Completed Plastic Soldier Company Soviet Infantry

Plastic Soldier Company "Soviets in Summer Uniform"

My soviets are done, but I can't say I'm entirely pleased with how they turned out. I botched the primer and found the mix of colors in the Battlefront Soviet Paint set a little too similar in shade to create the contrast necessary to make these figures. Still it was good to get some 15mm figures under my belt, and these should be fine for learning Fireball Forward and Flames of War.  I may slowly replace these plastics with Battlefront or Peter Pig figures over time.

These guys should provide good support for some T-34's and KV-1s

Quick Review of Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Soviets

The Soviet hordes ready to be primed for the Motherland.

After dithering with the idea of doing Eastern Front in 10mm, Historicon finally pushed me over the edge into 15mm.  My buddy Mike and I really enjoyed the North Africa armor game of Fireball Forward we played, and with 40 tanks on the table it convinced me that a 15mm game with tanks could look reasonable. At least it looked reasonable to me at the time. I've even begun to soften towards Flames of War which I've managed to resist until now.

Mike and I loaded up on rules (Fireball Forward and the Flames of War Starter Set), some Zvezda tanks (50% off at the show) and we each grabbed a boxed set of plastics. He took home some Wargames Factory Late War Germans, and I grabbed a Plastic Soldier Company Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform.

I've built plastics in the past.  I started wargaming with 1/72 Italeri, Revell and Airfix and even when I moved to 28mm I built a number of plastic WGF and Warlord Games plastic kits. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the Plastic Soldier Company Soviets.

Like most plastics, the detail is softer than metal and the poses are a bit flatter, but there was still a lot of decent poses, and no real "stinkers" that are unusable. The plastic is much harder than the soft plastic in 1/72 kits, and there are also a number of multi-part sculpts, that require arms or heads to be attached separately. Unlike the 28mm plastic kits Iv'e built, these aren't multi-pose kits. The arms and heads only attach in a single configuration, but the precision with which the pieces fit together was frankly shockingly good! Most likely as a result of the computer modeling from which the molds are made, the pieces fit in snugly making the build fairly easy. Some of the bits are quite small (the officer's arm in particular is quite tricky), but with patience and good lighting I didn't run into much of an issue.

Basecoated Plastic Soldier Company Soviets. Ready for Army Painter dip and basing.

I totally botched priming them though and managed to obliterate the detail on a few figs, but it was totally my fault. On the 90% that I managed to give a nice even coat, the detail is still crisp and clear. I've started painting them up, and while I'll likely pick up more metals in the future, I'm really happy with the PSC plastics which went together easily, had zero flash, and are half the price of metals.  Certainly the most painless way of starting up World War II in 15mm.

"Eastern Inferno", an Eastern Front Kindle eBook

I've been reading FIFTH GUARDS TANK ARMY AT KURSK to get a handle on the Eastern Front. I'm enjoying it as a high level perspective on the lead up to the Battle of Kursk, but so far there have only been a few snippets of company sized engagements that could be turned into a wargame scenario. I have the German counterpart volume, but I'm betting I'll have to dig into some more personal accounts to construct scenarios for potential games.

I happened to see Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43, a Kindle eBook mentioned on the WWPD forum, on sale for less that $2.00. I haven't read it, but thought I'd pass on the news in case anyone else was searching for personal accounts of Eastern Front combat to turn into wargame scenarios.

My Battlefront Soviet Paint Set Confusion

I've got a hoard of soviet infantry and armor to paint, and the one shade of Vallejo paint I don't seem to own is Russian Green, the ubiquitous shade the Russians slathered on their helmets and vehicles. I didn't have the time or patience to research the paint colors I'd need for Russian uniforms and audit my current paints to see which I'd need, so I put my faith in Battlefront and ordered their Soviet: Paint Set.  As a basic paint set, I figured they'd have all the shades I'd need to get my Russians on the table quickly, and if it turned out I received a duplicate shade it would get used eventually.

What I didn't expect was for Battlefront themselves duplicate colors in the paint set.  The set has 6 bottles of paint, enough to cover uniforms, bedrolls, satchels and helmets, but surprisingly, they send two different shades of green (Russian Green and Luftwaffe Camo Green) and khaki (Khaki Grey and Khaki). The Luftwaffe Green and Khaki are both listed as "alternatives" in the paint description. I guess this is to represent the varying quality of Russian dyes and paints which varied throughout the war? Why not include a bottle of flesh, or even black? I'd even like two identical bottles of Russian green as I'll be using it on hordes of T-34s.  Oh well, maybe their wisdom will come to light once I put paint to figure.

Contents of Battlefront's Soviet Paint Set

 Russian Green (894) A useful colour for helmets and painted metal surfaces, such as on tanks.

USA Tan Earth (874) For greatcoats, bedrolls and other such gear for your Strelkovy troops.

Flat Earth (983) Used for tank camouflage and SMG pouches.

Khaki Grey (880) Soviet uniform colour

Khaki (988) Alternative uniform colour. It is also a good highlight to Khaki Grey.

Luftwaffe Camo Green (823) Alternative painted metal color for tanks and vehicles.


Shop Hobbies & Collectibles at YoYo.com, with 20,000+ toys and free 2-day delivery!