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.

Nighthaunt Endless Spells

I love the Nighthaunts.  I think they have one of the coolest aesthetics of the Age of Sigmar universe.  I really love undead armies in general but the ghosts and spirits are just creepy and cool.  I really like the concept of the endless spells introduced with the latest edition of AoS but I must admit that they are only marginally effective and mostly a gimmick.  Even so I love the models and I bought the Nighthaunt set as soon as it came out.  At the time I wanted to do something different with the paint and this really slowed my progress to the point of not working on them for more than a year.  When I got back to them I decided to keep things simple and just get them ready for the table.  In the end they turned out to be very easy to paint and a very quick project.  I am kind of wonder what took me so long to get these done.

Nighthaunt Endless Spells

Mortis Exterminexus

Shyish Reaper

Vault of Souls

Mortis Engine

When I first jumped into Age of Sigmar, back when the 2nd edition was released, I was really excited by the Nighthaunts.  Before I knew anything about the army I bought a bunch of stuff.  One of the things I bought was the Malignants Start Collecting set.  I mean, this stuff HAD to be part of the army right?  Well the Spirit Hosts were and so were the Hexwraiths, but not the Mortis Engine.  So the coolest part of the set was not usable, damn.  So it sat for a long time.  About 6 months ago I started work on it but it was quickly set aside.  During the lock down I have been focusing on finishing some of the neglected projects.  I am really glad to have this completed.  The random army selection from the General's Handbook 2019 should make this easier to include in the army.  I don't play competitively so I might just take it no matter what.

Napoleonic Russian Brigade Commander

I have finally finished my Russian Napoleonic Brigade commander for my Black Powder Russians.  I actually painted this guy last year but for some unknown reason I let it sit on the paint table with the base incomplete.  All done now.

This model is from Warlord games and is actually a mounted colonel.  He will make a usable brigadier until I get around to finding a better model.