Zvezda 1:100 BM-13 Katyusha

A closer look at the 1:100 Soviet BM-13 Katyusha game expansion produced by the Russian modelmaker Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame range. This kit was a nice alternative to the resin/metal BM-13 kits made by Battlefront Miniatures, but BFM recently released a new Katyusha plastic modelkit, you can find a video here.

I bought one of these kits some months ago and used it as a base for my ZIS-6 truck with a 37mm aa gun built, but since I also wanted a Katyusha rocket launcher, I got this kit a second time, but without any more words spents, let us take a look at the modelkit of this game expansion:

First of all, you do not get what you see on the boxart. There is no armoured windshield, the rails of the launcher do not have any holes, and there are only rockets for the upper part of the launcher rails. This sucks, but as we saw in the Bradley review, this happens sometimes with Zvezda kits.

The kit comes in two green sprues, and as usual, this modelkit is made fom the same green plastic as all other Soviet "Art Of Tactic" 1:100 tank kits. The casting quality is good, what I expected, since most Zvezda wargaming modelkits are made very well.

It could be built without the use of any glue, all parts fit and sit well without it, but using regular modelglue works fine on this kit.

I did not find any issues on the sprues, except for some mouldlines which have to be to removed, but there is minimal flash, no sinkholes, and any ejectormarks (if there are some on the parts) would not be seen, when this kit is built.

The frame parts of the launcher are pretty delicate, that you have to take care not to bend them, but they look nice when built.

Once again we have a 1:100 "Age Of Tactic" modelkit, which I recommend, even when you do not get what you see on the box. The overall grade of detail is well done and for its price it could be a cheap alternative to the resin/metal and plastic wargame model made by BFM. Maybe I will get my hands on one of those plastic kits in the future, then I will take a closer look at it.

If you want to built a "real" 1:100 BM-13 model kit, you will have to wait til one will hit the market, you may use the Zvezda kit as a base, but this would take a lot of work, even when drilling up the windows would not be as complicated as it would be for Zvezdas 1:100 Opel Blitz.

Today I do not have a picture of my built and painted Katyusha truck, I keep this for a future post, when I will show the simple modifications I did to improve its look.

Instead of this you can listen to the beautiful Russian song "Katyusha" from which the BM-13 got its nickname.

3Dprinted 1:144 P-40 and P-47

Finally I finished the last 1:144 plane model for my planned plane expansion for ww2 "TANKS". While I already had the P-40 done, I thought the USA also should have the choice between two planes. Then I looked at Thingiverse for  matching stl .files to print a second US plane.

These may not be historically accurate for the European scenario, but there is a life beyond modelbuilding (at least I heard so), and I already exceeded this months modelling budget, (and I like both planes design), that is why I decided to print the second plane, and at least both planes were used by the US Airforce in the second world war.

First there is the P-47 Thunderbolt:

I took this .stl file from Thingiverse to print this plane. I had to rescale it, and I think it is scaled right.

You may have seen this in the post which contains the timelapse video of its print. I did not much after I printed it, the machineguns were added, using some thin wire (one is already lost), I added some rotorblades from the bitsbox, and I had to use filler to close some of the bigger holes and gaps. I did not care much about the bottom, what clearly can be seen on the picture.

The plane was primed in black, then it got a layer of Citadel Mithryl Silver. The old Citadel colorpots do a great job in conserving paints, the silver I used is at least 15 years old, just as the white and the red I used on the plane, all are the good old Citadel paints.

After that I added the white and black stripes without any masking, and they could be way better, but for me it is ok. The decals were taken from the sparebook, I think they belonged to a Revell 1:144 Microwings kit which I threw away after I messed it up.

Next is the P-40 Warhawk:

This was also taken from Thingiverse, if I remember correctly, it was this file. The P-40 also was rescaled to 1:144, and also on this thing I had to use some filler and sanding paper. I still have to add some rotorblades from the bitsbox, I think I should have some more.

This plane got a simple paintjob in grey and dark green, then I used some decals from the Revell Microwings 1:144 P-40 warhawk, this kit somehow got lost while moving, and I think when I will add the rotorblades I will repaint some parts of this thing to make it match up with the Revell P-40 boxart.

For sure, I will not win a prize for these crude models, but they should fulfil their purposes. Now that all models for my project are done, it is time to start with the paperwork, but I will not rush and take my time to do it.

This is just a filler post, but as usual, I wrote more than I had planned. Tonight I will take a closer look at another 1:100 Zvezda "Art Of Tactic" kit, since I already have two reviews finished, I still have not decided which of them I will upload tonight.

If my internet provider can keep a stable internet connection, what was not always the case in the last few weeks. Especially in the nighttimes the connection was gone and I had to rely on my mobile.

Plastic Soldier Company 1:100 SU-76 Self-Propelled Gun

A closer look at the 1:100 Soviet SU-76 self-propelled gun made by the British Plastic Soldier Company.  The PSC offers a growing range of ww2 and cold war tanks and miniatures in 15 and 20mm scale which are a nice alternative to "official" miniatures for "Flames Of War" and other wargames.

I already built some PSC 15mm tank models (here or here), and all of them result in nice models. Will the Plastic Soldier Company keep up with its standards?

