After completing my three squads of infantry and the two armoured vehicles, it was time to turn my attention to the support troops who, hopefully, would give my Soviets the edge over the hordes of Germanic invaders.
The first of these support troops was a sniper. My sniper is well covered by a stone wall and is based on one of the long bases which come with the Soviet Infantry boxed set for basing prone figures. There were many famous snipers at work in the Soviet army; the most famous of them probably being Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev, sometimes known as Jude Law, who reputedly bagged 225 German soldiers, mostly during the Battle of Stalingrad.
My son Tom bought me this lovely piece of kit for Christmas. It is a 45mm Anti-Tank Gun and comes with a crew of three figures. I really like this gun because it fits in perfectly with what I was trying to achieve with my Soviet platoon. There were more powerful anti-tank guns, like the Zis-2 57mm for example, but this one makes commanding the Soviets just a little bit more of a challenge.
With a penetration value of +4, the 45mm gun is a lot more potent than my anti-tank rifle team, but you need to be prepared to see its shells harmlessly ricocheting into the undergrowth when firing at some of the better armoured German tanks. I'm not quite sure what's going on with the gun commander, who appears to be blowing a kiss at some random passer-by or maybe whistling 'The Red Flag' to inspire the rightly nervous gunners.
All of these Warlord kits that back up your basic infantry units are metal castings and I find painting them a bit of a chore, compared to the plastics. Personally, I find that my acrylic black undercoat tends to rub off when you start to put the colours on, which is a tad frustrating, but they look good once the paint and varnish are put on.
My absolute favourite Soviet weapon is this Maxim medium machine gun. Again, it comes with a crew of three and a gun shield which gives you a bit of extra cover when being fired at. Like the anti-tank gun, it is an all metal kit, so you can't do much in the way of personalising and your Maxim will look pretty much the same as anybody elses! There is something nice and antiquated about the Maxim, compared to the deadly MG42 for example, but it is a pretty effective weapon on the Bolt Action battlefield.
The final battlefield toy I added to my reinforced platoon was this 82mm Medium Mortar Team. The mortar is a fabulous bit of kit to have, particularly if you are good at rolling 6s, as it gradually zeroes in on opposition forces who insist on staying in same place. You can quickly build up a lot of pin markers on an enemy unit with a mortar, but the one thing I wish had done before my first engagement, was to paint up an observer. The observer makes a massive difference to your ability to hit the enemy while keeping your precious bit of hardware out of sight and free from retaliatory fire.
I've about done for now painting for Bolt Action, but I do need to come back to it pretty soon with some important additions still requiring to be added. One of my squads has been converted to a Rifle Squad, which I now field as the free 'green' squad which Soviet armies are allowed to have, so I need to paint up another LMG Squad and, as mentioned above, an essential job for the near future is to paint up an observer for my medium mortar team.
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