Strelkovy and Cossacks coming on nicely...
So I have been painting and modelling away quietly, finishing my mid-war Germans, and started painting my Strelkovy in the lead-up to the battle of Kursk game planned for later in the year.Last touches on my german artillery crews, and started work on painting the Nebelwerfer crews. The whole lot (over 100 pieces) base-coated black, and the Cossacks now sport 2 coats. Cloak inners and riding breaches blue.
Went and bought some Revell Siberian Troops and another box of Italeri Russians. What a contrast. The moulding on the Revell models is just terrible! You can hardly make out that the troops are carrying rifles.
No chance of identifying what it may be.
Compared to the crispness and detail of the Italeri box the Revell models are just rubbish! Nothing at all like the review given on Plastic Soldier Review. Maybe I just got a bum batch... What happened to quality control?
Will need a lot of work before they resemble anything. Lots of flash, molding poor. Only usable bit out of the box is the mortar and crew.
Haven't had soldiers with as bad molding since Airfix's British Paratroopers in the 1970s!
Been looking at WW2 Russian Uniforms, especially the Cossacks and Infantry:
Have chosen Vallejo Russian Uniform mixed with German Brown Camo in varying quantities, with addition of German Beige Camo for faded and padded jackets.Some inspirational pics from across the net:
Being an autumn army, my troops can field a mix of the winter and summer uniforms.
Summer Uniform
Amoeba pattern Sniper Uniform (faded)
Amoeba pattern uniforms
Winter Uniforms
More Summer Uniforms
Cossack Uniforms
Painting guide (Copyright indicated)
I must confess it was the nature of the soft plastic figures; flash and mold lines you can't file or trim away easily, that left me with a negative impression of using soft plastic figures for gaming ... that and the fact that they seem to resist every known glue to man to get them to stick together... ever tried gluing on the shield of an Airfix Roman? Good luck with that...
ReplyDeleteAt least now, if you want to go 20mm (1/72nd) you can get decent hard plastic figures from Plastic Soldier Company. But by the time they had started producing these I was already gaming 15mm with FoW...
DeleteI have shared the frustration with the softer plastics. Scalpel blades are great for the flash and mold lines, but I've learned to put up with them to some degree.
ReplyDeleteI use the Zap range of cyanoacrylate glues, the best one being Polyzap (http://www.supergluecorp.com/zap/zap-glues/poly-zap) for rubber and soft plastics; with armypainter anti-shine varnish over the top. The bases get the usual thick PVA over the top, and my basing choice at the moment also helps keep the models on my preferred MDF bases. I have been eyeing the Plastic Soldier Range, but have a backlog of other brands including the (ok-ish) Hasegawa figures in my ever-growing pile of shame under my work-bench.
"...ever growing pile of shame"... classic wargamer! ;-)
ReplyDelete