I was adding to my Soviet infantry forces for FOW a while back. I painted up a whole bunch of support weapons to add to my existing infantry force. I also decided to add a second full company (that could be split) to the force.
This time, I thought I would use the Cossack infantry for the force. This would give a different look and I liked the idea of adding a little color!
I turned to my usual first source and checked out Gajo for the troops. They had them in stock, so I bought a large number. I got them and started basing them on tan sprayed bases.
I needed some support options that were not available in the line, so just painted up some regular guys and blue pants to match. So, they are cossacks with helmets. This included some light mortars, an HMG, ATRs and flamethrowers. I intermixed these with the existing troops. To give myself maximum flexibility, I did extra command and commissars. Since the Soviets have various organizations, I find it is best to build large and just add a few extra option stands, so you can field the units as straight conscript infantry or multiple units of hero units.
These were based the same as all my other Soviet troops. I started with white pumice. Then hit it with a brown wash and a drybrush of tan. I painted the edges farther brown. The next step is where the project fell off the rails. I used Silfor California Golden Grass tufts on my stands to give a nice steppe look to the troops.
Unfortunately, I did not have enough of these and then could not find any in stock anywhere (I could have ordered from Germany, but the shipping was way too crazy high). Well, they were finally back in stock at Scenic Express, so I ordered a few boxes.
I noticed that the new tufts were slightly lighter than the older ones. Not great… So, I decided to do bases in the new tufts and also pulled a few off the bases I did earlier to put on the new bases. I also put new ones on the old bases in the spots that had been removed. This was to give a view of variance, with a slight tie in. That worked fine, so I finished up and dull coated all the troops!
- Manteuffel