Ryu's project log

[Kuro_Ryu]

Hello friends of the B&C.

 

So my first thread here is basically going to be the main reason I joined this forum. That is to discuss my ideas for starting an AM army and get advice and criticism on my ideas and work.

 

Recently I've developed a fascination with soviet history and i've always fancied an Imperial guard army as they have the coolest tanks. I realised this after getting a Leman Russ for my space wolf army back when they were allowed to have them. (I still haven't forgiven GW for taking that one cool thing away from me )

 

This led me to the idea of making my next project a valhallans army based on the WW2 Soviet army. Now here's the thing. Valhallan models are old and expensive. A squad of 10 regualar valhallans is £20.50, that's £2.05 a model for an army that will feature a lot of infantry as would be appropriate for a soviet themed army. I'm not rolling in cash so I decided a more cost effective answer would be to buy ww2 soviet minis since warlord, a company I've been following for some time, sell a box of 40 soviets in winter gear (visually very similar to valhallans) for £30. I can also get heavy weapons teams like mortars, HMGs(heavy bolters) and anti tank guns (autocannons), again visually almost the same as their GW equivalents. It seems to have worked out quite well for me that imperial guard use a lot of WW2 equipment XD (this plan also means I can take up bolt action if I fancy but I realise that's outside the scope of this forum  )

 

What this essentially means is that to keep my army somewhat coherent and also easy to explain to my opponent I'll be taking very few weapons from the 41st millennium on my infantry. No plasma guns, no melta guns, no power weapons. Essentially My infantry will be composed of heavy weapons teams and lasguns for days, possibly a few flamers if i can make the flamethrower models stand out enough. Meaning I can put my infantry on the table and when my opponent starts looking quizzical, i can point at my infantry platoons and simply say "These are all guys with lasguns, these heavy weapon teams are exactly what they look like"

 

As far as armour is concerned I'll be using GW models as usual so chimairas and leman russes painted in the style of soviet armour with iconography and, if i'm feeling brave, slogans in cyrillic.

 

I've already picked up and painted a Captain Chenkov to serve as my warlord since he'll be nice and special.

 

I'd like to know people's thoughts on this as a concept. It would be nice If i could construct an army within these parameters that can at least put up a decent fight. I'm not a tournament player so i'm not worried about it being meta competitive or legal models wise for those kinds of events since i mostly play casually against my friends.

 

Once I have a plan together and get rolling with actual models i'll update this thread with pictures of my progress.

 

If you got this far thank you for reading, I look forward to your thoughts as I'm quite excited about this project.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Kuro_Ryu

[Grand Master Belial]

Since the army is for casual play between friends, I don't see that big of an issue to have non-standard minis on the board. If you did want to add some 40k weapons then perhaps a FW weapon kit could help.

 

I was going to suggest another option but I question the legality of it.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Grand Master Belial

[Kuro_Ryu]

Heres a comparison of the minis

 

 

 

The idea of getting some bits and converting the weapons did occur to me. It would involve sourcing individual guns and would requre a lot more effort for the conversions but might yield a more legitimate looking force.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Kuro_Ryu

[our_baz]

Great concept, as its for casual gaming totally no issue. The only thing I would say is that I think the bolt action models are a touch smaller than GW models. So M41 might look a little large in their hands. If you are looking to source cheaper M41 weapons check out Anvil Industry. Baz

[WarriorFish]

Flamers are good for infantry squads, but the overall idea is good. My infantry do the anti-infantry for the most part leaving the main work to the tanks which have the bigger and better guns. Lots of infantry will help keep your tanks alive too :)

[Shamansky]

I can help with slogans in russian. And don't be shy to use tanks. T-34 and T-34-85 were the most mass produced tanks of that time. So Red army was not a foot slogging mass of infantry

Edited November 16, 2016 by Shamansky

[Tallarn Commander]

I love your soviet guard idea. 

 

Back in March I played against someone with Soviet guard.  I think he said his models were from the Bolt Action game.  Here is a photo of his greatcoat troopers on blue facing off against my Tallarns.  His models looked great and he mentioned they were very affordable.

