Progress this week hasn't been too bad, not a huge amount of miniatures painted but some important decisions made. As always my biggest hurdle is deciding on a colour palette. I have picked up a few reference books and the infoweb is awash with examples of 28mm Soviet Infantry, but it is if I need my hand holding and someone sayong, "put this colour on that part." I am fine once I get started and happy to take a free and easy approach to historical accuracy, but those tentative first steps can be quite daunting.
The goal has been to achieve a level of competence that doesn't jar the eye too much, but is relatively quick to get the troops done. I have drawn on the experiences of several gentlemen and fellow Bloggers, namely Dai (The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted), Sander (Modus Reg Magni Momenti) and Moitnerei (Moiterei's bunte Welt). All have experience of putting together a similar force and so I was able to glean a few great ideas from them all and particularly this little gem, a 'Soviet Colour Guide!'
A few liberties have been taken, particularly with the colour of the ushanka fur hat, but ultimately I am pleased with the first half of my first section. At this point they have not been varnished as I am not sure about insignia of uniforms, collar flashes for example? If anyone has any thoughts then do please share. As for the bases, I am thinking that they will ultimately have a snowy feel to them, but will be leaving that until I have more of the force assembled.
These were from the 'Warlord Games' Soviet Infantry (Winter) box and I absolutely loved painting them. Great fun to build and just the right amount of detail to keep me interested without becoming too difficult; being plastic they are also more forgiving when I drop them too! There is a slight conversion using one of the arms from the Siberian Veterans box, but I ultimately I was a little disappointed with this purchase. It is essentially a mix of winter and summer uniform sprues with a few metal heads. That said, I am going to use the summer uniform sprues for the 'green' free section, progress for which is underway, see below, so not all is lost.
Not quite sure what record breaking temperatures means for 'Awdry Towers', but I am hopeful to make a bit more progress next week, spurred on by my visual troop tracker!
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