TANKS Soviet Pics Dump

My Soviet forces for TANKS has now reached a point where I can comfortably play at a typical points level with plenty of available options. I still have several tanks in various stages of painting – a more specific paint scheme post is still forthcoming – but in the meantime I wanted to show off the collection as it stands now.

All the models are by the Plastic Soldier Company or Zvezda. The T-34s and IS tanks are PSC and are quite excellent – even given that these are the earlier version of the T-34 kit with the multipart tracks. The only real problem is the included 85mm gun is too large. As a solution, I replaced them with the better-proportioned 85mm from the IS kit.

The tank destroyers and KV-2 are from Zvezda. Their track detail is not as nice, but are otherwise also very good. Since I’m adding a fair bit of weathering to the tracks with Vallejo European Thick Mud, it’s not noticeable at all. While the official Battlefront models are exceptionally well done with lots of detail captured with advanced multipart molding and are still quite reasonably priced, the PSC and Zvezda kits come out to just about half the price which is very difficult to argue with. Both companies have continued to improve and narrow the gap with Battlefront’s quality, too. I have a Zvezda King Tiger to paint that looks fantastic…

On to the tanks! (Please play this while viewing for full effect)

There aren’t any official rules for the KV-2 yet, but it’s so cool I just had to paint one

The exhaust and gun barrel soot was done with MIG pigments, and sealed with the final Dullcote layer

These PSC T-34s include both the 76mm and 85mm turrets

Greatest ever tank accessory – a giant hunk of tree! This was trimmed from a Woodland Scenics tree armature

The white slogans stand out excellently over the camouflage

All the markings are from the Flames of War Soviet decal pack

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

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TANKS!

Skipping ahead a bit, over the last month or so I’ve been getting into Gale Force 9’s TANKS. This game seems like a pretty good fit for me – it has some interesting strategy, it plays quickly, looks really cool on the table, only requires a handful of models, plus I just plain love tanks.

I had quite a few bits and pieces around for Flames of War projects that never really got off the ground, but that were a great start for Tanks. I chose Soviets as my primary force. After a few tests, I hadn’t found a historical paint scheme that really worked for me (Soviet tanks were mostly just green, and I didn’t like the results of the camo I tried). So OK, let’s go off the edge of the map a little. Screw history!

A more detailed look at the actual painting will be forthcoming, but for now I wanted to show off a few pictures from my first couple games:

Game One, versus my coworker Zac’s Germans. My ISU-152, a T-34/85 and an IS-2 against his Stug, Pz IV H, Panther and an early-model Pz IV. Things started well and it appeared my strategy was working.

The Panzer IV H goes down and I put some hurt on the Panther.

A swirling melee develops in the corner, and I do my best to out-maneuver the enemy.

Ah, blyad

Disaster! My dice abandon me and some unfortunate critical hits from the Panther bring down the IS-2. The Panzer IV is dead too, but on the other flank the ISU-152 has failed to stop the Stug.

Further attempts at maneuver are no match for my traitorous dice. The front is lost! Stalin will not be happy…

Game Two, a couple weeks later. I have a trio of British Comets that I’ve done up in desert colors as an experimental second force. My plan relies on high Initiative to outfox my opponent and fight him piecemeal. Unfortunately, the desert terrain doesn’t offer much cover. Up against more Germans…

There’s a Stug and a Panzer IV off to the right that I’ve moved around and denied shots. The Panther has been eliminated and the Jagdpanther outflanked, but…

It proves remarkably resilient. The running battle would carry on to the other side of the board as the Germans slowly withdrew to close ranks. Despite losing two tanks, I managed to close and knock out the other two enemy vehicles, thanks to some decent dice and a critical mistake by my opponent. It came down to a shootout between the Jagdpanther backed into a corner and my last Comet, which finally managed to get through Jerry’s thick hide and win the day. Tally Ho!

Thanks for reading!

