28mm Minefields for Chain of Command

These are three 6"x6" minefields for use primarily with Chain of Command, which prescribes minefields of this size. They can also be used for other 28mm WWII games as well. While mines might not typically be visible, I find this representation to be quite recognizable by the players on the tabletop. The mines are 3D printed. Two of the bases are turfed MDF bases and a third, on thin clear acrylic for placing minefields across roads, or in urban areas.

These are minimally populated with terrain decoration to allow infantry figures to be placed on them. This would be appropriate should the mines represent anti-armor mines, or for engineering teams during the mine clearing process.

Still to come, barbed wire emplacements and road blocks also sized appropriately for Chain of Command.

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.

 

More 28mm WWII Finnish Infantry

Here's another batch of 28mm Finnish WWII figures for my Bolt Action / Iron Cross Finnish army. I'm ramping into second gear on this project as the army is approaching critical mass to start using it to run some games. 

These 18 figures are primarily to bulk up my infantry squads. Where previously I had focused on having an LMG with each squad, I've since found out that by the Lapland war, sections often fielded two or sometimes even three SMGs. These were a mix of Finnish and captured Russian PPSh models.

The officer: The Finnish officers loved their leather field coats. Brown was the typical color. I have previously erroneously painted some of these as grey wool, but this is the correct color. I'm actually considering going back and fixing that error on my other Finnish officers.

 

The Molotov throwers: For me, every Finnish squad should have one of these guys. In practice, I'll also use them as additions to a 'tank hunter' squad when a scenario calls for it. Two poses, but thanks to the swap-able heads, three unique-ish figures.

The Riflemen: There are a lot of one pose in this set, thanks to the limited range of figures from Warlord Games and the fact that I purchased two boxed sets and an additional squad. The upside is, I don't have many of this particular pose in my existing squads. I guess they all rattled to the bottom of the 'dead lead' box. Mixing them in existing squads should make them less repetitive. 

The Brrrrrt! :  SMG gunners in several poses. I've even tossed in some conversions from some French Partisans with head swaps for some variation. Still one pose is here as a set of three. Again, mixing them in existing squads will help. 

The Collection: Here's a group shot of the Finns so far. On the workbench are crew for the Pak-40, a Pak-38 and crew, another HMG, several LMG teams, a flamethrower and a 60mm mortar and crew. That should mostly round out the infantry and support teams for the army and free me up to finish the remaining vehicles. 

I also have a few combat engineers / pioneers on the way for use with Chain of Command.

28mm Finnish WWII Reindeer Pack 'Mule' and Driver

28mm Finnish WWII resin print of a reindeer 'pack mule' and driver. I purchased these pre-printed before I owned a 3D printer. I just finally got around to finish painting them up. 

 

 

 

 

 

28mm Cossacks!

Here is an army I bought for myself pre-painted on Ebay and recently re-based. It's a late Renaissance / 30 Years War force of Cossacks. I have them here on movement trays set up for Pikeman's Lament, but they're also fine for many other rule sets. Pikeman's Lament has been gaining traction in the club this past year so I thought movement trays set up for it seemed prudent.

The commander and a unit of light cavalry with bows.

'Battle Cavalry'. Two with swords, one with pistols and swords, and one with lances.

A 'pike block' consisting of twelve pike, 24 musketeers that can either be four 'commanded shot' units or two 'musketeer' units and a forward unit that could be a 'forlorn hope' unit.

Two 'dragoon' units of mounted infantry.

The balance of the musket-armed infantry.

15mm WWII Americans for 'O' Group

I purchased these figures on Ebay recently to complete my US infantry for 'O' Group.  My collection is primarily based, and was originally intended for Flames of War. In Flames of War a US platoon is the force shown: seven infantry stands and a small base bazooka team. For 'O' group this is two three-stand platoons, an extra infantry team and a bazooka support section, usually deployed in two or three section teams. 

 

These came fairly well painted. I did some touch-ups due to damage in shipping, added some additional details to the helmets and webbing and gave the bases a spruce up with static grass to hide some questionable basing choices. 

 

 

I'll count these only as 'purchased 15mm figures'. The touch-up work wasn't significant enough to warrant credit on my annual totals. 

First .STL Files Created - Markers for 'O' Group

There are .STL files for 'O' Group markers available for sale, but they appear to be made for resin filament 3D printers. Because of this the markings on them seem a bit 'chunky' to me for 15mm figures. Since I have a resin printer, I thought I'd take this as an opportunity to spend some time learning Fusion 360 and design some for resin 3D printers. 

This is the suppression/pinning tracking triangle that is unique to 'O' Group. I've sized it so it will not only work with large and medium bases, but also small bases (not shown). 

My printer can print twenty (20) of these at a time, directly on the build plate. I've finally dialed in the printer well enough that 'elephant foot' isn't much of an issue for things such as these. 

 

 

 

Order and Company Order markers are also just now finished. I'll continue on the rest of the lesser-used markers later this week. I'll count this as one 'terrain/misc' created.

28mm Finnish Sturmi Assault Gun

I 3D printed this Finnish Sturmi assault gun from the excellent STL files sold by Night Sky Miniatures. Their files are complete and can do any version of the Finnish version of the Stug III. It comes with the gun magnetized so you can use both guns on the same hull, but also this provides for much safer transportation of the model with the gun removed. 

 

I started with the cement-reinforced hull with logs and the early war welded gun mantlet. I'll likely also do a pig-snouted version with extra tracks on the lower glacis. Lovely model all around.

 

 

 

 During the painting I dropped this on the cement floor of the shop and obliterated the MG shield and gun. I loaded the mesh up into Fusion 360 and pulled out just the geometry for these pieces and re-printed and attached and painted these replacement parts as well as repairing various other damage. You can hardly tell that I botched it!

I'll count this as another painted 28mm vehicle in my annual painting totals.