Parity

More Baker Company winter war stuff finished. Both sides used Maxim machineguns and now I have one for both. Pretty dangerous machines in chain of command.

Painting these felt like a chore. The sculpts were poor and dull. I'll go to middle earth for a change in scenery next.

Finnish field kitchen for Winter War, 1939

Another one for the 80th anniversary of Winter War. These Baker Company figures are not very good sculpts, but when I looked at them, they did begin to tell a story. There was, for example, a figure who looked like just a boy, sitting on the ground with an expression of anguish. The youngest boys to lie about their age and get into the war are said to have been just 14 years old. I put him in the center, being consoled or maybe scolded by and older soldier. There's also some kind of argument going on in the line for pea soup. Maybe he's not getting that extra portion he was hoping for? I decided to complete them as a small diorama that can be used as an objective or just something to make the table more interesting.

Winter War stuff for the anniversary

80 years ago the Winter War was already in full swing, so I've activated my old project and I'm finally finishing the stuff I need to actually get it on the table, namely a winter table and some support options for Chain of Command.

Two Soviet T-26 tanks have left their infantry support behind and stray too close to the woods. (Tanks are from Warlord Games)

A Finnish Anti-Tank section. Apart from explosive charges, light tanks were immobilized using logs and then burnt by tossing molotov cocktails on top of their engine air intake grills. (Finns from the infamous Baker Company Kickstarter)

Any scenario set in Finland requires lots of woods. I "winterized" some of my fir trees, scratch built some pines and used plastic tree armatures to make the birches.

Winter War Soviet platoon

I painted this platoon of soviet infantry during my summer holiday but didn't have time to photograph them until now. These figures were part of the infamous Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter which didn't end up so well, but these are pretty much the only option to get early war Soviet infantry in greatcoats with their budenovka hat.

The simple nature of these models makes them easy to paint and I didn't want to spend too much time painting these anyway. I now have a basic Chain of Command platoon for both the Soviets and the Finns. Now I just need to do some support options and oh.. terrain. I don't have any winter terrain in my collection :)

28mm Winter War Finnish infantry platoon

Ok, I finished the Kickstarter Winter War infantry platoon from Baker Company. It wasn't terribly time consuming and I'm happy with the results. They turned out difficult to take photos of, but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.

The whole platoon at paper strength plus optional SMG's

Going into war in 1939, a Finnish infantry platoon at paper strength was composed of the following elements:

A Platoon HQ with a lieutenant, his second in command and two riflemen used as messengers:

The platoon commander sends off his runners to give messages to his squads. The clothing on the commander is too fancy for a real platoon leader. The model is more appropriate for a company commander or even higher up, but I suppose it's just to make him stand out easier.

A rifleman carrying the M27 infantry rifle, a variant of the 1891 Mosin Nagant

Two infantry squads of ten men each. One sergeant and nine riflemen:

The ideal rifle squad also had one submachinegunner with a model Suomi submachinegun, but these were scarce and an average platoon would be lucky to have even one.

I opted for a dirty look on the uniforms so that the models look like they've seen some action. You wouldn't be able to keep that snow camo pristine white in an artillery barrage!

For some contrast, I made the snow on the bases pure while, like it was freshly fallen.

I have enough models at this point to have the platoon without a single SMG, but here they are.

Two light machine gun squads with a sergeant, a machine gunner carrying the Lahti-Saloranta Pikakivääri and five riflemen doubling as gunner's assistants and ammo carriers:

This LMG was in my previous Winter War post, but I've happily mixed up which ones I've shown you already and which not.

The set included some prone models which was nice. I mounted the prone ones on plasticard.

Another shot of the prone guys. I tried to give the snow some depth to make it look like they're not just hovering over it.

There you have them. The Kickstarter included all those wonderful extras and by the looks of it, I should receive the second shipment sometime soon. I'm quite happy I finished these before getting them, as the pile of unpainted lead will look less daunting now!

