In Work Mobile Air Defense System

In Team Yankee, all forces have access to aircraft.   This bothers me a bit, because I know history and can talk to people who was preparing to fight the Soviet machine back when I was 1-year old and fight against their Air Defenses specifically.

Soviet airpower theory was much more focused on gaining air superiority through the use of integrated air defenses.  The Warsaw Pact Air Forces recognized they lagged behind NATO Air Forces.  The Soviet Union instead invested in Air Defenses.  The inclusion of Su-25 Frogfoot in the Warsaw Pact lists seems like an unnecessary list balance effort.  NATO air-power, like might F-15 Eagle (102 Air-to-Air kills, 0 Air-to-Air losses), would have made getting a Frogfoot into the fight nearly impossible.  So, SA-13s and ZSU-23s to defend my armored columns against the rightly feared A-10A.

SA-13s & ZSU-23s

Helicopters

Despite it being a long weekend, I only managed to finish painting the first pair of Mi-24 Hinds.

First Pair of Mi-24s

They were a fun change of pace from tanks.  Next up will be four ZSU-23s and two of four SA-13s.

More pics below.

More Tanks

T-72s and BMPs

This past week I was fairly successful painting four more T-72s and five BMP-2s.  These however are only the beginning of a Volks Armee force, which I think is a better representation of the Polish Army than a Soviet Red Banner force.  This drives the inclusion of more tanks overall, adding probably about 10 more tanks overall.

1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

The Conversion from 40k to Mk III iron armor took longer than I expected, but I finally got the only remaining member of my original Rout army armed and ready to roll.  Introducing Villskap Redmaw  1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson Pack Leader of the Bloody Hunters.

Villskap Redmaw 1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

First 5 Tanks painted!

First Five Tanks  

I have completed painting my first five tanks and have dived into the next nine!  In painting these five tanks, I made the decision to use a dark grey for what might be metal on many models.  My theory for this is that a factory primer of some kind is always useful.

I also purchased a copy of Volks Armee, which provides an overview and lists for forces from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik's Nationale Volksarmee.  I think this list will work better as a baseline for my Poles than the main Soviet army.  The impact will be the total number of models (and thus cost) will increase.

My work space