Soviet airborne antitank company

This week I've been working on an antitank company for my small but slowly growing number of Soviet airborne and air-assault troops (the VDV).

In the early 1980's, the company would have consisted of a platoon of six towed 85mm D-48 antitank guns. Here's a very good short video of the D-48 firing:

http://youtu.be/l7mSUe1bxyE

In 1981 these guns were already outdated, but as you can see from the video, they did still pack quite a punch. They would've been towed by the airborne version of the GAZ-66:

Here's what each stand will look like, with slight variations in the GAZ-66 tarpaulins:

The company's second platoon would have been made up of six BRDM-2 Konkurs antitank vehicles. This one is Czech:

And this one is Hungarian:

The missle launchers fully retract into the hull:

http://youtu.be/ELDie1b6C90

This vehicle is very often erroneously referred to as a BRDM-3, which it definitely was not. A real BRDM-3:

was (and still is) a reconnaissance vehicle derived from the BTR-80AK.

And finally, the antitank company's commander would have been mounted in a BRDM-2U:

That's it for now. More next time!

Saggers and other toys

Painting a few command stands this weekend, as well as a stand of AT-3 Sagger anti-tank missles:

The O8 pack contains models that are very obviously Saggers, but also includes some that are different and could be used for Spigots:

Or Spandrels:

Or even Saxhorns:

In 1981, the East Germans had tons of Saggers, quite a good number of Spigots, and even a few Spandrels, but Saxhorn had only been in service since 1979, so only a small number of Soviet units would've had them. 

Here are my East German Saggers:

And two BDRM-2U and one T-55 command stands:

I'm also trying to get another company of T-55's done so my panzer battalion will be finished. That will get me about one third of the way to a complete motor rifle regiment. Whew. Still a way to go though. Not counting various support units, I need 3 motor rifle battalions and 1 panzer battalion.  

Otherwise, just texturing a lot of bases this weekend, which is less than photogenic. However, I feel a creative burst coming on. I haven't made a terrain feature in quite a while and I've never done one in 3mm. I have a 1/600 European farmhouse coming from Picoarmor and I need something to go with it. Standby....