Let's start a Soviet airborne battalion

This weekend, I've decided to begin a Soviet VDV (airborne and air-assault) battalion which will, in time, support my East Germans in their drive across the North German Plain and up the Jutland Peninsula. 

In 1981, VDV battalions would have had either the BTR-D:

or the BMD-1:

as their APC/IFV. However, as the BTR-D was significantly cheaper and faster to build, it would have been the more common of the two types. Battalions were always equipped with one vehicle or the other, but never with both.

Being a wargamer, I want to have my cake and eat it too. I'd like both vehicles, but I can't see ever needing two VDV battalions, so I'll tweak reality slightly and do a mixed battalion: two companies of BTR-D and one of BMD-1. Ok, so sue me, but it's MY Soviet Army, not the REAL Soviet Army. If, in future, I find the need for another battalion, I'll just separate this one by vehicle types and then flesh both of them out. 

Here's the company that I finished this weekend:

VDV battalions were often accompanied by a separate light antiaircraft platoon equipped with MANPADS (in 1981, the SA-14 Gremlin), 

but it was quite common to see each company with an additional SAM of its own, which was attached to company command:

The command vehicle would've been a BMD-1K (photos of which seem to be non-existent), which sported two long "clothes rail"-type antennas, but O8 doesn't make them, so I just went with a BTR-D. 

Mrs history PhD has chosen (and I've ordered) her next FOW Vietnam project, so stay tuned for that. More next weekend!