 

 http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u420/tallarncommander1/20160130_160324.jpg

 

Also, I read a really good library book about the soviet army a couple of years ago:  Vatherine Merridale's Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945.  What I really liked about this book was its emphasis on oral interviews with veterans.  You might enjoy it as well, its a cultural and social history analyzing themes of duty, totalitarianism, and family.

 

Good luck building up your soviet IG!

[Kuro_Ryu]

I can help with slogans in russian. And don't be shy to use tanks. T-34 and T-34-85 were the most mass produced tanks of that time. So Red army was not a foot slogging mass of infantry

Absolutely. I have a 1000 point list drawn up and it fearures a couple of Russes. Leman Russes will be my friend i think.

[Quneitra]

I like where this is going. Best of luck!

 

Make sure to bring lots of artillery - Bassies, Wyverns, and so on. The Russians call artillery the "God of War", and that perception has yet to change. Late in the war, they'd dump tonnes and tonnes of shells into relatively few hectares - during Berlin, IIRC, they spent over a million shells of various calibers. They did them well in WW2, and they'll do you well if you can get them into a good position.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Quneitra

[Kuro_Ryu]

Got some figures for christmas. Made a start on some guys and ordered a couple of parts from anvil industry as suggested by Baz to try them out.

 

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/wyvern523/IMG_20170106_231559_zpszwjihd46.jpg

 

They're not finished but I thought i'd share my progress since november. So i've got a commissar with a loudhailer, some guardsmen and maybe the beginning of a heavy bolter team. Still considering whether i'll rebase the hmg guy on a bigger base with another guy.

[Shamansky]

Nice start.

"Maksim" machine-gun crew often consisted of three men: gunner, spotter (commander) and loader. Gunner and loader are essential crewmen. So i think two guys would be good form both game and logical points of view.

 

 

P.S.: Tradition of giving soviet officers loudhailers and whistles makes me smile. Authors, movie makers, and modellers are still affected by idea that SU was very behind the times. Those METAL things are brittish methods of WWI. And there were much more useful ways to use METAL during WWII

[Kuro_Ryu]

So I glued a load of my guys together for a practice game against my friend's tyranids. I used an emperor's blade assault company borrowing proxies for chimairas and a couple of bane wolves and an armoured shield as I already own a russ. So 40 guys, a company command and a comissar with supporting armour. I lost the game but had a lot of fun and it got me to assemble a large number of my guys.

 

Since then, now they're assembled, I've made a start on throwing down some base colours. I'm pretty happy with the materials I got from anvil industries with the rifles and the radio backpacks. I also found a couple of old cadian sprues that I got WAY back when I had the idea of starting a guard army with a different theme (Brotherhood of NOD if anyone was curious) and used some spare vox casters and sergeant arms to good effect.

 

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/wyvern523/IMG_20170114_033157_zps0cqns8zf.jpg

 

Thought I'd show off my Chenkov in all his glory along with my soviet flag

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/wyvern523/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20170114_032030_zpsbutw1q8x.jpg

Edited January 14, 2017 by Kuro_Ryu

[Kuro_Ryu]

Got base colours down on my 40 guys including vox backpacks and sergeants. Got a command team and models for various officers like a commissar and platoon commander. I've picked up an A-T gun for an autocannon team. And I'm making use of the prone models and PTRD rifles to make ratling sniper proxies.

 

Edit: apparently photobucket isn't an option these days. Need to look at somewhere else to keep my pics

Edited August 5, 2017 by Kuro_Ryu

[duz_]

Yeh photobucket kicked the bucket on that last month unannounced.

 

B&C has a free image gallery for members to use on the board. :)

 

Otherwise this thread had some suggestions too

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/335612-picture-hosting-site-alternatives-to-photobucket/

[Kuro_Ryu]

[Kuro_Ryu]

Did some work on my ratling stand ins and my first autocannon team. Again some detail work still required but the main look is there including basing now. Once the sand is dry I'm going to paint it brown to look like mud.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Kuro_Ryu