Artillery Organized According to My Artillery Rules

WWII Soviet infantry guns.

 

Many artillery sets don't come with crews.

The Airfix WWII Russian infantry is so terrible that I have disarmed most of them and impressed them into the artillery.

One full battery of artillery with a HQ and an ammo dump.

I have been working to provide a fire direction center and ammo dump for all my artillery.

And crews fro all the guns.

Soviet Headquarters

Each artillery battery gets a fire direction center or headquarters.

Battery RA 1 is Russian Artillery, first battery.

It's a 1/76 scale Fujimi tent with added "wooden" walls of sheet styrene.

Inside is a wooden floor, a spool of wire and a field expedient table.

On the table a map, bottle of vodka and a radio.

Everything to keep the artillery where it needs to go.

Map is just a sheet of painted plastic.

Another Soviet headquarters.

Romainian Troops in Winter

Fighting in lines when out with the Napoleonic Wars.

Yet, it's the best way to get firepower on the enemy.

Just now the first line is laying down.

Troops hide behind trees when they can.

A white sheet of plastic, and a few dollar store Christmas trees and it's winter!

Strelets Police Battalion

A small overview of my WWII German allied Cossack battalion, mostly Strelets.

A new Strelets set, their Police Battalion.

These troops rooted out partizans in German occupied territories.

Some of them were very harsh, and even earned the condemnation of some SS troops.

Guerilla warfare is never very clean, and on the Russian Front it was very bad.

These figures are a very good variety of poses.

Just the sort of troops to send door to door to ferret out hiding guerillas.

Troops knocking down a door, covering a doorway with their rifle...

Other troops rousting people along.

I will probably get a couple boxes for rear area security.

Artillery the King of Battle

One of the problems with having a massive collection of WWII Soviet artillery is having enough men to man the guns.

Zvezda often gives only two or three crewmen for a gun that might need 8 or 12 men.

One way to solve the problem is to draft troops from other places.

The Airfix WWII Russian Infantry set is very old and very tired.  

As a result most of the men from that set in my collection have volunteered to serve the guns.

Many of the old hard plastic Esci Russians are also transferred to the artillery.

Still more have been needed so I have been buying the Orion Soviet Artillery Crew set to fill in the gaps.

T44 Soviet Tank

Soviet tanks were usually deployed in platoons of three tanks.

In Mortar Rifle divisions they were often in platoons of four tanks.

Three platoons and one or two HQ tanks make up a company of tanks.

 Experimental versions of the T44 had side skirts.

The T44 had the same gun as the 85mm T34 but later it was upgraded

Guns

Zvezda kits come in little sealed bags.

I like that, it keeps even the little parts together.

They also have excellent instructions.

They label the parts well on the sprue too.

The guns and figures fit together well.

I do often cut off or cut down the pins, sometimes it helps get them into the holes.  I also use an awl to open up the holes to make it easier for the parts to slip together.

Guns

I got a lot of Soviet artillery.

I got the last of my 122mm howitzers, I been buying these a few at a time for years.  Hannants sent me a few extras by mistake, without charge.  When I contacted them about it, they said keep them for free.  Thanks Hannants!

 https://www.hannants.co.uk/

I got four of these.

This was a rather complex gun for a Zvezda kit.

I got four of them.