Project R

Yet another chaotic desk shot.
Status:FINISHED
Contains:Figures

This was a pretty simple project. My pile of WWII Russians had been partly done for a long time. To get them off my back and to test a new painting method I decided to finish the rest of them as well. I managed this in a pretty decent time and I'm happy with the results. The Russians were an ideal subject for the new simpler painting process.

My original set came from Black Tree in a lead exchange they did long time ago. I sent them a pile of stuff I really didn't like or want and got a pile of WWII Russians and Germans in return. In the end I ended up getting some extra figures and equipment from The Assault Group to flesh out my force.

The Germans are still not done... Project G in the future?

The Old Figures

I did the initial batch some years ago. Here are those figures.

2003-10-17 2003-10-17 2003-10-17
These are all from Black Tree. Personally, I think this is one of their best ranges. I read painting guides, bought the Osprey book, browsed websites and in the end I just said: Aww, whattaheck, they're all kinda brown. I gave them all brown boots. I have no idea where I got that info from...
2003-10-17 2003-10-17 2003-10-17
Maybe his bag fell into a tub of green paint, ok? Wait, this thing jammed again! Look closely at the sling. I like how they did the real dog collar -slings.
2003-10-17 2003-10-17 2003-10-17
Degtaryev LMG... not surprisingly, we Finns called it "Emma". The actual magazine is bigger though, it's roughly the size of a LP record. Ah! Much better Ivan. Now if you could only store that setting... The DP ammo can is also too small.
2003-10-17 2003-10-17 2003-10-17
Can you spot the differences between PPD and PPSh in this scale? I gave them gray blankets for some contrast. Coming at you!
2004-07-28 2004-07-28 2004-07-28
More riflemen. Actually, I'm running out of riflemen, I really should get some more. They all have black hair for production streamlining. I plan to build these up to platoon strength and then start work on the Germans.
2004-07-28 2004-10-15 2004-10-15
DT team. This set finishes my slightly short on riflemen platoon. Excellent 28mm BTD Russians, as always. DP team.
2004-10-15 2004-10-15 2004-10-15
Brave sergeant leading the troops. Maxim team. Loader feeding the hungry machine with a canvas belt.
2004-10-15
Fascists' point of view.

Tanks and Stuff

These are actual Russian diecast toys that I just touched up a little bit. Luckily their scale seems to match 28mm figures almost perfectly.

2004-07-25 2004-07-25 2004-07-25
A T-34/85. This is actually a real Russian diecast metal toy in 1:43 scale. A 100mm AT gun from the same set of toys. Another view of the T-34/85 with a SU-100 visible in the foreground.
2004-07-25 2004-07-25 2004-10-15
An SU-100. I did some minor touchup with these, but I tried to keep it minimal. Basically, it's a light grey drybrush all over, dark brown/grey paint on the running wheels and a few details picked out in black, plus a matt coat which helps a lot in killing the toylike glare. Here are all the tanks so far. 3 inch ATG. Note that this item has a different shade of green than all the other items in this range.
2004-10-15 2004-10-15
Another view of the 3 inch ATG. Rear view.

The New Batch

Here's the remaining Russians, the ones that were actually done after Project R was officially started. Most of them are the old Black Tree figures I had all the time, but I added some Assault Group riflemen simply because I didn't have enough riflemen.

These were (almost) all done in speed painting style, basically dipping them even though I didn't use actual dip. I've already lost enough brain cells so I try to avoid stuff with solvents as much as possible. So I used Vallejo Sepia shade, great stuff.

2012-02-04 2012-02-04 2012-02-04
More Russians invade. The uniforms are done in two different shades of brownish, but you can't really tell after the shade has been applied... I basically dipped these. Just blocked in the basic colors and slapped on some Vallejo sepia shade. No attempt to paint eyes or most of the other small details. For the Russian color scheme it works reasonably well. Not too convinced it'd work for bright Napoleonic uniforms or even the ubiquitous ancient off-white linen. More Russians invade. The uniforms are done in two different shades of brownish, but you can't really tell after the shade has been applied...
2012-02-04 2012-02-04 2012-02-04
More Russians. I really should make a side-by-side comparison with the other set I painted using the traditional method... Hmmm... who is this guy aiming at? Most of the figures are Black Tree, but this guy is a sample from Bolt Action. Very nice minis, but I never ended up getting more because I already had too many queued up. I have two Maxim teams. One is shooting and this one is moving. This might be useful in games where setting up a HMG actually takes time.
2012-02-27 2012-02-27 2012-02-27
The valiant rifleman aims his trusty Mosin-Nagant. I got some riflemen from The Assault Group to bring my rifle platoon up to strength without resorting to NKVD for reinforcements. These were basically just dipped. This is most evident on the bayonets, which are maybe a tad too rusty looking.
2012-02-27 2012-05-30 2012-05-30
There's really only four poses with two headgear variations, but for bulk troops they are ok. NKVD section. I'm not quite sure about the caps. NKVD officer caps are sky blue with red band, but no way these guys are all officers. Most likely rank and file wouldn't have had caps, but since these figures came with them (which does set them nicely apart from the normal sloggers) I decided to paint them khaki with red band. AT rifles. These I fixed with the TAG guns.
2012-05-30 2012-05-30 2012-05-30
Some sailor butts. Scout butts. I spent quite a lot of time doing the camo pattern and it turns out nearly invisible. Should have gone for lighter green base color. Much lighter... Here's the remaining Russians. Well, all the uniformed ones anyway.
2012-05-30 2012-05-30 2012-05-30
Scouts. These were pretty fun to do even though the camo overalls didn't turn out quite like I wanted them. NKVD rearguard. Sailors. The uniform is supposed to be black actually, but I painted it dark blue.
2012-05-30 2012-05-30 2012-06-07
Another view of the sailors. Brave scouts to the fore. Russian partisans rush to save the land. These are all Black Tree 28mm figures.
2012-06-07 2012-06-07 2012-06-07
For the most part I chose earthy tones, but avoided single color to make them stand out compared the their uniformed brothers. I'm already thinking of other uses for these guys. I didn't have the heart to wash the gal, so I flexed my three color muscles a bit. I really need to get more color sets, it's getting a bit boring with one blue, one green and one red. Pretty good selection of brownish tones, though.
2012-06-07 2012-06-07
For some reason this guy makes me think of Pohjanmaa. I really messed up the face, otherwise I'm pretty happy with the results.

Some Progress Shots

I didn't take a whole lot of painting shots of these figures, but here are some examples.

2012-05-10 2012-05-10 2012-05-15
Here are my final Russians primed and ready to take paint. They are all from Black Tree and I quite like them. These are the AT riflemen that had lost their rifles. I got some new ones from TAG and managed to return all of them to line. Here's the remaining Russians apart from the partisans, i.e. all the uniformed ones.
2012-05-15 2012-05-15 2012-05-15
These are the AT riflemen I salvaged with TAG weapons. Scouts and sailors. Wasn't quite sure what color to give the scouts, but let's see how this goes. NKVD. These guys could double as police in some games. Hmm....
2012-05-15 2012-06-06 2012-06-06
Sailors. They have the padded jackets, so that's khaki. The rest of the uniform is supposed to be black actually, but I painted it dark navy blue just to give it a little character. The last few Russians, a batch of brave partisans getting their first touches of color. Almost ready for washes.


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