T-80s!!

Never fear! Naval miniatures haven't totally supplanted 1/600 Cold War and I've finished off a company of Soviet T-80Bs to prove it:

In 1981, these beasts would've been a rarity, especially in LANDJUT, where the toughest opposition would have been West German Leopard 1A4s (the few Leopard 2s produced by then would have been held considerably further south). The very small number of T-80Bs available were mostly with Central Group of Forces (CGF) in Czechoslovakia or in the western military districts just inside the Soviet Union. A precious few T-80s were in Group of Soviet Forces Germany (GSFG), facing the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) specifically to oppose the Chieftain tanks.

No matter which front you look at, T-80s were supplied at the rate of just one company per armored division. Therefore, my addition of a company for a LANDJUT campaign is entirely fanciful and purely a "what if", but they're just too cool not to have a few. So, here they are:

Like all O8 minis of second and third generation Soviet MBTs (T-64, T-72, T-80), these don't give a good impression of the squat, ground-hugging appearance of the real thing, but otherwise, it's quite a good looking model.

A productive weekend! Lots of half-finished projects polished off. And that's with Mrs. History PhD's "honey do" list thrown into the bargain! 

Back in the USSR

I've been feeling distinctly unwell this weekend.

Thank heaven for Mrs. History PhD (and Teddy)!

Anyway, after a couple of weeks of fiddling with other things, I'm back to 3mm Cold War and it's Soviet tanks. We're back in the USSR ("You don't know lucky you are"). Despite my misery (mild food poisoning, not brought on by my wife's Thai cooking!), I've managed to finish the battalion command stand that I was lacking for a T-64A battalion which I had been working on earlier in the week (before I was cruelly struck down):

And the whole thing:

That's what I love about 3mm! Battalions really look like battalions. 

I had planned on using a BRDM-2:

as the second vehicle on the battalion command stand, given that each Soviet armored battalion had a section of them as a recon unit. However, wheeled vehicles mixed in with my tanks just rankles, regardless of the authenticity. So I swapped for a BRM:

which fulfilled the same role. I know, I know! But it's MY Soviet Army!

More after my recuperation!

My VDV/DShV battalion is finished

Well, more or less finished. I still need to do an airborne light antiaircraft company, but that will be along soon. 

As Andy mentioned in the comments section of my last VDV post (July 5, 2015), this battalion seems more DShV (air assault) than it does VDV (airborne/paratroops). The reason being that I have simply been lumping the two together. The two types used much the same uniform and they fulfilled a similar, though not identical, role. Much like the very general similarity between the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Assault. VDV troops were generally, but not always, more lightly equipped than the DShV. 

In any case, this battalion will do for DShV or for more heavily equipped VDV. At some point in the future, maybe I'll do a more traditional light battalion for my VDV and keep this one for just DShV. 

So, here it is:

Two companies of BTR-Ds:

and one of BMD-1s:

Also three company command stands, each with an SA-14 Gremlin:

and a battalion commander:

Also the direct fire support platoon, armed with AGS-17 Plamyas:

As I've said before, in a shooting war, the VDV/DShV would all, without exception, look like this:

But where's the fun in that? Who can resist having them look like this instead?

I can't, so mine all get the blue beret!

The next Cold War project on my list is an SA-4 Ganef battery, so stand by for that. 

Progress on a Soviet VDV battalion

Both Mrs. History PhD: 

and I:

have been feeling a bit under the weather this holiday weekend, so painting has been at a bare minimum. However, I have managed to complete a second company for my VDV battalion, this one being equipped with BDM-1s:

As I said in my last post on this subject (June 21, 2015), battalions with mixed vehicle types would almost never have happened in reality, so shame on me, but I don't need masses of VDV troops and I do want to use both BMD-1s, and BTR-Ds:

which means that in MY Soviet Army, this battalion will have two companies of BTR-Ds and one of BMD-1s. 

Here's my second company:

There's the extra SA-14 Gremlin launcher kept at company level. 

Stand by for the third and final company (BTR-Ds again). After that, it will be time to do up a few support units and then the battalion will be finished. Finally, something/anything that actually gets finished!!!

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!

Some Soviet armor, for a change

In my 1981 LANDJUT scenario, most of the WarPac forces I'll be fielding will be East German, but there will be smaller numbers of supporting Polish and Soviet forces. As far as the Soviets go, the majority of the troops committed in reality would most likely have been VDV (airborne and air assault), but it's quite probable that Soviet motor rifle and possibly armored forces would also have participated in the thrust northward toward the Danish border, at least as far as the Kiel Canal. 

That being the case, at some point in the far-flung and misty future, I'll need some Soviet ground troops, in addition to VDV. So, as a change of pace from my usual endless painting of East Germans, I've done some Soviet armor: T-62s!

By the early 1980s, the Group of Soviet Forces Germany (GSFG) had almost totally replaced its T-62s with T-64s in all armored divisions that were part of the 2nd Guards Tank Army and the 3rd Combined Arms Army (it stopped being the "3rd Shock Army" after the late 1950s) and they were well on the way to total replacement in the armored divisions of the 1st Guards Tank Army and the 8th and 20th Guards Armies. However, in all the motor rifle divisions of the GSFG, the replacement rate lagged well behind that found in the armored divisions and about half of their attached tanks were still T-62s. 

Here's the first company of a planned T-62 battalion for a Soviet motor rifle regiment:

Now just two more companies to go. I think I have too many irons in the fire for any of them to get really hot! I suppose most wargamers are the same. 

More from me next weekend.