2nd Edition, and I don't really care for the other two German lists in the book. The only things I'd have to buy would be the Hetzers, a late-war command pack to get a panzerfaust model for my infantry, a single halftrack, and a bergepanther recovery vehicle as an option for my Company HQ.

The end result is that two 1750 point armies should cost me just under $200 at full retail to complete, $55 less if I decide not to buy new 88s. Of course that's not counting any decals or paints I add in, or the airbrush I'll almost certainly buy if I build the German list, but it's still a price point I could live with to get into the late war period. The trick now is finding someone to play with.

I've still got a few details to work out before posting my preliminary lists, but I should get around to that soon.

One final note on those 88s. Battlefront changed the basing methods with the change in editions, and I rather like the bases that the new ones come with, but that's not the only reason I may get the new box instead of using the ones I already have. In addition to changing the bases, they changed the models so that they are easier to assemble, but can only be assembled in the unlimbered position. If I get the new models, I can then assemble the older models in the limbered position and turn the scenic bases into objectives. Anyway, that's my rationale for possibly spending $55 on something I already have.

The Horde Grows

Continued from Painting the Hordes.


It's been almost a year since I've updated the progress on my Soviet forces. Since then I've established a pretty solid core force and am continuing to add additional options to it.

I can field a two to three thousand point mixed tankovy batalon, or an 800 to 1500 point guards strelkovy or motostelkovy batalon.

I still don't have the sheer number of infantry stands necessary to field a regular strelkovy batalon, except maybe at 800 points.

Here's the armory as it currently stands:
T-34 obr 1941: 10
T-60: 7
KV-1e: 4
KV-2 Turret: 1
BA-64: 4
Tankodesantniki: 9
ZIS-5 Trucks: 6
37mm obr 1939 Guns: 4
Katyusha: 2
Rocket Loading Teams: 2
ZIS-3 Guns: 4
Command Stands: 4
Komissar Stands: 3
Infantry Stands: 21
AT Rifle Stand: 1
MG Stands: 2
Observer Stands: 2
Staff Team: 1
Dismounted Cossack Command Stands: 4
Dismounted Cossack Komissar Stand: 1
Dismounted Cossack Stands: 8

There's still a lot I want to add to this, especially more infantry stands so I can field larger strelkovy companies, but with the completion of the ZIS-3 gun teams my Soviets are moving to the back burner as I work on getting my Fallschirmjaeger ready for battle.

Next up, once I get back to the Soviets, will most likely be an SMG platoon and some heavy mortars. Other possibilities are a pair of SU-152 assault guns (currently waiting on some hatch covers from New Zealand), and a platoon of KV-1s tanks (also waiting on some hatch covers).

Further out are some 45mm obr 1937 AT guns and some more infantry teams to let me do larger strelkovy batalons.

Finally, I also managed to paint up one of the objectives I've been using:

Basing the Hordes

Continued from Painting the Hordes


With a horde of little Soviet soldiers all sitting on plastic bottle caps garrisoning my table, it was time to begin the basing.

I set myself two main rules for the basing. The first is that it had to be simple to do. I have a lot of bases to do. The second is that it had to be a method I could easily use on the pre-cast bases on Battlefront's one-piece resin vehicles.

I recently used a very simple basing technique on some larger fantasy miniatures, but it involved using a sand base, which is ruled out by my second restriction of being able to use the method easily on pre-cast bases. Still, I like the method, so I decided I'd use a variation of it. Instead of a sand base I used a pumice base (Vallejo White Pumice) mixed with a darker brown color (Vallejo Model Color 826 German Camo Medium Brown).

I applied the pumice to an empty base, spreading it evenly to an approximate depth equal to that of the base of one of the miniatures. I then put a dab of white glue on the bottom of each of the miniatures and pressed them into the base. Using a sculpting tool, I then smoothed the transitions between the bases and the pumice and removed any extra pumice.

It's easier to spread the pumice onto the empty base than to try to spread it around pre-glued miniatures. I used white glue instead of superglue in the hope that it will be easier to remove figures from the base if I ever want to rebase them. The combination of the white glue and the pumice seems to hold them in solidly.