To get me in the mood for painting, I bought some period reading from an online bookshop:

The book is called "The rifle and LMG squad in combat - a battle guide for the squal leader" and it was printed in 1935. The book is a bit dirty but interestingly it has been in the possession of an army Major prior to the Winter War:  

The book is signed by a Major.. someone. I haven't been able to decipher the name. Arvo Leppänen, perhaps? The stamp says "Headquarters, 2nd JR", which could point to the second infantry or Jäger regiment. Can some knowledgeable Finn help me track down the owner? Should be interesting.

Anyway, the book sheds some light on platoon level infantry tactics prior to the second world war. The book emphasises aggressive movement by rifle squads supported by machine guns. No proper information on tanks, as you might suspect of a 1935 book. The goal of the rifleman is to get close fast and to drive the enemy away from his position in close combat. Not exactly cutting edge stuff, but who knows how many commanders learned their craft from books like these? A small piece of my country's history, it is.

The book contains some nice maps and illustrations on formations, overlapping fire lanes and such. Heavily influenced by German Jäger tactics, which the Finns learned from the Germans.

Winter War Finnish LMG Squad

Here's the first figures I've painted of the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter. It's a LMG squad which consists of 7 soldiers, including a NCO and a gunner carrying the Lahti-Saloranta pikakivääri (a light machine gun). You'll notice I've mistakenly painted all their hands bare even though I now think they're supposed to be wearing gloves. They're going to get some frostbites for sure!

I wanted to do some dirt on the soldiers' snow camos since they wouldn't stay snow white for long. I think I succeeded quite nicely with the Tamiya weathering master snow/soot/rust kit I have.

The weathering kit looks like something out of my wife's handbag but it does good work.

The Lahti-Saloranta LMG

 I succeeded quite well with the bases using baking soda and PVA for snow. I wanted to contrast the dirty snow camos with some fresh, virgin snow. The texture doesn't show well on the photos because of overexposure. I haven't applied varnish yet and I'm not sure how they'll look after that but we'll see.

I also added some stubble on some of the soldiers' chins. These guys didn't have much time to shave.

Some reference material.

As I'm writing this the temperature outside is -28 Celsius and falling. A warm night for the veterans of the Winter War.

My Winter War Kickstarter miniatures arrive!

A small English miniatures manufacturer, Baker Company, put up a Kickstarter this autumn to make a line of miniatures for the Winter War. Being a Finn, I felt obliged to join in what was my first Kickstarter pledge. I had my reservations putting my money down as the company owner promised a lot of stretch goal rewards for a 60 pound pledge. I mean, this is a lot of white metal models for the sum:

The Kickstarter well exceeded it's funding goals and I'm sure Gavin Tyler, the company's owner, has had his hands full. Today however he posted a message telling us that his casting machine had broken down. That'll definitely slow down the process of making all those thousands of models for the hundreds of backers, but I was happily surprised to find my Finnish platoon in the mailbox today! This is the first delivery I'm getting and consists a platoon of infantry, a LMG and I think there was an AT rifle there somewhere. Here's some pictures:

The models have a lot of flash and a couple of aggressive mould lines, but that's reasonable considering the amount of orders mr. Tyler has to fill. The models seem all to be intact without any defects, but I'll have to clean them up to be sure. The poses which are leaning forward look like they need to be bent back a bit, but otherwise they all look ok.

I don't have much experience in 28mm historicals, but the proportions on these look ok to me. I'm not sure how the proportions compare to say.. Warlord Games' models though. I think Warlord's Bolt Action models look "thicker". Alas, I don't have any for a side by side comparison.

***EDIT***
Here's a link to fho's blog with a size comparison between Baker and Warlord. Looks like a good match: http://maalaus.blogspot.fi/2014/01/warlord-and-baker-finns-comparison.html

I can do a side by side comparison with a Bretonnian bowman if it helps!

I'm happy to get these and I'll have to get some of my unfinished models painted up so I can get room for my Finns on the painting table. Until next time!