American Heavy Weapons Teams

2024 was the year I was supposed to concentrate on finishing as many Americans as I could - both WW2 and 1980s.  Whilst not being as successful or focussed as I planned - I have made some headway with the infantry of one WW2 force basically complete (missing 2 figures damn it) - I've also managed to get a few Cold War chaps (or dudes) completed from a couple of different manufacturers.  So here they are:

This is a Zvezda Stinger Team

This is a Zvezda .50 Cal HMG Team

This is a converted Mk-19 Automatic Grenade Launcher Team.  The figures and tripod are from Zvezda (from the HMG Team obviously) and I'm pretty sure the Mk-19 is from a Dragon HMMWV kit.

 Sticking with the Zvezda theme - this is their M-60 GPMG Team.

This is a Elhiem Figures M-60 on a Sustained-Fire mount.

Finally the group photos:

That's it for today.  Next post will be the 9th ID List.

Thanks

Richard

Zvezda "TOPOL" SS-25 "Sickle"

Seems appropriate to finish what is probably my largest posting month ever with a bit of WMD madness.

I have to say honestly this is not a kit I would get for myself.  I'm not a modeller, I'm a wargamer - so I pretty much only ever buy stuff that I could forsee using in a game - and basically I'm not sure I'd ever use one of these - even as an objective.  But never say never I guess...

So this model is a mate of mine's that he asked me to build and paint for him.  It comes in a massive, very impressive looking box:

Filled with a bucket load of parts:

(Neither of these are my images - so cudos to those who took them)

It was to be frank, a finickity build.  While the Toxso Scud previously discussed here and here went together like a dream and was not only very straight forward, but multi-poseable (and cool), the Topol was a bit fussy, took an age and can either be built with the missile being transported, or ready to launch.

Which ever one of these you choose, this decides which of two (very similar looking) undercarriage sets you use, along with a bunch of other items which I guess are lowered to provide a stable platform for the launcher.

However - once built it's hard to deny it's a real bit of eye candy.  And unlike the Scud, this time I remembered to take some photos before I gave it back to its owner...

So... Not coming to a tabletop near you anytime soon... there it is!

Thanks

Richard

Soviet Naval Infantry

If I'm going to do a Soviet Naval Infantry (SNI) force, I needed some infantry.  These would be my 3rd Soviet force, as I already have Motor Rifle Troops in Summer Uniforms and Sun-Bunny coveralls and my VDV force.  I didn't really want to get another bunch of figures as this whole Soviet thing is now pretty big and when you add it all together - quite expensive (over time).

So I had a bit of a think and realised that I had quite a few of the Zvezda "Hot War" figures which might be useful.  Now these figures are most likely slightly "wrong" for what I was after which was for chaps to look like this:

And from the ubiquitous Dragon set:

Now painting a figure 95% black can be a bit boring - but as the Zvezda figures are all wearing body armour - which I would paint green - this might make them look slightly more interesting.

So I decided to go for it - and this is what I ended up with:

Not the greatest photos - I really struggle to light figures well - but this lot breaks them down a little further:

SAM Team

Kneeling Chaps

Standing Chaps

Running Chaps

RPG Chaps

Pointing Chaps

Lying Down Chaps with AKs

Lying Down Chaps with RPKs

Chaps with AT-7 Metis (Saxhorn) ATGM

Not sure how well you'll be able to see this, but each SNI trooper has been given a SNI patch of a yellow anchor in a red circle on a black (of course) backgound.  Like this:

So that's my SNI thus far.  I have enough there to fill out the 3 squads in a platoon (NCO, RPG, RPK and 4 AK-74) a couple of ATGM teams, a SAM team and nearly enough for the Platoon HQ.  So I ordered some Elhiem figures to make up a Company HQ, as well as filling out the Platoon Command Squad.

Plan is to be able to field this Zvezda Platoon, a Liberation Miniatures Platoon in Sun-Bunny Coveralls, plus ATGMs, SAM, Observers etc to make up a reduced company.  So I have about 5 or six figures to paint to complete the infantry side of things...

That's all for now

Richard

Zvezda Soviet Motorised Infantry - A Review

I thought it was about time I reviewed something again - and this time something a little different.  For about a year now Zvezda have been previewing and releasing new Hot War figures, vehicles and aircraft.  In typical Zvezda fashion (which to me at least, is somewhat confusing - but I'm sure it works for them), the figures are in 1/72, the vehicles are in 1/100 and the aircraft - read helicopters only I think at the moment - are in 1/44.

Not a great deal of help in you work in 20mm, but at least the figures are the right scale.  All those 15mm gamers out there are pretty chuffed with at least some of the vehicles as well.

So far, figures-wise, Zvezda have only released Soviet Motorised Infantry and US Mechanised Infantry.  I had a good look at both on line and decided that the US troops so far did not suit my needs.  I actually thought they were a bit all over the place in terms of the weapons provided - too much was missing, like no SAW to be of much use for me at this point in time.

The soviets were better in my opinion.  The weapons were much more representative and better "balanced" for a squad.  Their only difference to what I already have was they all have body armour.  Not a problem - this helps differentiate them and in my mind, makes them perfect for my engineer squad.

So anyway - here is the box art:

And here are my painted chaps:

As you can see I only painted 1 NCO, 1 RPK and 1 RPG as you only need 1 in each squad.

Next up I have some comparison photos.  First are standing figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Now walking/running figures:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

Officers/NCOs:

From left to right: Elhiem Soviet NBC, Zvezda, Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Elhiem West German

RPGs/Pzf 44

From left to right: Liberation Soviet Motor Rifle, Zvezda, Elhiem West German

Finally some "Action" shots:

So - my overall impression is that these are very nice figures.  Compared with some Zvezda stuff that I have literally been reduced to tears whilst trying to stick together, these fit fairly simply.  They took paint and "dip" easily as well.  The figures look natural, anatomically right and come with a good selection of excellent looking weapons.  Price - very cheap - I think I got these for about 3 quid each plus postage.  Sadly I have not seen these in Australia.

My only negative would be that although you get 5 figures in a pack, if you are trying to put together a squad, you will need at least 2 packs, and some of those figures (NCO, RPG & RPK) won't be able to be used twice.  Not really much of a negative really.

Best of all, there are some really nice sets coming out like a US Dragon missile box, which I'm very much looking forward to.  Come on Zvezda - bring 'em on!

Richard

Zvezda German Medical Personnel

Well I've been building a fair amount of models and figures lately - but painting next to nothing - hence not much to show here for a while - so I decided I wanted to quickly finish a couple of things.

One of the figure sets I had put together for BGK and BGO was this Zvezda set:

I really liked this very cheap ($5.00) set which was crisply made and painted up fairly quickly - less than 3 1/2 hours over a couple of nights - which for me is quite fast.  I decided not to go with the white helmets and red crosses as both the un-injured chaps were carrying rifles - so I thought it better that it look like these were the wounded soldiers comrades carrying them to the aid station - or something like that.

Not the best photos - again... but I was doing it quite quickly so here are the results:

Photos are very dark for some reason - I think the figures look better in the flesh - so to speak.

Anyway - tonight I'll add some grass and finish these guys off - along some some other German troops I've nearly finished.

Probably a week or 2 more of WW2 stuff, then back to Cold War models - where I've added some nice stuff to my stash lately.

Have fun

Richard