I mentioned that I mixed the pumice with a dark brown color before applying it to the base. This results in a light tan color that looks pretty good when inked over, but once again this breaks my second rule since I can't easily achieve the same light tan on a pre-cast base, so when it dries I paint over it with the same dark brown color.

After finishing the tank rider company using the above method, I don't think that I will continue to mix the pumice with paint in the future. Instead I'll simply paint over it. This should speed things up a bit and I don't think it will effect the final results.

At this point I originally tried inking the base, but found that any extra detail it brought out in the base was countered by the fact that it emphasized the differences where the pumice meets the edge of the bases of the miniatures. So I decided not to ink the base.

After everything dried I applied some static grass using it both to add some character to the base and to cover up any major flaws in the application of the pummice. I used the same method that I described in the writeup on my dwarf miniatures.

Once the glue dried on the grass I chose a slightly lighter brown (Vallejo Model Color 983 Flat Earth) to paint the edges of the base, and then it was on to the final step of the protective clear coats. I used my standard method of one coat of Testor's Gloss Cote followed by one or two coats of Citadel Matte Varnish.

I'm rather pleased with the results. The bases are nothing special, but I think they do their job of showing off the figures without distracting from them.

I'll save talking about my future plans for this force for the next article.


Continued in The Horde Grows.

Painting the Hordes

Continued from The Next Step.

While there's not much assembly involved in Soviet Infantry, there is a good deal of preparation involved. I started by buying the Strelkovy Company box and an extra Strelkovy Platoon blister. This gave me most of what I needed to make a full strength Tank Rider Company, plus several extra troopers since a Tank Rider platoon is smaller than a Strelkovy platoon. This is useful since there always seems to be a few damaged or miscast models in a package.

Unfortunately, there are a few other differences between a Tank Rider company and a Strelkovy company, mainly in the options they can take. I wanted to take both a machine gun platoon and an anti-tank rifle squad. Strelkovy companies don't have anti-tank rifles as an option, and only take a single machine gun squad instead of the two present in a platoon. Since neither machine gun nor anti-tank gun squads appear in Battlefront's special order catalog, that meant I was going to have to buy a whole company blister of each in order to fill out my Tank Riders.

I decided to put off that purchase while I got started on my infantry. As I cleaned each model of any extra flash, and straightened any bent weapons, I then sorted them into rows of identical models. This was so I could paint a group of identical models together, which was to prove helpful in speeding the painting process. I also took the worst of the damaged and miscast models and set them aside.

Next I took all the individual models and glued each one to a plastic cap from bottled water using a dab of Elmers' white glue. This gives me something to hold while painting the model. After the model is painted, then I can just pop it off the cap, clean up the bottom if necessary, and stick it on a base.

After that I painted them pretty much the same as I did my tankodesantniki, the only differences being that I tried to pay a little more attention to detail on the face and where different base colors met so that there was a bit of black left as a border. I didn't worry too much about this, just enough so that the wash effect was enhanced a bit.
After this, all that was left was the basing, but I'll go into that next time, along with what I plan to add to this force to bring it to 2000, 2500 and even 3000 points. I'll also go into the changes that I had to make in order to become compliant with the 2nd edition rules of Flames of War.

Continued in Basing the Hordes

The Next Step

Continued from Painting the Troops

So after finishing my tanks I managed to get in a game that I won 6-1 (Check out my post on Waryammer for the details). That inspired me to get my tankodesantniki finished so that I had my complete 1500pt force ready to go (minus the aircraft). So what was next?

Next was expanding that force by 500 points. The historical composition of my force was finished at the 1500 pt mark, so my only self-imposed historical limit was that anything I added should be historically possible. In other words, it should be equipment and units that actually existed in May of 1942. That wasn't much of a problem as most non-historical equipment was already denied to me due to using a mixed tankovy batalon organization.

So began the number crunching. I had 505 points to work with. First I looked at what I had. I had strong anti-tank capability against medium and light tanks. I also had good anti-infantry capability in the form of my T-60 tanks and my tankodesantniki equipped T-34 tanks. I had some anti-air and anti-tank capability agains heavy tanks with my Shturmoviks, but it was unreliable. What I lacked were reliable ways to deal with heavy tanks and aircraft. I also lacked infantry and artillery.

