Big Guns Never Tire - 15mm Soviet Heavy Artillery

Get ready to blast some fascists

Another submission from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - 15mm WW2 Soviet heavy artillery from Battlefront.  This was a box set from Battlefront given to me as a Christmas present by my brother a couple of years ago - I hope he is pleased to see I (finally) got around to finishing it!

Ready to fire over open sights

Two 122mms - the 152mm is at the end (near the top right of the photo)

One of the least attractive aspects of the FoW game for me is the insistence on having heavy artillery like this represented on the tabletop.  Insert arguments re: ground scale, etc. here.  It just looks and plays so wrong.  But whatever - I have to hand it to Battlefront, when you get a box set like this, you really do get everything!

152mm gun from the front

Forward observer team

I think the intent of the manufacturer was that you an entire battery of the same guns, but I mixed it up slightly - doing three 122mm guns and a 152mm gun.  I built one of the 122mm models to have a low elevation, imagining perhaps the gunners engaging a German spearhead over open sights.

Every gun gets a unique resin base

Lots of detail on the custom bases

In addition to the guns you get the "staff team", a command base and a forward observer base.  The bases for the guns and the staff team are custom resin (I touched on the staff team previously - they had been painted earlier).  The detail on these custom bases is really, really impressive - ammo boxes, rubble, spent casings, fresh shells - it is all there.  It adds a lot of character. So whatever I think of FoW as a rules set, I have no complaints on the quality from Battlefront.  These models were fun to build and paint.

Gun #1

I am also wanting to use 15mm figures for Spearhead games so there is a little more scope for these to be on the tabletop in that sort of setting, but even then (and in 6mm) the divisional guns like this are typically off table. 

Gun #2

But if anyone is going to use 122mm guns for point-blank work, it is the Soviet army of WW2.  And I like to think painting up gifts is good miniature karma (even if it takes a couple of years).

Gun #3

As for the Painting Challenge, I'm continuing to fade into the pack.  There are some serious painting machines out there, churning out not only large quantity, but great quality too (here is just one example).

Gun #4

After I finished these figures there was a bit of a gap in my painting progress - I needed to get more figures primed, and I was also off to Regina to visit Curt. I noticed that as soon as you stop painting even for a bit, you drop like eight spaces in the Challenge, such is the rate that others are finishing figures.  But I still have time to make a dent in the painting challenge before it wraps up in late March.  Stay tuned for more entries!