LeeH: My Winter War Soviets are ready for the offensive!

So, how do I wrap up this year’s Challenge? If I’m being totally honest, I didn't get quite as much painted as I originally hoped. My "to-do" list was definitely more ambitious than my "done" list! But you know what? I got the essentials finished, and in this hobby, that’s a win in my book.

Despite the slower pace, I managed to hit two major milestones: My personal 600-point target was officially crossed, and I'm happy with that. Of course, no competition compared to the top of the leaderboard, but I'm happy with what I got done.  Second, I completed everything I wanted to get done, meaning my Winter War Soviets: These guys are complete and will give me plenty of options when list-building for games of Bolt Action or Chain of Command. They were the missing piece for my collaboration project with RayR, and I’m thrilled to have them ready for the table.

The dream now is to get my Soviets and Ray’s Finns into a proper scrap. However, we’ve got a bit of a "one in, one out" policy happening right now. We have a few urgent projects that need to be cleared off the workbench before we can play with these guys. Our big focus for the immediate future? Two 1812 Retreat from Moscow games. We're working on a skirmish ruleset with a friend, and alongside this, Ray and I want to run a big battle with our collection for a demo game at Broadside in June. Once we have these playtested and polished, the second half of the year is looking very clear, and very wintery!

from RayR - DaveD's Favourite! Sandbags at 12 paces!!! 15 pts

  

DaveD and other always rib me over Sandbags, so as for the fist time in any Challenge I've painted WWII figures, I thought I'd have some sandbags!!!

I only bought these last week on Etsy, from The Forge Hub. They were only £3.41 plus postage. So I can't complain about the price at all.

They were very easy to paint up, firdtly with a stone colour, the drybrush white.

I wasn't going to base them, but last night thought again. I used artists card and cut out the shapes needed and them based them up in my usual way.

I'm very pleased with them and can't wait to use them in a game.

Once again I'm not really sure how they'll be scored, so I'll leave that up whichever Minion has the job.

 

From DaveD … who me , who me!… well yes me . I do of course refer you to the end results of very early challenge young Raymondo!  Of course you need winter sandbags . These are of course excellent , the basing helps for me / You will thank me in the end as Lee’s Soviet hordes advance and you have extra cover . Good lad - 15 pts it is .

from RayR - Winter War/Retreat from Moscow - Roar!! 32mm - 15 pts

  

I bought this furry hap last year and thought he could come in handy.

She's a 3D print and I'm sorry to say, I can't remember what the name of the company was that I bought him from. Only that it was at the Warfare Show in Farnborough last November.

Here he is standing next to a poor Fin, who she's eyeing up for breakfast.

And note I called her a her, I have been lambasted before about painting up female bears!

She will be deployed not only in Finland, but close to the Berezina attacking both French and Russians in the Retreat from Moscow.

Not sure of the points for this young lady, as I'm not sure of her scale, maybe 32mm or bigger??

From DaveD . Well done Ray another nice little addition .As if your lads haven’t got enough of a bad time with Rooskies of each era , you now give them hungry animals , which must have been woken from their slumbers. I bet they are Hangry . I take it you still have the sandbags post to finish 😆. It’s a biggy so 15 it is .

From RayR: Russo-Finnish Winter War 1939/40 - Finnish Infantry and Machine Gun Bomb! (330 points)

  

How are we into the final week of the Challenge? I really wish it would go on for another month or so, I always seem to push myself to get more painting done. When its ended I have a painting lull, I suspect most of you, my fellow challengers are the same?

I am hoping this won't be my last post, but this is a biggy, for me anyway. This last week, I somehow found a lot of time to paint 65.5 figures, all for my and Lee's Russo-Finnish Winter War project. Here's a few photos of what I painted this week.

8 Officers and 1 Suomi KP/31 Sub Machine gunner 

A radio Operator and his lookout

A Lahti-Saloranta M/26 Light Machine Gun firing and 2 x 2 man teams carrying the M/26..

A 10 man Infantry squad

Another 10 man Infantry squad

A third 10 man Infantry squad

A fourth 10 man squad!

And an 8 man Infantry squad

Simo Häyhä , famously known as "The White Death", was a Finnish sniper during the Winter War. He is widely regarded as the deadliest sniper in military history, credited with at least 505 confirmed kills in fewer than 100 days of combat.

What Finnish army would be complete without some soldiers throwing, Molotov Cocktails, Satchel Charges (Kasapanos) and hand grenades.

A close up of the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 Light Machine Gun, I have 1 other that I painted up previously in the Challenge.

And to go with the 2 M/26 machine guns, I have 2 teams carrying the weapons, so on the table you can use these to move the figures around the table, then the others when they set up. (Sad I know)

Close up of some of the infantry, the kneeling figure on the right is an NCO, but I'll probably use him as a normal infantryman.

Officers, the one in the centre is a Russian figure!

And here they all are in their new home.

64 standing or kneeling figures

3 laying down figures.

65.5 figure x 5 points (66 figures x 5 points)

Makes a nice fat total of 325 (330) points!

 

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Sylvain: I'm blinded by the glistening snow! Nice production and outstanding job on these figurines! It will be a treat to read battle reports when you engage Lee's forces. Bravissimo!

 

From LeeH: Last of the Winter War Soviets

My Soviet forces for the Winter War have taken rather longer to finish than I originally planned. That, I should admit, is entirely self-inflicted. Taking on several projects at once seemed like a splendid idea at the time—right up until I discovered the universe had stubbornly refused to add extra hours to the day. Still, today’s additions mark the final figures for the force and give me a healthy range of options for my Soviet army in Bolt Action.

