28mm Finnish T-26 M1932 / M1938

This is the 1:56 scale Rubicon T-26 plastic kit. The kit comes with the ability to be built as any variant of the T-26. I chose to model the quite plentiful T-26 M1932. A side benefit of this is the kit's multiple variants allow for a reasonable proxy of the M1938 variant by using that turret on the nearly identical M1932 chassis. Close enough for our gaming group at least. I'd guess most of the time I'll be using it at a M1932 though. 

 

Here is the reverse profile with the M1938 turret on it.  I've chosen the more coarse Finnish 3-color camouflage scheme based on this museum example in Finland as well as this historical photo. There are plenty of historical photos of these in action in plain Russian green paint schemes with only Finnish markings on them, but I have leaned on that crutch a lot in this army and for this tank I wanted to do a bit more. I'm glad I did as the effort was worth it.

 

At this photo appears to ride off into the sunset, I'm reminded that this 'completes' my Finnish WWII army. Sure armies are never really 'done', and I'm likely to add more in the future, but for now, the Finnish army is done. I have no more unpainted figures or vehicles to paint for this army. 

 

Upon researching the Lapland war, I did however find out that the Germans used a lot of leftover captured French tanks all the way to the end of the war in Finland, so there's some opportunities to add a tank or two to my German army. I also have picked up a couple units of Gebirgsjäger which my German army needs to truly represent a proper Lapland war force. There's always more to to. 

This adds a single 28mm vehicle to this year's painting totals.

Two 28mm Finnish Komsomolets Artillery Tractors

I previously posted two Komsomlets artillery tractors that I painted up last August.  One of these was an FDM (filament) print from my friend Mark D. and the other was a resin print printed by myself. After visiting my friend Scot and comparing these to his Warlord model, I discovered that both of the previously-painted models, which were printed at 100% scale from the STL file Mark and I used, were 'true' 25mm and not the 1:56 'heroic' 28/32mm scale that Warlord uses. All of my 28mm WWII vehicles and figures are either Warlord brand, or brands/prints scaled to match Warlord's 1:56 scale. The previous two tractors were too diminutive in size and were dwarfed by my figures and other vehicles. 

These two models were printed at 110% scale from the same file that Mark and I used before. As you can see compared to one of my Finnish engineer figures, the scale is much better. It's not impossible to imagine a figure-sized 'person' inside driving this tractor now. 

I've gone with a dirty look but this time I opted for less mud on the tracks. The mud was mostly to compensate for the FDM print's layer lines.

Here in the foreground, the old resin print with the newer, 100% scale one behind it. Not only is the scale of the newer print better, but since I've learned more about tuning my resin 3D printer, you can notice that the newer print is much smoother with no real visible layer lines. 

These will count as two painted vehicles for my 2023 painting totals.

Last of the 28mm Finnish Infantry

I'm starting to come to the end of my 28mm Finnish Continuation War / Lapland War project. These are the last 'infantry' figures, including the gunners for the captured Russian 45mm AT gun. 

Remaining on the project are four vehicles, a T-34/76, a T-26 and two Komsolets artillery tractors. The latter 3-D reprints to replace the under-scaled ones I've already finished. 

 

This is a captured 45mm Russian AT gun. The Finns received a batch of these from Germany. Ter German designation was PaK 184 (r). Finland also captured several in the continuation war. I've painted this in flat green without the characteristic Finnish camouflage, as a majority of the in-theater historical photos appear to show it being used this way. The gun and crew are by Great Escape Games from their Iron Cross figure range.

Five Finnish combat engineers. These are converted Great Escape Games German engineers. I've done some head swaps and cherry-picked the figures with the least amount of characteristically German kit that wasn't given to the Finns. Helmets of course were donated in huge quantities.  These could also fit in as 'tank hunters' easy enough as most are carrying bundle grenades and panzerfausts. One figure also has an anti-tank mine. These will be augmented by my already painted flamethrower team.

I needed an engineer squad so I can use this army for Chain of Command. The CoC support points include flamethrower teams, engineering squads for tasks such as mine clearing and barbed wire clearing as well as full engineering squads.

 

Finally, the last dregs of the 'dead lead' box. This handful of infantry figures comprises the absolute last of the unpainted Finnish infantry figures I had. I was saving these few in case I needed an odd crew for an AT-gun, etc. While I was painting the AT-gun crew and engineers I figured I'd take advantage of economy of scale and get these finished up.

Total figures for the project - 13 figures and the AT gun.

 

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 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.

28mm 3D Printed 'Finnish' 1936 Ford Flatbed Half-Track Truck

Another 3-D printed vehicle for my 28mm Continuation War / Lapland War Finnish army. This will be used as another un-armored, un-armed transport for my Finnish army. It can either transport troops, or tow a larger weapon such as an anti-tank gun or an artillery piece.

These were also used by the Canadians during World War II. Similar to the Finnish, they had the weather and terrain to make these a useful civilian vehicle before the war. Pressing them into military service was a fairly small step. There still exists one example in a Canadian museum.
 

I'm quite fond of this model as it prints in both the wheeled and half-tracked version as a single-piece print. All I have to do is clean off the support 'sprues' and start painting. It's a solid print, so it costs about $3.50 in resin to print, but that extra resin also gives it the weight of a commercial cast resin vehicle. I appreciate this as most of my collection is made up of such models. This will add one 28mm vehicle to this year's painting totals. 

 

28mm 3D Printed 'Finnish' 1936 Ford Flatbed Truck

Prior to the 1939 Winter War, Finland used primarily Ford trucks for civilian use having no speak-able automotive industry of their own. When the Winter War broke out, a large number of these were pressed into military service as a necessity. This model represents one such vehicle.

This was printed on my Elagoo Saturn 2 3D printer. This was a wonderful model to work with. It printed entirely in a single piece, fully assembled. I broke it off the supports, did minimal clean up with a knife and sanding stick and primed it up.

Since I used OD green colored primer, painting was relatively easy with a quick dry brush to highlight panel lines, picked out the tires, windows and metal bits, and gave it a panel wash and a European dust wash. After both washes, some of the details were a bit muddled, so I did a few touch-ups. Decals were applied prior to the final washes. All total, maybe 90 minutes total 3-D print clean-up and painting time.

This will count as one 28mm vehicle in my annual painting totals. I enjoyed this enough, and I could use a second truck for my Finnish since they didn't use APCs, so I might print a second one. The 3D printer started to earn it's cost back with this model. This cost me about $4.00 worth of resin. A similar quality commercial offering would be over $30.00