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: 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 RayR - 25mm Russo-Finnish Winter War 1939-40 - 37mm Bofors - Oh Rats! 80 pts .

 

For my next entry it's back to the 1939-40 Winter War, the figures are once again from Parkfield Miniatures, great range packs WWF33 the Bofors and WWF34 the crew. You get 5 crew in the pack, but only need 3 crew in Bolt Action, but I thought It might as well paint them all up. The base from Charlie Foxtrot and is a spare from my Retreat from Moscow French.

The 1939 Finnish 37 mm Bofors anti-tank gun was a highly effective, Swedish-designed weapon that played an important role during both the Winter War and the Continuation War. Originally developed by Bofors in the early 1930s, it was intended to provide infantry units with a lightweight yet powerful defense against armored vehicles. Weighing only about 370 kilograms, the gun was easy to maneuver and could even be towed by a single horse in Finnish service, making it well suited to Finland’s rugged terrain and mobile tactics.

In combat, the gun proved accurate and reliable, with a practical rate of fire of around 12 rounds per minute. Firing a 37×257 mm cartridge, it could penetrate approximately 40 mm of armor at 300 meters—more than sufficient to destroy most light Soviet tanks such as the T-26 and BT series encountered during the early stages of the Winter War. Its semi-automatic mechanism automatically ejected spent shells to speed reloading, while an optical sight and protective shield enhanced both accuracy and crew protection.

Finland relied on both imported Swedish-made guns and domestically produced copies, with roughly 355 Finnish-built versions manufactured under the designation 37 psv.K/36 or VTT37-36. Although the weapon gradually became obsolete as heavier Soviet tanks like the T-34 entered service and thicker armor rendered the 37 mm gun less effective by 1943, it remained a dependable and durable asset. During the initial phases of the conflict especially, the Bofors 37 mm was a critical component of Finland’s anti-tank defences.

For the points, there are 5 figures, one of them is laying down - 22.5 pts

1 Crew served weapon - 10pts

Plus whatever Dave wants to give me for the base?

Next we have some Rats, that will fit into either the Winter War or the Retreat from Moscow.

I'm sure they didn't starve unlike the poor French and Allies, I guess they were the breakfast dinner and Tea!

I bought these at the Warfare Show last November and can't for the life of me remember the company I bought them from????? I know they came in a little round tine, with Body Parts written on it??

Anyway the 25mm Rats will add a little discomfort to our snowy game, there are 20 rats all in all, 3 are based on 25mm circular bases while the bigger horde is on a slightly larger irregular base.

I'd guess at 2pts per rat, as they're roughly the size of a 15mm horse?

But again, I'll leave that up to Dave!

From DaveD . Nice to get some more firepower on  the table Ray . Rats ! Oh blimey I look forward to seeing the rules for those . I’m make this 80 pts 

from Ray R - Russo-Finnish Winter War - 1939-40 Finnish Heavy weapons 50 pts

 

Time to sneak in my second post of the day. More Finns, this time its their Heavy Machine Guns and AT Gun and a Mortar. All figures are once again from Parkfield Miniatures and bases from Warbases. I had a big issue with yellow snow on these, can't work out why though???

I undercoated the mdf bases all over painted them white a few times and varnished them, they still seem to be leeching....groan!

The Lahti-Saloranta M/26 was the standard Finnish light machine gun adopted in the mid-1920s and designed by Aimo Lahti and Arvo Saloranta to provide mobile automatic fire at the squad level. Chambered in 7.62×54mmR and fed from a 20-round detachable box magazine, the air-cooled, gas-operated M/26 weighed about 9 kg and had a relatively high rate of fire of roughly 500–600 rounds per minute.

 It was well made and accurate, reflecting Finland’s emphasis on quality manufacturing, but its tight tolerances and complex mechanism made it sensitive to dirt, snow, and extreme cold, reducing reliability in harsh field conditions. Soldiers often criticized the small magazine capacity and the weapon’s tendency to jam compared to more rugged designs, leading many units to prefer captured Soviet DP-28 “Emma” machine guns during wartime. Although it served throughout the Winter War and Continuation War and remained Finland’s official light machine gun for years, the M/26 never fully earned the confidence of frontline troops and was gradually supplemented and replaced by more dependable alternatives.