First up are a pair of Light Machine Gun teams. Some of the LMG squads I painted earlier are sculpted advancing between positions, and I wanted the option to swap them out for deployed figures once they reach cover. These crews are operating the 7.62mm DP-28 light machine gun, a gas-operated weapon that became the Red Army’s standard squad support gun and remained in widespread service until an improved version appeared in 1944.

I’ve also completed another 50mm mortar team, armed with the M1938/39 mortar. The main reason for adding this crew was flexibility: I now have the option of fielding a second mortar in support of the infantry when the scenario calls for it. In reality, the weapon had its limitations. Its range was fairly modest and its explosive charge was roughly comparable to that of a hand grenade, which meant its battlefield impact was often underwhelming. As a result, it was gradually replaced by the far more capable 82mm mortar.

Finally, there’s some much-needed anti-tank capability in the form of the 45mm M1937 anti-tank gun. Finnish troops nicknamed this weapon the Piiskatykki (the “whip-gun”) because of the sharp crack produced by its high-velocity rounds. It was the Red Army’s standard light anti-tank gun during the Winter War and proved effective against the limited armour available to the Finns. Ironically, when Finnish forces captured these guns, they were more than happy to turn them around and put them to good use themselves.

With these final additions completed, the Winter War Soviets are finally ready for the table... assuming, of course, I can resist the temptation to start yet another project before the paint on them has properly dried.

5x28mm Prone = 12.5pts
7x28mm Foot = 35pts
1x28mm Gun = 10 pts
Total = 57.5pts

From DaveD . Another project gets to table ready state . A useful top up in capability there too Lee.

From LeeH: Another Soviet LMG Squad (60 Pts)

This week, I finished my fourth Light Machine Gun squad for my 1939 Winter War Soviets, which means I’m finally within sight of the end of this Bolt Action painting run. Four squads lined up together give the force a real sense of cohesion. On the table, they look like what they’re meant to represent: mass infantry built around automatic fire.

Soviet infantry tactics of the period leaned heavily on firepower at the squad level. The light machine gun was the anchor, with riflemen supporting it rather than the other way around. In theory, this created a base of suppressive fire that allowed advances by weight and momentum. The Red Army’s pre-war doctrine emphasised aggression, coordination, and overwhelming force. In open terrain, backed by artillery, that approach could be brutally effective. On a Bolt Action table, four LMG squads make that doctrine tangible—steady, grinding pressure rather than elegant manoeuvre.

The reality in 1939, however, was far messier. The army that invaded Finland had been badly damaged by Stalin’s purges of the officer corps in the late 1930s. Experienced commanders were removed, imprisoned, or executed, and their replacements were often younger, less seasoned, and understandably cautious. Initiative became dangerous. Junior officers learned that independent action could end careers (or lives) if outcomes were unfavourable. The result was rigidity. Orders were followed, sometimes blindly, even when local conditions demanded flexibility. Against Finnish forces who excelled at small-unit tactics, mobility, and exploiting terrain, that lack of adaptability proved costly.

With this fourth squad complete, the core infantry element of the army is ready. I’m still waiting on an artillery crew and gun to round things out, and I have a handful of spare figures that may end up as smaller specialist teams if I can find a home for them. For now, though, these LMG squads capture both the theory and the tragedy of the 1939 Red Army: a force designed for massed firepower and relentless advance, but hampered by structural weakness and fear at the command level. 

12x28mm Foot = 60 Points

From DaveD.  Nice winter additions Lee , are you starting to get snow blindness yet ? The whole force will be looking like a proper mass when we see it . 60 it is .

RayR & LeeH - Terriany Day's & Sundays (120 points)

 

I'm not sure if this is a first or not but today's Terrain entry is actually from two Challengers. You may have seen on our respective blogs, that me and Lee got together a few weekends ago and spent the day making and finishing some Winter terrain for our Retreat from Moscow shenanigans, now of course this can also be used for our new Winter period, the Russo-Finnish War.

Here are 2 boxes of trees, that we winters over with a spray of white paint and also a flick and drybrush, with a very large 3 inch brush.

We also had to sand, paint, drybrush, add grass tufts and finally add the snow mixture 

We are both pretty chuffed how they all came out, there are a total of 76 basses of trees, some smaller trees have 2 or 3 trees on them. The bases are 70mm circles from Warbases.

I have no clue how Byron will work out the points for these???

Next up we have some road, or trackways.

This is how we left them after our days terrain building.

And here's how they ended up!

They were painted twice with our earth brown mix, then drybrushed white before adding our winter snow mixture.

We cut out some different shapes and bends, but stupidly forgot a T-Junction?!?!

The straight long lengths measure 15 inches long and 3.5 inches wide, all in all the measure approx. 17.5 feet in length.

Once again, I'm not really sure how Byron will work this one out??

But as its a 2-Man project the points, whatever they are will be split down the middle, half for LeeH and half for me!

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Hello to both Ray and Lee, and well done on a huge submission here that will I am sure literally fill a table with terrain.  It is however a second entry for terrain today that has a bunch of parts that are light on the "painting" aspect with the trees.  However, once again I will score some points for the bases being painted up, and there is some paint on the trees to give that winter effect.  I have don't this exact thing in the past though and while it is certainly some work due to the pure number here, it is fast and easy.  Therefore for the 76 bases of trees I am going to say a bit over a point a base and go with a 80 points, as they are very quick as I think you will agree.

As for the roads, those have a lot more painting and work going on with them (although again very simple to do, but highly effective).  When I did my roads up like this I was able to do a few sections an hour, so I am going to count 2-4 of them as a figure, and award 40 points for the lot.  

That gives 120 points for the huge batch of terrain, which in my mind is the same as painting about 12 figures each that day, so works out probably a bit to your advantage points wise, as I know I can't paint a dozen figures in a day, but I feel is fair for such a huge amount of terrain being done here.

- Byron