Katyn and Max Manus (and Defiance)

I will be doing Sunday updates on the blogg from now on. Have been thinking about different concepts that work time wise for me (as I from about two weeks ago have somewhat limited time to paint) and also provide readers with a less random amount of updates. So from now on the blogg will be updated once a week on Sundays.

Just starting my first real job last week I decided to take a day yesterday to just watch films and relax. My local video store has had a great sale of dvd´s and I have been there looting a couple of times already.

So far I have bought:
Katyn
Good
Battle under the Orion
In Tranzit
Defiance
Max Manus

Defiance (2008)
I have seen Defiance once before and I must say that I recommend it to anybody interested in WW2 films.

The films stars Daniel Craig and I just have one word to say. Bromance. I like his acting very much and he does this role way better than any bond flick made to date.

In the film the characters are hiding in the deep forests in Belorussia. The plot follows the three Bielski brothers and their struggle for survival. Just getting food is a life/death situation and every time they leave their home in the forest camp they risk getting caught and executed. As If this weren´t enough they soon take on the task of taking care of other refugees including the old, sick and children. I won´t go into any more detail but I as I started off. I strongly recommend it to anyone with a ww2 interest. 

More on Defiance can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303/

Max Manus (2008)
To start with I had no clue about Max Manus and it basically ended up here because I thought the cover was cool and I needed one more film to get a discount off two others I wanted. Sitting down and taking a closer look I relized that the movie was from Norway and delt with the underground partizan movment in Oslo during the war.

The story is told about Max Manus a sabouter working for the british intellegance sabotaging some of the biggests ships the Nazis had during the war. The fact that Max Manus indeed did exist and the way the story was told made the film really intressting and I could barley pause the film for the 2 hours it took to see. 

Another film I stronlgy recommend. I´m not sure how easy it is to get outside of Scandinavia though but I would give it a go because it truley is worthwhile.

More on Max Manus can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029235/

Katyn (2007)
This was the first film I saw yesterday and this was probally the film I was most excited about. Not that it was a bad movie but it was lot to take in for me as I don´t speak the language (the film is in polish) and the artistical angle taken by the director. It was very good for setting the mood, the entire film was very dark and made you go back and fourth between the lifes of the people under the soviet command and the lie´s they were told and the prison camp where the polish soilders were beeing held.


As the other films I would recommend this film but I would probally see the other films first.

More on katyn:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879843/

For next week I will have painted my Anti-mech team for SoTR and might aslo have began painting my NKVD soldiers. Until then!

From The Motherland With Love

From

Due to a freind leaving for the states for a year both painting and bloggupdates got put on hold for a short while last week.

Anyway, this models shown down below are mainly for SoTR and will be playable both as a Mecha-plutoon (see doomsday) and a regular Survivor platon (from the core rulebook). The models are from Black tree design and West Wind.

  

Survivor Platoon                           (51rp – support)                             Mechavaya Plutoon

Character Vasiley                                                  4Rp                       Character Samokhin    5Rp
Command section “1”                                            6Rp                       Half team             3Rp
Radio,  4SMG, Kommisar                                                                   Half team             3Rp
Survivor section “2”                                              6Rp                         Half team             3Rp
4SKS rifles, 5SMG                                                                              Full team             6Rp
Survivor section “3”                                              6Rp                         Full team             6Rp
3SKS, 5SMG, 1LMG                                                                         Full team             6Rp
Survivor section “4”                                              6Rp                         Mechas:
3SKS, 5SMG, 1LMG                                                                         Scout sqaudron 1 (HMG) 5-6RP*3
Survivor section “6”                                              6Rp                         3 Small mechas,assu. pod., HMG 
3SKS, 5SMG, 1LMG                                                                         Scout sqaudron 2 (Flamer) 4RP*3
Sniper team “Zaichata”                                         4Rp                         3 Small mechas,assu. pod.,Flamer
2 Man sniper team                                                                               Command mecha   Unknown RP
HMG section “7”                                                 3Rp                         Medium mecha,Twin HMG or ATgun
3 Man team                                                                                         Nayk Spider mecha
HMG section “6”                                                 3Rp                         Large Mecha, Per the DD rules
3 Man team
Anti armor section “5”                                          2Rp  
Anti mech rifle team “0”                                        1Rp 
2 Man team
Mortar Section ”8”                                               4Rp  
3 Man team + spotter
Support:
Siberian Sub Humans “9”                                      4Rp
5 Man team from
3 SMG                                            0Rp
1 RPG                                             1Rp
1 Flamer                                          1Rp
2 Packed LMG   (1Rp each)           2Rp 
Mechas from Meachavaya Platoon if needed

The numbers next to the type of unit indicate what the bases says on the individual models in the group. As I havn´t got a Russain keyboard I won´t be recording these on the mech platoon here but you will be able to see them on the photos below.

I´m still deciding on the arment of the mechas. The Hmg mechas may be twin-linked and this would probably be what they areif you go by WYSIWYG rule. However this may be impossible to make a 50RP force with all the requirements for the force. On the other hand one might as well play 55rp battles and that would solve the problem.

