Soviet scout platoon

Here is my second full platoon of Peter Pig WW2 Soviets; razvedchiki, i.e scouts.

The reconnaissance platoon organisation is taken from the 2016 TooFatLardies Christmas Special. 

According to the organisation listed,  the Scout platoon consists of;

HQ;

Leytenant; Senior Leader with Pistol
Serzhant; Junior Leader with SMG

3 Squads, each with;

Junior Leader with SMG
LMG with 2 crew
4 SMGs
4 Rifles

Actually, the 2016 Special says that the rifles should be SVT-40s, but these weren't hugely reliable and, in any case production was heavily disrupted after the beginning of Barbarossa in 1941, so the Mosin–Nagant 91/30 rifle remained the standard for most Russian units throughout the war. Obviously, the SMG used is the PPSh-41 and the LMGs are the Degtyaryov DP-27.

These troops are wearing the "amoeba" camouflage smock and trousers with the pilotka cap. I've chosen to do the amoeba pattern in green, although it could have been brown. I've also chosen to give the platoon commander an officer's cap with a raspberry red band, so he stands out on the table.

As with all my WW2 15mm units, the rank and file are on 1.5 cm bases and leaders are on 2 cm ones.

I am beginning to think that I've got enough core troops for my Soviets now, and I ought to start building up their support options. I'm thinking of snipers, anti-tank rifles teams, 5 cm mortar teams and engineer teams with flamethrowers and additional rifle squads.

Tank riders to accompany my Soviet tanks

I always knew that I wanted tank riders as supports for my WW2 Soviet force, because they are such an iconic thing, and here they are;

These are again from Peter Pig and I've based the two squads on the platoon organisation provided in the Chain of Command rulebook. I really need to do a third squad at some point, but currently I would have to make the squad up from spare scout figures, which would look a bit odd. So, as things stand, I'd have to field them as a weakened platoon.

My next post will cover a second Soviet platoon, a scout one.

My Soviets have a tank!

A T-34/76 to be precise.

The paintwork could be a lot neater on the turret above, but perhaps the painting on the actual vehicles was pretty slapdash?

The model is a 1/100 scale (i.e. 15mm) Zvezda one, and I bought it ages ago from the shop at the Bovington tank museum. I had assembled it and put it away in a drawer for safekeeping and pretty much forgot all about it. I was only because of a comment on a previous post that I remembered it, so I found it, gave it an undercoat and finished it off late yesterday afternoon. I varnished it with Humbrol Matt Spray this morning and I think it has come out OK.

It is a nice simple kit and has enough detail for a wargames table. My only criticism is the absence of external fuel tanks.

I undercoated it in PSC Russian uniform and gave it a bit of a dry-brushing in Vallejo Brown Violet, followed by another dry-brush with German Camouflage Beige to bring out the angles and curves. I did the tracks with Vallejo Panzer Aces track primer and then touched up the edges of the tracks with Oiled Steel while the primer was still wet. Then I did the stars and white stripe on the turret and did the steel cables with oiled steel mixed with track primer. There is also a small amount of rust effect paint around the exhausts and on the cables.

Then the whole vehicle got a dry-brushing with Vallejo Tan Earth, followed by a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil.

I am so pleased with this that I've ordered a couple more Zvezda tanks online; a T-34/85 and a KV-1. 

 

A few more WW2 Soviet bits and pieces.

Here are some support options and senior leader types.

Above are two Maxim MMG teams on either side of an anti-tank gun. In Chain of Command, such support weapons have a team of five to service the weapon. With some nations, support weapons like this come with an attached Junior Leader, but this isn't the case with the Soviets.

The anti-tank gun is the M1937 45mm L46 gun, based upon the German PaK 36 3.7 mm, which the USSR acquired from Germany before the war under licence. The German gun was also the basis for an earlier Soviet A/T gun, the 3.7cm M1930 which was used early on in the war but, being obsolete by 1939 was no longer in production, so I won't be using it as one of those.

Next, here are some leaders;

On the left is a Ranking Senior Leader, with a radio operator. He will be used in games of Big Coc. Next to him, with blue breeches is a Commissar, whose role in games will vary according to the period and the scenario.

The two figures sharing a base in front were originally going to represent an on-table FOO, but in CoC the Russians don't have access to in game artillery or mortar support, something I'd forgotten, so I'll probably use the base for something scenario-specific, or maybe as a Jump Off Point.

Once again, these are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, painted as for the infantry platoon I posted previously, apart from the RSL, who I've given a green uniform.

Soviet Rifle Platoon

You'll need to scroll down to see all the troops. 

This is a WW2 Soviet rifle platoon in 15mm, using Peter Pig figures and the platoon organisation in the TooFatLardies Chain of Command rule book.

The platoon is made up of three squads;

According to the TFL rules, the platoon is led by a Leytenant (senior leader) with a pistol, who is with the middle squad in the pictures above, and each squad is comprised of a Serzhant (junior leader) with a PPSh-41 SMG, a two-man DP-27 LMG team and seven riflemen with the Mosin–Nagant 91/30 rifle.

In the pictures above, the serzhants are wearing pilotka caps and are mounted on 2cm bases and the leytenant is wearing a peaked cap with a red band and is also on a 2cm base. The LMG teams are on 3cm bases and the rifles on 1.5cm ones. In reality, the serzhants would most likely have been wearing helmets, but the pilotka and larger base makes them stand out for gaming purposes.

In CoC, the Russian infantry squad cannot be broken down into two separate teams, unlike the Germans, British or Americans, although two riflemen can be split off to create a small scout team.

These were a pretty quick and simple paint job. I spray-coated all the figures en masse with Citadel Zandri Dust, which is a pretty reasonable basic colour for Soviet uniforms and then added in the details with Vallejo paints. The helmets were done with Brown Violet and the pilotka cap with Green Ochre. I used German Camouflage beige for packs etc, saddle brown for the wooden parts of their weapons and gunmetal for the metal parts. Finally, everything was given a wash with the water-soluble Army Painter Strong Tone that comes in dropper bottles.

My first post of 2022 - the start of my Soviet project

OK, this is my first post of the year, almost three weeks since my last activity on the blog.  I have been busy, though.

My priority has been working on my 15mm WW2 Soviets for Chain of Command. These are required for a game I will be running at Winter Wonder Lard at BIG in February. I have pretty much completed everything I need, apart from all the terrain items I am planning to use, so I'll be posting a number of posts over the next week or so with where I am.

First, here are a couple of Soviet vehicle choices. A SU-76 and two BA-64 light armoured cars;

These are Skytrex models and I think they are very nice too. I have two BA-64s because they are sold as a pair, but I am pretty sure I'll be using both of them. I am very pleased with the SU-76. It is a really nice model with a lot of crisp detail. It comes as the hull, two sets of running gear and the 76mm Zis-3 gun, plus three crew members, so a spot of super glue work is required. The BA-64 models come with separate wheels and turrets, so glue time there too. I am happy to report that everything goes together cleanly. I painted the crew separately and stuck them in afterwards. 

I will do separate posts covering the various infantry and support components for my Soviet forces.