Maksim MG Company for Flames of War

My Flames of War Soviet project is mostly comprised of older metal and resin models from Battlefront.  I have had most of this stuff for many years.  Even with such a large collection there are some gabs that have been filled with Battlefront's new models.  Case in point is the Maksim MG Company.  These are the new, soft plastic models made especially for the v4 release.  These are inexpensive at abut $15 for 6 teams.

The problem with this set, however, are many.  First off while this might be an inexpensive set it is also cheap.  The sculpt quality is poor.  The casting quality is also poor.  The materials used are difficult to work with making it hard to fix issue like mold lines and flash.  The worst issue for me is that these figures are NOT 15mm figures.  These are much closer to HO scale or 20mm figures.  In fact, these remind me a lot of cheap Chinese copies of old 60's era Airfix plastic soldiers.  These are the worst wargames figures I have ever bought and it is wasn't for the challenges of getting replacements right now i would not be using these.

New BF plastic on the left and old BF metal on the right.

I will be replacing these with better figures as soon as I can.  If I can find the old metal Battlefront MG teams that match the rest of my infantry that would be ideal.  Otherwise it will either be Old Glory or Peter Pig to the rescue.

Soviet Guards Heavy Tank Regiment

My mid-war Soviet project for Flames of War is progressing.  This is the core of a Soviet Guards Heavy Tank Regiment equipped with KV-1s tanks.  The KV-1s tank is kind of interesting.  It is the tank nobody wanted but they got anyway.  The biggest drawback of the KV-1 was its poor gun.  It had armor that made it one of the toughest tanks in the world but the gun was just average.  The army wanted a tank with just as much armor as the KV-1 but with a better gun.  What they got was a tank with less armor and more speed but the same gun.  In Flames of War terms you have an interesting tank.  It is better armored than the T-34 and only slightly slower.  The guards designation gives better crew stats.  The same 76mm gun as the T-34, however, means it has the same challenges in killing enemy tanks as the T-34.  While the KV-1 is all but invulnerable to most German mid-war tanks the KV-1s can, potentially, be killed by a PZ III to the front.  If the points were cheaper for the KV-1s it might be more of a value but as it stands I'm not sure this is the best tank for the Soviets in MW.

These are the new Battlefront plastic kits and they are very nice model.  The kit can build either the KV-1, KV-1s, or the KV-8.  It is a good value and an easy build.

Thorns of the Briar Queen

I started playing Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire at the end of 2018.  I really enjoyed it and for a few months we played pretty regular.  Around that time I bought the Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault set because it had an awesome Nighthaunt faction that I had to have.  The Thorns of the Briar Queen is a great set of miniatures and I was really excited to try then in WU and AoS.  But then the wheels fell off the Shadespire gaming and I had lots o stuff in the works for the Nighthaunts.  I started painting them last year but as so often happens with me I failed to finish them and they went into a project box.  The Great Lock-Down has got me pulling out lots of old projects and getting me to finish them up.  I am really happy to finally have these in the painted collection and ready for action...someday.

Thorns of the Briar Queen

The Briar Queen

Varclav the Cruel

The Ever-Hanged

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Chainrasp

Baleful Realmgates

I picked these up a while back at a gamer garage sale.  They were already assembled.  I did not play AoS during the Realmgate wars times and I don't have any of the background or rules.  I though they looked cool and figured I'd just make my own rules for them.  These might be cool for Frostgrave, if I ever play that game again.  Just a quick paint job.  I forgot to take pictures of the backside which is even cooler.