Bonus Round Entry 1: Ambush in Novograd

The theme for the first Fortnight round was cold, this immediately inspired me to think of the Retreat from Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad. Pondering a little further I remembered some Copplestone Neo Soviets that were purchased for a never completed WW3 project many a year ago. While looking for them I also cam across my old set of AT-43 and decided that one of the Therians would make a good opponent for them. And so at least for this vignette I get to complete my long ago abandoned project with a pair of embattled NeoSovs ambushing a lone Cyber-Reich Soldat in the ruins of Novograd.

The base was built up pretty quickly out of an old CD, some foamboard, insulation foam, and plastic card. I cut out some holes for the miniatures to slot into as well.

The whole thing got a coat of thinned down wood filler and was primed with black gesso. After that it was painted pretty simply. I tried a different technique with the building to simulate concrete. I just stippled it repeatedly with different layers of tones. I think it turned out pretty well. I also did some simple weathering on it as well.

 

I wanted to try out something new on this by adding some posters to the building. I found some likely culprits and printed them out shrunken down to the right size. These were soaked in watered down matte medium and slapped onto the walls. I then poked at them some to distress them and once dried rubbed some weathering powder on to blend them into the building a bit more. 



 

Meanwhile I was painting the figures. The partisan figure I wanted to look like he was using whatever gear he could find. So I tried to make him look like he had a civilian parka thrown on over the classic Russian blue camo pattern pants. His compatriot I aimed for a more regular army look and patterned his camo coat after one of the many Russian army snow patterns. Then did the rest of the gear in classic Russian green. I'm not really sure how Russian logistics work but from looking through various pictures it seems like they have a very wide and eclectic selection of camouflage patterns. In fact pretty much anything you can make up they seem to have in service and freely mix and match them. It certainly make painting easier.

 

 

The Soldat got repainted pretty much as he originally was but I leaned more towards Panzer grey for base armor and a sorta organic red for the under parts. I kept the bone color for the skull as its just too striking to pass up.

 

 Once everything was painted up I went to work on the snow effects. After some reading online I decided to go with the classic baking soda option. I mixed up some with Matte Medium until it was the consistency of yogurt. This got spread around trying to heap it up wherever I though snow would drift. This also went on the miniatures bases. While still wet I sprinkled more baking soda on top.

 

Once that dried I came back through and dabbed some thinned matte medium on places that looked like it needed more snow. The back of the sign, poster edges, boots, etc. Then I sprinkled more baking soda on. I was presently surprised how well the snow effects came out considering this was my first try at it.

 

 

  

Photographing the whole thing turned into a major endeavor however. The contrast between the dark figures and the white snow made it really hard to get nice pictures. Luckily my Lovely Photographer came to my assistance and gave me some tips for some nicer pictures. Otherwise all you'd be seeing is blinding white snow.

 

With my first entry out of the way I'm looking forward to working on the next one Mount and Riders and be sure to check out all of the incredible entries for the First Bonus Theme Round as well!