I also decided to get rid of my airpower, which would leave me further weakened in a couple areas. Airpower has a bad reputation among some Flames of War players, but for me it was mainly 120 points that I didn't need to paint. Now that I had my main force done I could replace it with something else. That left me with 625 points to work with for a 2000 point force.

After looking at a number of different options, I settled on the following: For 365 points I could add a full tank rider company. For another 250 I could add a guards rocket mortar battery (katyusha of one platoon with loading crews. That's a total of 615, leaving me at 1990pts. It would be nice to find another 10 points somewhere, but there really aren't any options I can take, so it's close enough.

Of course, this left me with the daunting prospect of painting 133 infantry figures (including the katyusha crews), plus assembling two of the most complex models in the Flames of War range (the aforementioned katyushas). On the other hand, painting the katyushas and their supporting trucks should be easy after my experience with the tanks.

With all that in mind, I decided to start on the infantry. I'll cover that process soon.

Continued in Painting the Hordes.

Painting the Troops

Continued from Assembling the Troops

Now my tanks were all assembled, I "just" needed to get them painted. Fortunately, I already knew how I was going to do this. While I'd been assembling, I'd also been trying out some painting techniques on that T-34 obr 1942 model that I'd already built (once again my foolish purchases have a positive effect). This let me establish the method I was going to use to paint my tanks:

1. Basecoat with Testor's Medium Green paint
2. Paint the treads black (in the future I'll skip this step)
3. Paint any exposed crew and rubber wheel details black
4. Paint the treads Vallejo Model Color 983 Flat Earth
5. Drybrush the treads with Vallejo Model Color 863 Gunmetal Grey
6. Wash the entire model in black "magic wash"
7. Paint over the hull with Vallejo Model Color 894 Russian Green, leaving the wash showing in the details
8. Highlight the edges and details with a 50/50 mix of white and Russian Green.
   
9. Do any exposed crew in the appropriate colors with a brown "magic wash" over them
10. Spray Testor's Gloss Cote over the model for protection
11. Spray Citadel Matte Varnish for looks
12. Drybrush "dirt" using Vallejo Model Color 983 Flat Earth for weathering effect (I haven't actually done this on any models other than my test model, but I still plan on doing it eventually)

The biggest time consumer in the process was the treads. That's one reason I'm going to skip the first black coat in the future, the other is that I just don't think it's necessary.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics during the process of painting, but I can show the final result:



For the tankodesantniki I followed a similar process:

1. Basecoat in Citadel's Black Primer
2. Paint the appropriate colors using those suggested in the Stalingrad book for Flames of War
3. Wash with brown "magic wash"
4. Spray Testor's Gloss Cote for protection
5. Spray Citadel's Matte Varnish for looks

I didn't make much effort to leave the basecoat showing as a shading effect, instead relying on the wash to achieve that. I was not completely happy with how this turned out, so when I decided to do some more infantry models I change the process just a little. That's a subject for a later post.


Continued in The Next Step

Assembling the Troops

Continued from The Beginning

In the last post I discussed how I finally settled on the army I was going to make. Unfortunately, I'd already started buying miniatures before making my final decision. This left me with a box of T-34 obr 1942 tanks and a box of KV-1s tanks that I wasn't going to need. Plus, I'd opened both boxes and actually assembled one of the T-34 tanks before I figured this out.

Fortunately, neither was a completely wasted purchase as I ended up using them in various ways during the assembly and pre-painting process. That didn't change the fact that I still had models to buy. With that in mind I went to two sources. First, I went to my local FLGS, Black Diamond Games, and bought what they had on hand. Then I placed an order with the Warstore for the rest of what I needed.

It was shortly after I placed my order that I realized that I'd made yet another mistake, I'd ordered too many T-60 tanks! As it turned out, this also ended up not being a completely bad thing (except for my wallet).

I made a decision early on that I wasn't going to model the aircraft right away, just the tanks. There was already a rumor that Battlefront would be releasing their own aircraft models, so I decided to wait and see what they came out with rather than hunting down my own.