Also the command mecha may or not be armed with a AT-gun. I feel that the platoon will have plenty of fast weapon platforms but lack in AT ability due to the hardest hit they can produce (without the Nayk, and lets face it it ain´t going to be played under 70RP) is Very Light AT and hence only piercing L armour. They will be deadly vs infantry but with no real AT guns tanks will have them for tea.

The regular platoon might not be the most exciting or effective force but I think the mass of models will prove fun to play with against as they really do have a "motherland" feeling to them.

So far I have completed the Mecha platoon part all but 1 half team, this will be posted with the rest of the pics as soon as they are done due to the fact that their uniforms where more similar to them.

Characters

Samokhin

Vasily

  



Unlike Samokhin Vasily was a real solider from WW2 and the motion picture Enemy at the gates is roughly based on his life. He is said to killed more than 225 axis soldiers during WW2.
For more info about vasily: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Zaytsev

 Half teams

Full Teams

Group T

Group I

Group II

 Survivor Sqauds

Group 4

Group 3

Group 2

Group 3

 For The Motherland!

Details...
If you havn´t noticed yet I´m reusing almost every single model in both platoons. Aslo all the helmets with stars are a groups sergeant. This is also noted on the base of the mini.

 So hopefully you have enjoyed this presentation of my soviet forces. I will in time get a battle report going and describe how they work in battle. Next up I will be describing the mood of SoTR and recommend and rate my top 10 favourite WW2 movies.

Help for newcomers to SoTR

“This is Götterdammerung”

I would not say that I am great painter or an extremely fast painter but I think I do ok and I thought I would share with you some of the experience that might be good for a player just entering the world of SoTR (or most miniature games). This will include both handy tips “how to” and also some general advise on what one easily might overlook.

For starters

When starting your first SoTR army I would recommend watching or even better playing a game and if possible reading the rules for any nations that interest you. You will most likely need to paint about 30-50 infantry (I´d say that´s at least a good 50-100 hours in my book) and therefore you need to be comfortable with the models you need to paint. A good aid for some is to come up with fluff (that is the background story for that unit/squad).

Getting your models

West wind produces the official line of models for the SoTR range so I always recommend that you start looking at their range to see if anything fits you. They offer a couple of great blisters that will get you started more or less right out of the box (look at starter packs). A good thing is that If you don´t like their models then the friendly people at Westwind/Grindhouse are more than willing to accept stand-in models from other companies and since there are loads of 28mm WW2 companies the variation is almost endless.

However mixing different manufactures might look a bit odd as they often have different sizes of miniatures. All 28mm are not 28mm but could be 25 or even 32. But there is a good way to get around this problem and that is to look at the size guide that the SoTR forum has prepared (link provided below). This is a bit trickier than just getting the West wind blisters but with a little bit of caution and work you can avoid this mess.

Looking for inspiration

After picking your models order them and then try finding a scheme that you like. I have found that often less complicated schemes will look better as these are somewhat easier and leave me less frustrated when I don´t need to redo 50% of each model due to complicated patterns. However on characters etc I think more complicated schemes work very well and this will also provide a mental break from painting the same patterns over and over again and also challenge your painting skills. 

Easy uniform (Wow, these are horrible)

 Complicated patterns

I have found that a great way to find cool patterns and uniforms is to search the web for good painting guides and/or photos of real uniforms. There are plenty of good websites that can help you along with this simply by typing something along the line of “miniature painting summer camo Germans” on any search engine. Another good way is to search for videos and this can be found in masse on YouTube. There is no need for the models to exactly 28mm, I have used plenty of 15mm guides to help me and also 54mm guides may work. Trial and error is the best way to go.

There are many different ways to paint miniatures and no one is more right or wrong than the other. I´m sure that you will find plenty of inspiration and guides browsing the web so therefore I will not provide any detailed painting guide in this post. However if you spot something you like send me an email and I will be happy to make a tutorial of it.

Motivation

I would however like to give a general tip when it comes to painting and that is to not do one miniature at the time. I would recommend painting the first mini on it´s own to guarantee that you will be pleased with the end result however after that I would start painting in bulks of 2-5 models to make your progress more visible.  

Another great way to booster your motivation if it lacks is to watch to WW2 documenters or listen to a good audio book (I can recommend World War Z for getting into the SoTR mood).

Basing

There is one last step that will really help your models look good something that sometimes is overlooked or skipped. Basing. Some people (like me) do this before they start painting the miniature and other wait until the paint job is done and then base it. As before nothing is more or less right but be sure to base your mini´s as this will make a huge difference on the battlefield.  

Links

Finally I will share with you some of my own favourite links during the entire process of creating a SoTR army.

Models:

http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk

A great overview of alternatives

http://wk.frothersunite.com/sc/pulp/ww2.htm

Size guide

http://secretsofthethirdreich.com/forums/index.php?topic=1281.0

Painting guides

Soviet infantry

http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/wrapper.php?w_page=Soviet%20Infantry%20Painting%20guide

German armor

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=110&art_id=855&kb_cat_id=27

Britsish ”Red devils”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArPAnUicsoA

US armor

http://www.paintingclinic.com/operations/15mmstuart.htm

Basing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcaD9tFFupc

The often most usefull site in this hobby

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article