Let us take a  look at the plastic to find out:

The kit comes in a gray(grey) plastic sprue, which is casted pretty sharp, with a fair amount of detail. No sinkholes, that can be seen when it is built, can be found on the sprue, except for one big sinkhole on the side of the crew compartment, which will be covered partly by the exhausts (update: almost unseen, when the kit is built).
A big ejectormark can be found inside of the crew compartment, but I do not think it will be seen when the tank is built (update: It will not be seen).
There is some flash, especially on the smaller parts, which should be removed.

You can choose between the early and the late version of the SU-76, and also you can choose to have the drivers hatch opened or closed.
Six crewmembers can be found in this kit, what is pretty nice. One half of them comes in Summer clothing, the rest is equipped with Winter gear, you can see them on the picture below:

I bought a single sprue of this kit without instruction leaflet, but you can find it on the web and the building instructions are clear and easy to understand as all of the PSC are. It is (almost) possible to build this kit without instructions but you better should have them.

This is a nice kit from the Plastic Soldier Company, for its scale it is ok, and it is a good alternative to the SU-76 resinmodel from Battlefront Miniatures. There are some simplified parts, but the impression of the kit is is good.
The addition of crewfigures is always welcome, and getting 6 of them means that you can at least equip one other tank with crew figures. The price for a single kit of the PSC SU-76 is a little higher than the price of the Zvezda SU-76, while you get a 5 kit box for about 20 Euros.

In one of the next posts you will see, which of the two SU-76 I would prefer for building a platoon of them, for now you will only get a picture of the built and painted model, building this kit was a pretty easy thing and did not take much time.

I almost forgot, I made an updated abilities list for ww2 "TANKS", you can find it in my dropbox at

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11av4DA2VkVau88BD_RGjKsQbWMKtpkz7/view?usp=sharing

The First Custom Units For WW2 "TANKS"

Here they are, the first two custom units for ww2 "TANKS". Both of them are Soviet artillery units, and I decided to publish them together in one file. Next to the new units I also created a new crewmember and a new ammocard.

The "Guards Artillerist" will fit next to the other (official) Guards crewmen, and I think he will serve his duty pretty well.

The new ammocard "Rain Of Fire" was influenced by a card of "TANKS The Modern Age", it gives the Katyusha a devastating ground attack.

You can download this expansion (PDF) from my googledrive at

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11R3ZrSEnL9aYxZosBn0B_24uLPFH-8FP/view

Just to give you a small preview, what will come next, in the next posts I am going to take a closer look at the SU-76s by Zvezda and the Plastic Soldier Company, and they will be compared in a third post. There is also the Katyusha left, which also will get a closer look, and in another post you will see, which modification were done on it.

And it seems, that in the next week I will turn the focus to some cold war stuff, reviews, battlereports, finished models, custom units, all that crap, stay tuned for that.

The next custom units will show up at the weekend, the KV-2 on which I took a closer look in the past (this post), and a first German custom unit, who would not like to use a Panzerkampfwagen VI or VIII (reviews coming soon) in the game.
And maybe I will add an addition to the rules containing all model abilities since not all of them are included in the rulebook (update: Done and can be found here).

Closing this post with a classic from my youth, in the clip you can see some BM-13 in action.

Rügen'46 Gangs Of Sassnitz (2) Сибирские ветераны

For my last years first game of "Rügen'46" I had planned that we would first play a simple dungeon, using only two figures per player, to get warm with the rules. Followed by a simple round of racing, some lines about that game can be found in this post, the third and final part added some more units to the game for each player.

After I showed off two squads of German troops in powerarmour (this post), today I am going to show you the (Neo)Soviet forces which were used.

The commissar in the middle of the pictures obove was one of the squadleaders for the Neo-Soviet forces, just as Karl Heinz von Diskowitz was for his faction. The figure was taken from the Warlord Games "Siberian Veterans" box, on which I took a closer look at in this post, and painted in a similar scheme as all Soviet figurs that can be found on this blog.

Sorry to say, but I can not remember which was the second figure in that team, that is why he is accompanied by the squadleaders of another faction on these pictures.

The two female figures are the leaders of the Soviet factions forces, the figure on the left side is a miniature of Mariya Oktyabrskaya made by Stoessis Heroes, reviewed in this post, the figure right of the commissar was also made by Stoessi, it is a miniature of the Soviet sniper Lyudmilla Pavlychenko, which was (as Mariya Oktyabrskaya) a historical person.
I think, that I may repaint them when I will have the time for that.

Next we have one of the fireteams, taken just as the commissar from the "Siberian Veterans" box too. In the third part of the game, the two Soviet females got five of the veterans as an additional troop. These faction represented what was left of old Mother Russia.

Since I can not say which five figures I took, I made pictures of all of them. Please note, that there are some more figures included in the box.

But at least I think, this guy was not included in the game.

The next squad was another faction from the East. In Stalingrad a new government was made when the old world changed forever in Sassnitz in the year 1946.

Guided by comrade comissar, for the Neo-Soviet faction I choosed to use my modified Plastic Soldier Company Soviet Infantrists minis. I can not say which of them were used, but you can find some pictures of them in this post. Maybe I will get a single sprue of them in the future to give them a small review.

As usual, things not always are happening as supposed, and I did not find the time to finish the kits I wanted to this weekend, but today I managed to finish them, and they look great. The templates for the cards for them, they shall be used as custom units for "TANKS", will get finished tonight, that I can make a testprint tomorrow after work and them publish them via this blog.