Assembling all the tanks took a bit of work. I had more than one T-34 hull that had broken bits, one of my T-60 hulls was warped out of shape, and all but one of my KV-1e models were missing their turret hatches! In the past this wouldn't have been much of a problem as Battlefront used to have an extremely fast turnaround on replacement parts. Unfortunately that turnaround time is now measured in months, so my goal of "quickly" building and painting an army was in jeopardy. This is where my earlier foolishness in buying models I didn't need actually helped me out. T-34 obr 1941 and T-34 obr 1942 tanks use the same hull, so I was able to swap out some of my damaged ones for good ones from the box. I had over-ordered T-60s, so one warped hull still left me with enough models. Finally, as it turned out, KV-1e tanks and KV-1s tanks use the same turret hatch. That left me set to go.

The KV-1e and T-60 tanks were relatively easy to assemble. The T-34 tanks were a bit more of a problem. The treads don't quite match up with the body and several of the turret holes were just a little too small for the turrets which meant that the turrets couldn't be turned freely. This required a bit of filing and dremel work to get things lined up properly, but it wasn't too big of a pain.

The only thing left was the tankodesantniki. These were a late addition to my list, and broke my original rule of not having any infantry models in my army. I bought the models, but decided not to work on them until after I had finished the tanks, which is what I'll discuss in my next post in this series.

Just for clarification, the picture that starts this piece shows German and not Soviet tanks. I didn't think to take any pictures of my Soviet tanks when they were under construction. The Panzer IVs in the picture above are part of one of my other projects which I'll discuss in the future. Here's some of my Soviets "assembled":



Continued in Painting the Troops

The Beginning

(edit: there used to be a picture of Za Stalina here, but it was a link to the old BattleFront site. For now I've replaced it with the Ostfront book until I can find and scan in my copy of Za Stalina.)

My main project for Flames of War right now is creating a Soviet Mixed Tankovy Batalon based on the units that fought during the second battle of Kharkov in May of 1942. The path I took to come to this decision involved several factors. The first was a desire to get a fully painted force on the table quickly. For me that meant an all armored force with no infantry units. Secondary to that was that I wanted a force that would still be competitive in the game. Third, I wanted to be reasonably historical in my unit composition.

I settled on Soviets after finding what I considered a fair match for Russian Green in the form of Testors Medium Green spraypaint (as it turned out later, the spray is a couple shades lighter, but it worked out). I then turned to my limited knowledge of the Eastern Front for historical inspiration. As it turns out, one of the more detailed books on my shelf is Kharkov 1942: Anatomy of a Military Disaster by David Glantz. I began going through the index of units and comparing them to an order of battle (OOB) I found on the web at armchair general (I later also checked OOBs from the game Kharkov '42, which differed some from those I found on the web). I then checked the OOB against Za Stalina to see whether I could recreate the unit using the army lists. If I could, then I went back to the Kharkov book and re-read any accounts of the actions that the units were involved in. Eventually I settled on the 197th Batalon, 198th Tank Bde, 21st Tank Corps, 6th Army.

The 197th fought in the southern part of the Kharkov operation, spending the first few days in reserve before being committed in a succesful attack towards Kharkov. The day after it completed that attack, it was pulled out again and sent further south to deal with German forces that were counterattacking. It spent the next few days in combat with elements of the 14 Pz, 16 Pz, and 60 Motorized divisions of the German Army. It was surrounded and eventually destroyed in the pocket formed by the Germans.

According to the OOBs I read, the unit started on May 11th with either 4 KV tanks, 8 T-34 tanks, and 8 T-60 tanks, or at full strength with 5 KV tanks, 10 T-34 tanks, and 8 T-60 tanks. In order to build a 1500pt force for Flames of War, I ended up taking 4 KV-1e tanks, 9 T-34 obr 1941 tanks, and 7 T-60 obr 1942 tanks. I added tankodesantniki to the T-34 company and Limited Shturmovik air support to use up the remaining points. The result adds up to 1495 pts.

Continued in Assembling the Troops