Work in Progress: Flames of War Heavy Tanks

While my terrain design project has certainly distracted me, I’ve still been making some slow but steady progress on more Flames of War. Like the Panzer III these are models that I love the look of, but wouldn’t spend the time and money to build a whole new army around – I’m just doing these for fun, and to look cool in my display case. I have a bunch of different vehicles in the pipeline already, but these two are the farthest along:

This is actually the first of a platoon of four Tiger Is, a project I had planned to have done in November for a Tanksgiving event that sadly didn’t materialize. This is the furthest along of the bunch – dullcote and weathering are the only two major steps remaining. The model itself is from Plastic Soldier Company, and while I’ve been quite impressed with the other sets of theirs I’ve tried, the Tiger box is probably my favorite yet. Fantastic in terms of finish, detail and ease of assembly, with lots of options too. The only change I made was to shorten the pegs holding the outer roadwheel components to make the tracks “stick out” more. This looks more correct to me, but when I did a bit of research during the build I saw pictures of Tigers with quite a bit of variation on how far the tracks stuck out (possibly some were still using the narrower tracks used during long-distance transport?) so as far as I can tell neither answer is wrong. Now I just need to get the other three caught up to this one…

This is a more traditional resin and metal miniature – Battlefront’s IS-2 obr. 1944. I love the look of a lot of the Russian heavy tanks and assault guns – hulking slabs of steel with truly massive guns. This one is almost as far along as the Tiger, despite being started more recently. I’m going to be adding some of the prominent white recognition stripes on the turret seen on Soviet vehicles right near the end of the war and the Battle of Berlin in particular.

And in Epic news, I recommend you take a look at some of Troublemaker Games latest work on their second Indiegogo campaign – they’re adding a bunch of stuff that helps fill in some of the gaps left behind in the Epic range. It’s running for a few more days and I’m trying to avoid being tempted into pledging more – there’s more that I want but paying in Pounds isn’t helping my wallet.

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

Afrika Korps Panzer III

You know when I said no more tiny Germans?

I lied.

But c’mon, tanks don’t count. Tanks are always cool! And certainly easier to paint than 15mm infantry (sorry, PBI).

Looking at our giant wall of Flames of War blisterpacks, I realized that there are tons of cool tanks and vehicles that I would love to collect and paint, but that I would never build a whole army featuring. So why not just collect the ones I like? This Panzer III is the first I’ve finished of my new “tiny tank museum”. The small scale means that it’s cheaper, quicker to paint and easier to store than collecting armor models in a more traditional “display” scale like 1/72 or 1/35, and since I don’t need to worry about painting up tank after tank to build a workable army I can take the time to add more detail than I normally would for FoW models. Take a look…

I say Flames of War but strictly speaking this model is from Plastic Soldier Company. All the PSC products I’ve tried have been excellent quality and fantastically priced, and I’d recommend them to anyone playing FoW.

I’ve tried out a couple techniques that either are new to me or that I haven’t used on a model like this – in particular the sponge-applied chipped paint and the use of a solvent-based pigment sealer (by MIG Productions). I’m quite pleased with both. The sealer does a much better job maintaining the color of the weathering pigments compared to my old method using Dullcote and will be my go-to solution in the future.

The exhaust manifolds were painted with two Vallejo Panzer Aces colors – Light and Dark Rust. While most Panzer Aces colors are too dark to use with models as small as 15mm, these two (along with a few others like Canvas) are great for all sorts of things in almost any scale.

I already have some more one-off Flames of War tanks awaiting paint, and have an extensive list in my head of more that I’d like to add. Forcing myself to wait until I have more done…wait, I just finished one! So that must mean I should buy another new one, right?

Right?

Thanks for reading!

-Chris

3D Stuff: New Turret Renders

Here we have a brief overview of some of the new parts I’ve been working on. These turrets are designed to work with the hull from the Cruiser Light Tank from Dark Realm Miniatures (the hulls used in the render image are just mockups I slapped together). I may do a custom hull of my own later, but for now I’ve just done the turrets to represent the vehicles in the Epic Imperial Guard range I’d like to use.

Some of these will hopefully be suitable for casting – the artillery pieces for example are designed with the gun/rockets as separate pieces. Some I may just need to use the 3D-printed turrets directly (I have no idea how to cast the AA turret). Fortunately for many of these I would only need three to complete a unit so hopefully the per-unit cost will be relatively low.

On a related note, I’ve received the first prototype from Shapeways for my Main Battle Tank design! It’s pretty cool to see something that only existed digitally transformed in all its tiny tank glory. Unfortunately the model suffered from some technical issues on the printer’s side so the company is reprinting the design for me – hopefully once the new one arrives I’ll have some pictures for you. In the meantime, having this printed example has shown me a lot about how my designs translate to real objects and I’m already at work on an updated model. Some of the detail needs to be a bit bulkier in order to look ‘correct’ on a 6mm-scale miniature.

Thanks for reading!

-Chris