Modern Soviet Guards Tank & IFV READY FOR ACTION! (warning - lots of TANKS!)

Desperate, high-level meetings at the Kremlin fail to reach any other viable alternatives to the issue at hand: the Rodina collapses on herself, or goes to war.  Secretly, orders are drafted for a "no-notice exercise" that will involve the entire western strategic directorate.  Real ammunition is issued as Guards units mount trains in the Soviet Union, just as they had done in countless other exercises...

Well finally finished 2 x T-80 platoons and the BMP-2 platoon for gaming our next SABRE SQUADRON battle at Ken's house on Saturday!



Soviet recce and Forward Observers mark targets for the guns!  BMP-2 from QRF which will sub as a BRM for recce.  The figs are "Quality Castings" Soviet Command. I think they are meant to be from the Afghan War since they are in soft caps.



In their hide position

Today I dry-brushed, decaled, and sealed all of the vehicles for this spearhead force.  I like to think of this as the force from Ralph Peters' "Red Army" that mixes it up on the first day of the war with those Dutch Leopards at the farmhouse.  The scenario can be found in "The Bear Marches West" which is available from Wargame Vault.



T-80s move into the attack!  All are "Quality Casting" T-80s.  They are painted in Battlefront's "Tankovy Green" washed with "Agrax Earthshade" drybrushed buff and sealed.

 Also I affixed a lozenge on the front fender of the T-80s.  It was not uncommon for Warsaw Pact vehicles to sport temporary unit markings during large scale exercises.  This unit in particular has a diamond on their left front fender, identifying them as a unit from a Games Workshop Imperial Guard Cadian Force....(which is where their decals come from!)



The whole unit forming for action!



I could not be happier with how these guys turned out.



I wanted to dry brush them in a light green scheme but the khaki works well.



couldnt get the Guards decal on right so I improvised and turned it to face forward.  Doesn't look too bad.



I never did trim any of the excess flash off.  That's fine.  Any unit who goes through an artillery barrage is going to have lots of twisted metal sticking out in all sorts of directions from reactive armor blowing up and fenders being knocked about.  



Impressive!



The sealant I used blurs the dry-brushing which is unfortunate because the weathered look looks nice.



Now for the BMPs.  More temporary unit markings.  I saw three white stripes on the ACE Models BMP2 box I think.  Anyways it was a nice contrast with the green drab.



The Quality Castings BMP2 is a very simple model.  

 As an interesting aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing the BMP from Battlefront.  The QRF BMP is way too small.  The Quality Casting BMP is way too high.  I'm hoping to find the Battlefront BMP1 & 2 is somewhere in the "goldilocks zone."

 And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for!  DISMOUNT!  DISMOUNT!



A healthy mix of Command Decision "Middle East Regulars" Khurasan Modern Soviets, and some Khurasan Syrians for good measure...

 For this platoon, I differentiated squads by the ground cover detail.  For instance, one squad (2 teams) has light tan colored rock.  One has grey rock with clump foliage, and one has light green lichen on it.  That is an old trick I learned from Crossfire players who don't want to label their bases...



The platoon spreads out for the assault with the BMPs providing covering fire!



Cool picture.



Platoon Commander!



Other platoon command stand.

 And also, while the next set of vehicles will NOT be participating in Saturday's game, I wanted to get them in the post anyways.  These are my Roskopf and Eko T-55s which will also double as T-62s when I need them to.  They are Soviet, Egyptian, Syrian, East German, Eritrean, basically anyone I want them to be!  They are a perfect match for 1/100 or 15mm and I will use them in many, many conflicts to come!

 Taking a cue from Plastic Warrior Paul, I am starting to dress these guys up with distinguishing details such as ditch beams and fuel drums.  Check out this guy below.  I will have more kit on future vehicles such as this one.  These guys are painted with Rustoleum "camouflage" sprays.  Dark Olive and Khaki.  2 brands made by the same manufacturer give you much better camouflage results since the paint is the same formula and tends to stick less.  That's why for my NATO tracks, I'll only use Tamiya sprays from now on.



I think the fuel barrel came from a Petner Panzer T-62 I had laying around.  The ditching bar is a toothpick sawed off at both ends.

More pics from Saturday's "Sabre Squadron" game to come, which I will most likely post on Sunday or Monday.  Ken has his BAOR Brits ready for action so this will be alot of fun!  Stay Tuned Cold War and Tank junkies!

PS "Find us on Facebook" at https://www.facebook.com/SoundOfficersCall