28mm Finnish BT-42 Assault Gun

This is the Warlord resin model for the uniquely Finnish BT-42. This vehicle was made by adapting a captured BT-7 chassis by making a custom box turret large enough to hold a pre-war British 4.5" howitzer. 

Although intimidating in looks, in practice the overloaded chassis proved anemic in power, and the howitzer under performed in it's intended role. Also when pressed by armor, the HE gun was unable to take out enemy armor. Many of these were lost in 1943, with the remainder fighting on to the continuation war in 1944. Eventually all were replaced with German Stug-III and Panzer-IV tanks. 

I know these are of dubious value in a historical force, but I couldn't resist having one of these uniquely Finnish vehicles in my collection. 

 

28mm Finnish Weapons Teams

This is a collection of 28mm Finnish WWII weapons teams I finished up last week. It contains a mix of manufacturers and also includes a 3D printed Pak-40 gun printed by me using my resin 3D printer.

This set will go a big way into getting my Finnish army ready for some Chain of command Lapland War games as it fills out a lot of the support team options for Chain of command.

Left, a Pak-40 anti-tank gun, sold to the Finns by Germany for use during the continuation war against Russia. This was the same gun that the Germans used prolifically during the later years of the war.

On the right a Pak-97/38. This was made by slinging a pre-war French 75mm cannon to ah Pak-38 gun carriage. These bastardizations were an improvisation used during early encounters with T-34 and KV-1/2 tanks. Pulled out of front line service, many where shipped to Finland as a stop-gap solution while Pak-40 guns were manufactured to send there.

Three panzerschreck teams. Armed with the German-provided 88mm shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket system. The Finns used these as one of their primary anti-tank solutions in the Lapland war. 

Maxim medium machine gun and 60mm mortar teams.  The Finns received precious few MG-38/42s from Germany and made do with copious Maxim guns captured from the Russians during the Winter war. 

The 60mm mortar, while not overly plentiful, supplimented 80mm and 120mm mortars, primarily also provided by the Russians during the Winter War as captured trophies. 

Three LMG teams using captured Russian DP-27 'record player' LMG's. Named due to the shape and size of it's round magazine. This gun was similar to the well-known British Lewis gun in how the magazine worked, although the size of the magazine was much more comical in size. Still in use in low numbers in the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022/3, the Finns much preferred this to the domestic Lahti-Saloranta M/26. The latter being available in insufficient quantities.

 

Finally a flamethrower, the Finnish Liekinheitin M/38 was an improvement over Italian and German designs of WWI. It had a rifle stock for the flame projector and was capable of ten 'bursts' with a range of up to 120 feet. This will be used in Chain of Command as part of a 3-man flamethrower pioneer section or as two figures in a full engineer platoon. 

This adds 25 figures to my 2023 totals. I'm not sure how to count the two AT guns, they're not vehicles or figures, so I'll leave them out for now.

28mm BA-6 Finnish (captured Russian) Armored Car

During the winter war and continuation war the Finnish army captured several BA-series armored cars, among them several BA-6. The Fins, having none of their own, were quick to slap some Finnish markings onto these and press them into service. 

This is the Warlord Games resin model. The BA-6 is essentially a T-26 turret on an armored car chassis. Crew of four with a hull mounted medium machine gun and a 37mm anti-tank gun in the turret.