I was chatting with a buddy of mine about WWII eastern front and what he should get to fill out his army. As I am easily distracted, it got me thinking about the state of my Russian Army…. I had a good number of infantry stands to support my boxes of tanks, but lacked infantry support to play the army with attachments. This is even more of a crisis with the newer version four Russians, which I feel is all about the infantry!
So, I pulled out my tray that was filled with various Russians already mounted on bases. I could have sent them off, but never did, so it was on me to get of my tush. Unfortunately, for me, that is as far as I got! So, the time came and I decided to paint them finally.
Being Russians, they are easy to paint if you keep it simple. As simple is my middle name, I was off. The first step was to spray all the minis on their stands with Testers Dark Earth. Being an enamel paint, it acts as a primer and paint (a definite quick start technique).
I then painted all the details, which were not many. Some brown on rifles, some flesh on hands and faces, some black on boots and rifles and finally some grey tan on the blanket rolls and pouches. These needed to match my earlier Russians, so the next step was to dip them all in Minwax Dark Brown. I left that to dry (for a week!) and then went back and sprayed everything with Krylon Dull Coat to tone down the gloss.
I then went back and painted all the helmets/bipods/boxes green, added some red for the command. For the commissars, I just painted the pants with GW contrast dark blue.
Nest was all the heavy weapons. I sprayed these with Testors Medium Green (hand painted the machine-guns, as these were already glued to the bases (damn). I then hit all these with Vallejo black dip. Once that dried, I wet brushed them all with Vallejo green and an light dry brush of Iraqi Sand.
With the troops all done, it was time for the basing. Once again, these had to match my existing troops (the best way to tie an army together is to have matching bases). I covered the bases with Vallejo white pumice (when I did my original troops, this was the only color available). I let that dry and hit it with a GW Agrax Earthshade wash. A little more drying time and I then dry brushed the ground with Iraqi Sand. A little dark earth around the base rims to frame the bases. I then pulled out my California Grass tufts from Scenic Express and covered most of the bases (I was going for that step look). I left gaps for the still to be attached guns.
I finished up all the bases by attaching the heavy weapons to the bases with white glue. To wrap everything up, I sprayed all the bases with Testors Dull Coat to lock everything down. Now, I have all the support weapons I would ever want. Frankly, I now have so many Maxims, I can field a MMG battalion! Maybe it is time to paint more tanks……
- Manteuffel