On the workbench - 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division

I haven't done a lot in the last month or more, due to continued eye trouble.  It now seems I have dry eye syndrome, which means drops and eye ointment indefinitely.  He-hoh!

Anyway, following my success on e-bay a few months back, I thought it was time to get back to some Cold War Commander Soviets.  I'm putting together  the 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division, for operations in the Fulda Gap area of southern Germany in 1985.

On the table at the back are three BTR-60 battalions, each of 11 BTR-60PKs, three companies of three carrying infantry and one company of two carrying support weapons SA-7s, AT-5 Spandrel teams and SPG-9 teams, with two Gaz 66s with 120mm mortars.

In front of this is a battalion of T-62s (as these were in the e-bay purchase) but these will need upgrading to T-72 as 39th was a CAT 1 unit.  In front of these are various engineering assets including a PMP bridge on trucks, two TMM bridges on trucks and other engineering assets.  There are some unpainted engineering vehicles too.  There are also some BRDM-3s, an SA-9 and ZSU23/4 Shilka.

This is a dismounted infantry battalion, rebased as the original e-bay purchase was based for Challenger.

This was my attempt at converting a BTR-60PK into a BTR-TACP FAC vehicle, following Steve Grahams method as laid out in his blog.
http://littleleadarmsrace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/btr60-tacp-wip.html
Seemed to be a relatively straightforward conversion.  I cut the barrel off with a craft knife.  Cut some card (from an old business card) to shape, bent it to form the platform at the back and super-glued it in place, allowing the glue to soak into the card to stiffen it once set.  Then trimmed some plastic spar to size for the generator and glued that onto the card platform.  I also stuck a small card rectangle over the turret front to simulate a vision port in the turret front.  A quick paint job and "hey presto!"

So, one more infantry battalion to rebase and some engineering assets to finish off and the regiment is ready for the table.

Thanks for looking.

Soviet BTR-60PB Motor Rifle Battalion

Just completed the first of the BTR-60PB batallions for the mid-1980s BTR-60 Motor Rifle Regiment that I'm putting together.  In the vertical view, at the top are three infantry companies of three platoons (stands) each, each stand carried in a BTR-60PB (H&R SM16).  At the front right is the HQ stand with a BTR-60PA command (H&R SM77) and a BRDM-2 (H&R SM22).  Next to the HQ is an SA-7 Grail SAM stand carried in a BTR-60PB.  In the centre is a 120mm mortar with Gaz 66 truck tow (H&R SM51).  To the left are two alternative ATGM stands, an AT-3 Sagger stand and an AT-4 Spigot stand, either carried in a BTR-60PB.

 

The HQ stand (right) and SA-7 Grail team in BTR-60PB (part of the support company).

 Also from the support company, a 120mm mortar and Gaz 66 truck tow.

Also from the support company an AT-3 Sagger and AT-4 Spigot stand, carried in a BTR-60PB.  The alternative ATGM stands represent historically earlier and later versions or could be used to represent CAT I and CAT II or III readiness units.

 Three platoon (stand) BTR-60PB company.

 All three companies and a company of BTR-60PB.

 Three platoon infantry company and BTR-60PB transport.

Just got to do two more of these and finish off the regimental supports to complete the Motor Rifle Regiment.

All were painted in my usual way, base coat white acrylic gesso; vehicles - dilute wash in Vallejo medium olive green cammo (formerly Russian Green), wheels in Vallejo black grey, exhaust picked out in Vallejo flat brown, washed in diluted Army Painter dark shade ink; infantry - Vallejo green brown wash, medium olive green cammo helmets, packs and equipment, Tamiya NATO black weapons, flat flesh, washed in dilute Army Painter soft tone ink.  All are varnished in Wilkinsons matt acrylic varnish.

For some variation, I'm thinking of substituting MT-LBs for the BTR-60s to represent at least two Motor Rifle Divisions that were allocated to Norway - some opposition for my USMC forces.  Apparently the MT-LB has a lower track pressure and was this more mobile than the BTR-60s and BMP-1s in regular units and so were more mobile on ice and snow.

As ever, thanks for looking.

Turning to the Dark Side?

Taking the advice of various wartime (WW2) entreaties to "Know Your Enemy!", I've been slowly creating a Warsaw Pact Motor Rifle Regiment, based on T-55s and BTR-60s, plus varied support vehicles.  Longer term, this will provide me with an opponent for the USMC forces, for some solo play, and the flexibility to take on either side in any club games.  I've used T-55s so I can represent Soviet CAT II or Warsaw Pact units (I was thinking East German or Czech) - if I go the East German route I can always upgrade the tank battalions if I want to field units for the late 80s.

This is as far as I've got, although there is a veritable mountain of unpainted lead waiting for me to get the time.

Skytrex PTS-M (M773) heavy amphibian.

 H&R ASU-85 (SM27).

 BRDM-2 and Spandrel (AT-5) by H&R (SM25).

 H&R SA-8 Gecko (SM41).

H&R ZSU23-4 Shilka (SM37).

 

 H&R SA-6 Gainful (SM40).

 H&R SA-9 Gaskin on BRDM-2 (SM42).

 

 H&R SA-13 Gopher on MT-LB (SM43) - unfortunately I managed to mount the support for the missile array the wrong way around so the Snap SHot ranging radar is pointing backwards - ah well, that's another one to order next time.

 H&R BRDM-2 recce (SM 22).

 H&R PT-76 light amphibious tank (SM08).

 T55 HQ stand by H&R (SM06).

 Two tank battalions from Motor Rifle Regiments on the workbench.  I plan to upgrade one of them from three companies to five, to form the Independent tank battalion of a Motor Rifle Division. 

All are base coated in white acrylic gesso, washed in dilute Vallejo Cammo Olive Green (formerly Russian Green).  Tracks are picked out in black, wheels in black grey, exhausts in flat brown.  All are washed in Army Painter dark tone ink, heavily diluted with thinners, then varnished with Wilkinsons Matt Acrylic varnish.  Basin is on ERM 2mm laser cut mdf, textured with Vallejo desert basing medium and washed with flat earth, then partly covered with spring meadow flock.

As ever, thanks for looking.

Soviet era vehicles in Siberia

Well, new projects continue to beckon.  I'm now setting out on a USMC brigade group for a cold war turned hot in 1985 - thinking the unthinkable.  This would have been my peak time for call up had things gone a different route, although I might have been tempted to preempt call up at the time by volunteering for the RAF - it's the path my dad followed at 18 in WW2!

Anyway, having developed an interest in more modern equipment, I thought I'd share some photos that I took when I was working on a project in Siberia back in 2010.  We were visiting Nyagan and stumbled across these vehicles forming a war memorial - we thought to Soviet casualties of the Afghan conflict of the 80's, but my Russian is scant to say the least.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with the vehicle ID.

I think this is a BMP-1

 BTR-60

BMP-1  again

 BTR-60

 And again

 ZSU23/4 Shilka

 and again

All 3 in the memorial

 The image quality isn't the best but we were visiting in late September and only had a brief chance to look around the town so the sun was very low in the sky.  The week after we left temperatures were -10C and falling!

The cammo pattern on the Shilka is a base of bright green with olive green sploges outlined in black or very dark green.  The BTR-60 is similar although the edges of the spots are less well defined and the BMP seems to be just in bright green with olive green splodges.

Thanks to Richard (cardophillips) for correcting my ID on the BTR-60.