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So I recently started my foray into bolt action, as I really like the system as a cheap beer and pretzels game. I love the soviet engineer sappers, as they look really iconic to me. However, I'm rather disapointed with warlord game's engineer sappers, as not only are they metal so repeats are inevitable. But there are options that don't exist, no rifles or lmg's, and there are no blisters available so that means that getting full squads means a slew of spare useless panzerfausts (said non existant option) and flamethrowers. So, I decided to sacrifice some historical accuracy and use some dust tatics models for my engineer themed soviet list. The models are fantastic, and look much better not to mention cheaper if your willing to do some weapon swaps, though there is a ton of mold lines to remove. So without further ado, the beginnings of my army. I just have to wait for amazon.


Senior Lieutenant, forward artillery observer, medic and a light machine gunner.

Excuse the guerrilla photography as I['m terrible with cameras, and I plan on some better shots in the future. The command squad that is already painted were test models meant to make sure the scale isn't too off as the comparison between dust and warlord ranges is pretty subject to opinion. In my experience, the gw base are what make them seem like giants compared to the warlord games models, and most of the warlord ranges are in crouched poses so even when I use some of their mini's it shouldn't look too off. I just got my mortar today and got it based and ready for priming, it even came with a second weapon crew with some sort of tesla cannon that I might be able to convert into a zis3 anti tank gun, I already got the gun off and it looks pretty close. Worst case, some crew members might become spotters for the mortar or loaders for the katyusha I'm still looking at getting my hands on.

So far I'm glad that I used dust tactics with some minor modifications, mostly clipping the underbarrel grenade launchers to make it look closer to the PPS-43, the ppsh42's all metal brother (I did plan on running them as a late Berlin army). The Lmg is a lost cause as it's nowhere close to a DP, so I guess my soviets are manly enough to be hefting DShK 50 cals. I love the mad scientist vibe that I'm getting from my surgeon, no it's not accurate... but see my beer and pretzels game argument.

Anyways, more to come soon, C&C welcome.

Cool idea some of the scenery looks great as well.

Guess what just arrived this morning.


Going to mix and match a bit, but overall these are going to form my two combat engineer squads and some of the extra units that I tacked onto the army.


I also took some shots in better lighting, since it's no longer 3 in the morning so I can actually get some proper lighting to show off the painting a little better. It's surprising how 40k terrain isn't that far off from Stalingrad... except currently I'm more likely to face usmc and french then germans.




NAZI ZOMBIES! Nah just kidding, they're mechanicus.

Nice models, and i like the paintjob on them.
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Bit of an update here. I just finished painting the snipers that I got from the rifleman box, because they looked more fun to paint then the mortar. I also updated the camo scheme to try and darken the brown a bit so that it's close to the real camouflage which worked well so it's now on the command team. I have to wait for my box of warlord games soviet infantry for the two actual engineer squads because I had to remove the shotguns and I need rifles, that and I could use a few extra ppsh's. There is supposed to be only 1 spotter and 1 rifleman in the team. But I figure two would just be spacing out their shots, that and due to bolt action would allocation rules the rifleman isn't likely to die before his buddy, I know they're not supposed to have the SN42 plate vests, but they came with some smg guys and they're just plain cool looking. I know that my historical accuracy had to take another one for the team because they have cold war style dragonov rifles, I tried to paint some extra wood on them to maybe pass them off as svt40 semi auto rifles, but this is supposed to be the last days of Berlin so maybe they got some prototypes. Later on in the future I might have 2 teams by modeling spotters for both of them, but the point of the dust models is quick and easy.




Little action shot, I wish I had a squad of germans handy for this but alas...

More to come soon!