Pripyat.

A little diversion here, though continuing with the Soviet theme...

I was cleaning out a box of unfinished minis and found these 28mm Eureka 1980's NBC suit Soviets hiding in the back. I decided to finish them up and get them out of my backlog since they only needed a little work on weapons and packs to finish. Besides the NCO, Sniper with Dragunov, Specialist with Geiger Counter, and the LMG gunner with the PK, there are five grunts with AK-47s left to finish.



I picked these up a few years ago at one of the conventions with the intention of using them in a zombie outbreak containment game set in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster. Eureka actually sells these and a set of zombies to go with them for just that purpose.

All I need yet are the zombies! I'll probably need a bunch of them though...

Projects for the New Year.

As part of the cleaning and organizing of my painting desk, I figured I should also make a list of projects to complete in the coming year. I have a lot of projects to choose from, but I want to put together a list of priority projects and get some old and unfinished stuff out of the way.

Miniature Projects:
28mm Mid War Soviets. Battle Honors (complete).
28mm Soviets in NBC Suits. Eureka (complete).
15mm Polish 10th Motorized. True North Miniatures (complete).
28mm ACW Union Company. Old Glory.
28mm ACW Confederate Company. Old Glory.
15mm French. Old Glory/Command Decision.
15mm Soviet Rifle Company. Quality Castings.
28mm Battle of the Bulge US Airborne. Artizan Designs.
28mm Battle of the Bulge Germans LMG teams. Artizan Designs.
28mm Japanese Ni mortar squad, snipers, and AT teams. Brigade Games.

Scenery Projects:
More hills cut out and sanded.
Finish painting 28mm tree bases.
28mm Normandy Farmhouse Complex. Shed is almost painted.
15mm Eastern Front houses scratchbuilt.
28mm ACW fences and walls.
More 28mm Hedgerows.
28mm Railroad tracks.
More 15mm trees.
15mm Railroad tracks.

Iron Ivan Games Projects:
Point Blank: 1:1 scale Squad Level WWI-Modern Combat system.
Polish 10th Motorized scenarios.
"May Be Forever": Civil War mod of This Very Ground.
Fields of Battle: Panzer Lehr.

That's a good start. Now I need to stick to the plan and get a move on some of this stuff. It's been nice enough the past few days to get some minis primed...

Mid War Soviets.

Wow has it been a long time since I updated. The holidays have a tendency to sneak up on you and before you know it a new year is upon you.

I decided to start the year off right by cleaning my painting table from top to bottom and getting myself organized. I also started to work up a list of unfinished projects I wanted to get off the table and out of the way so I can start on the new projects I want to complete this year.

I have had several platoons on the table now for all of last year with just a squad or two unpainted. The first one to get out of the way is my Mid War Battle Honors 28mm Soviet Platoon. I had completed a command section and two squads for some time, but needed to finish off the third squad and the heavy weapons to make a viable platoon for the table top. That is now complete.

Here is the result. I used a new filter on my free editing software that gives it a grainy war time photo look. Not sure if I like the result or not yet...



I am also experimenting with new photography techniques for miniatures. The biggest difference was learning to take better angles. Down low and in close has helped give me better results for taking pics of minis. I might need to go back and start retaking a lot of pics of my other miniature projects. That will have to wait for now though.

Here is one of the three rifle squads:



And the heavy weapons to support them:



I'm not happy with the pics of the Rifle Squad or Heavy Weapons, but I will have to take better photos later.

This makes a complete Mid War Soviet Rifle platoon with the bare bones of support.



I have two painted T-34 early models to go with them and a Zis-3 76mm AT Gun, but I need to get some crew and add snipers and maybe a 4th squad. I also have some SMG models to finish to turn this platoon into a Desant platoon which brings a lot of drunken firepower to bear. These go against my Battle Honors 28mm Waffen SS to allow me to do post Stalingrad through Operation Zitadel and perhaps even up to and beyond Operation Bagration games.

Hope you enjoy!