Bolt Action Soviet Forward Observation teams

    There are two types of forward observers in Bolt Action, the Artillery Forward Observers (AFOs) and the Air Force Forward Observers (AFFOs). The Soviets have an interesting army special rule in Bolt Action, the "Massed Batteries", to represent the Red Army artillery barrages, which were truly terrifying.

AFOs, a Lavochkin La-7 and AFFOs

   I had a Soviet radio operator miniature and the Soviet Army Forward Observation Officer team, which consists of an Officer, a female soldier with signal flags and a soldier with a map. I added two plastic Soviet soldiers in order to build two teams of three models each, the Artillery Forward Observation team and the Air Force Forward Observation team. I also had the model aircraft of LtCol Sergei Fedorovich Dolgushin's La-7. 

Hero of the Soviet Union Dolgushin in the middle and behind his La-7

   Unfortunately, the female soldier had a metal casting problem. She came with no left hand and no flag. To fix the problem, I used the hand of a Soviet plastic soldier and a Sashimono of a Test of Honour plastic Samurai miniature. 

The hand is ok and the flag ready

Problem solved!

   Since the radio operator miniature had no radio, I made one from scratch and gave him also a submachine gun and binoculars.

The assistant radio operator

Both ready!

The Artillery Forward Observation team

The Air Force Forward Observation team

The Lavochkin La-7 of Easy Model

The family photo

   Recently my wife and I, we visited a very nice restaurant on the White Mountains of Crete. They follow the traditional way of cooking in clay pots on fire. The food was delicious! 

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!

Universal Carriers in Red Army

    I really like the British Bren Universal Carriers light armoured tracked vehicles. I chose the Warlord Games' Red Army version for my Bolt Action games when I bought two of them. During WWII the Soviet Union received around 2.700 such Lend & Lease vehicles.

Red Army soldiers in Bren Carriers

   I placed the passengers on a little bit different positions to avoid the identical twin look.

 

Bren Carrier A

   I think that I need to use some matt varnish on the decals because they are too glossy.

Bren Carrier B

   I used the "Stirland Mud" of Citadel on the tracks of the second vehicle for the mud effect. 

   Speaking about British vehicles, recently I took a photo of the crest of a Royal Navy submarine. What the crest features is, in my humble opinion, a proof of the British humour!

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!

Zaichata Squads

    A zaichata squad in Bolt Action consists of two inexperienced snipers, nicknamed зайчата (young hare) and a master sniper, who tried to teach them the skills in order to survive as a sniper. Many zaichata didn't and perished within their first weeks of combat.

   I had a sniper from the "Red Army" box of 23 metal miniatures and the free miniature of "Campaign Stalingrand" book, both products of Warlord Games and four Soviet snipers of Black Tree Design. 

   I used all six of them to build two zaichata squads. I chose again the "amoeba" camo as I did for my assault engineers. Below you can see the result. 

The two zaichata squads

Vasily Zaitsev in the middle with his two apprentices

The second zaichata squad

and the family photo!

   Meanwhile due to the pandemic, my wife and I spent many weekends in our house experiencing new recipes. One such recipe is the "Athinaiki", which is cold fish boneless covered with mayonnaise, carrots and pickles.   

Athinaiki

Our cat really liked it!

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more! 

 

Bolt Action Soviet Assault Engineers

    Assault engineering brigades were formations designed to storm settlements and to break through heavily fortified enemy lines. They were referred to as "armoured infantry" due to their SN-42 steel breastplate. 

   My assault engineer squad consists of one NCO and four soldiers armed with SMGs, one soldier armed with two panzerfausts and one with a flamethrower. 

The NCO (with the moustache) and his men

   I also have an assault engineer medium machine gun team.

   I chose the green "амеба" camo for my assault engineers squad and I painted my miniatures' uniforms with a mix 50/50 of Vallejo 887 Brown Violet and 857 Golden Olive while the dark green amoebas are 896 German Camo Extra Dark Green.

Green colour No 2 of амеба camo

   Speaking of green stuff, here is a fantastic Cretan dish, which I ate recently. Zucchini flowers stuffed with rice and herbs, served with yogurt. 

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more! 

Dog Mines Anti-Tank teams

    During the WW2 the Red Army deployed anti-tank dogs to stop the advance of the German Army at the Eastern Front. The first group of these dogs and their trainers arrived at the front the summer of 1941. Though thousands of dogs were used, their efficiency remains uncertain. 

   According to the "Armies of the USSR" book of Bolt Action, each dog mines anti-tank team consists of an NCO, a private and two dogs. As an option two more privates with dogs can be added to a dog mines anti-tank team. I had the original two miniatures, the handler and the dog of Warlord Games and I added to my team three more soldiers, two dogs of "Farmer Maggot & Hounds" of Games Workshop and one dog from the Farmyard Animals box of Warlord Games.

Dog Mines Anti-Tank teams

The NCO and one of the two GW dogs

A female handler and the WG dog 

A handler and the original dog

The whole team

A family photo

   Speaking of Anti-Tank teams, recently my little godchild finished his Sherman! It looks really nice! Next step is to add its decals. 

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!