During World War II, the Finnish Army made extensive and increasingly widespread use of captured Soviet 7.62×54mmR DP-28 light machine guns, nicknamed “Emma,” (which is my wife's name hence the gas operated,  and no she won't be reading this!) finding them more dependable in Finland’s severe cold, snow, and muddy conditions than their domestically produced LS-26. The DP-28’s rugged, loose-tolerance, gas-operated design resisted jamming and fouling better than the more finely machined Finnish weapon, making it especially valued by frontline troops. 

Weighing about 9.1 kg unloaded, it fired from a distinctive 47-round top-mounted pan magazine—earning the additional nickname “record player”—at a rate of roughly 550 rounds per minute, providing steady and effective suppressive fire at the squad level. Its use of the same cartridge as Mosin-Nagant rifles and Maxim machine guns greatly simplified logistics and ammunition supply, further increasing its practicality. Captured guns were inspected, refurbished, and stamped with Finnish “SA” (Suomen Armeija) markings before issue. By the end of the Continuation War, more than 15,000 DP-28 and later DPM variants were in Finnish inventory, outnumbering native LS-26s and becoming one of the most common and trusted light machine guns in Finnish service.

The Maxim M/09-21 was the standard heavy machine gun of the Finnish Army between the World Wars and throughout World War II, developed from captured and inherited Russian Maxim M1910 guns that Finland acquired after independence. 

Reworked domestically during the 1920s, the M/09-21 featured improvements such as a redesigned rear sight graduated for Finnish ammunition, a strengthened mount, and compatibility with locally produced 7.62×54mmR cartridges, allowing it to integrate smoothly with the army’s existing logistics. Like other Maxim variants, it was a water-cooled, recoil-operated weapon capable of sustained automatic fire, typically fed by 250-round fabric belts and capable of a rate of fire around 500–600 rounds per minute.

 Though heavy and usually mounted on a wheeled or tripod mount for defensive and support roles, the gun was extremely reliable and well suited to Finland’s harsh winter conditions, where its water jacket could even be filled with snow in emergencies. Rugged, accurate, and capable of prolonged fire, the M/09-21 served as the backbone of Finnish heavy machine gun units and remained in frontline use throughout the Winter War and Continuation War.

The Lahti L-39 was a Finnish anti-tank rifle developed by Aimo Lahti in the late 1930s to provide infantry with a portable weapon capable of defeating light armoured vehicles and fortified positions during the Winter War and Continuation War. Chambered for the powerful 20×138mmB “Long Solothurn” cartridge, the gas-operated, semi-automatic rifle was exceptionally large and heavy—earning the nickname “Norsupyssy” (“elephant gun”)—weighing around 50 kg with its bipod and often requiring a two-man crew to transport and operate. 

Fed from a 10-round detachable box magazine, it delivered strong armour penetration against early-war Soviet tanks, armoured cars, and bunkers, and was also highly effective against machine gun nests and other hard targets due to its high-explosive and armour-piercing ammunition. Although it became less effective as enemy armour improved, the L-39 remained valued for its accuracy, long range, and versatility, and it continued in service throughout the war in both anti-armour and heavy support roles.

During the Winter War, the Finnish Army employed the 50 mm light mortar, most notably the 50 Krh/38, as a compact and highly portable infantry support weapon designed to provide close-range indirect fire to small units. Based on a Finnish design by Tampella, the mortar was lightweight and simple, allowing a single soldier to carry and operate it, which suited Finland’s forested terrain and fast-moving ski troops. It fired small high-explosive and smoke rounds to ranges of roughly 800 meters, enabling squads to engage enemy troops behind cover, suppress machine gun nests, or screen movements with smoke. However, its limited explosive power and relatively short range reduced its effectiveness against entrenched positions, and ammunition capacity was modest. While useful for harassment and close support during the early phases of the war, many Finnish soldiers considered the 50 mm mortar underpowered compared to larger 81 mm mortars, and its role gradually diminished as heavier and more effective systems became available.

So there we have it, I'm a bit confused about the points, there are 5 figures either kneeling or sitting and 9 laying down, so I'd make that worth 47.5 plus all the crew serving weapons, 5 machine guns and a mortar, I think I'll leave these for you Dave?

From DaveD. There is a joke about yellow snow in here , but I won’t make it . 😆. I had it happen on some stuff I did . It was a result of trying to clean my brush I was applying it with being “cleaned” in slightly dirty water ..I’m going to make this 50 . Nice to see more firepower to make the Soviets pay .