"Battle Honors Finns photos" Topic

Photos of Battle Honors seem hard to come by, so I put some photos of some painted Battle Honors Finns up on my blog. I have some more to get up hopefully soon, along with some Battle Honors Russians.

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WOW!! Excellent work, Mac!

You've done well with the wash. About the soldier with the helmet, what exactly is that painted on the front? Sure does give it some character! I can't wait to see your Winter War Russians.

Thank you for posting, Mac Sparty!

Nice work, sir. You make me want to finish my Finnish!

I painted up a bunch of the Battle Honours early war Russians but never got around to completing the Finns.

Nice work!!

Thanks…

Saginaw, that's supposed to be a skull and bones. I'm not entirely sure what it means or how common it was, but it is a motif that appears more than once in photos. It could be that it didn't appear until the continuation war, but nonetheless I think it looks cool and does indeed provide some character.

I added a second blog post with some photos, one from the period and one of a reenactor. link

Thank you for the link, Mac Sparty. I don't think there's a specific meaning to it, but it's not unique, as the German Freikorps of the tumultuous period after WWI had soldiers that sported skull and crossbones motifs on their helmets:

Thanks again, Mac!

very nice toys mate :-)

Some more Finns photos posted today – on skis!
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Good stuff!

I don't think that painted pictures on helmets were anything else than extremely rare in Finland. I've seen like one picture with skull and crossbones and I kinda assume that quite quickly after the photo was taken some of the soldier's superiors requested it to be removed.

During Winter War some of the new replacements that were sent to Taipaleenjoki (IIRC) had painted their helmets pure white -apparently to be less visible. These youngsters immediately got nicknamed "porcelain boys" by the veterans (dunno if it was already used during that time, but at least later on if someone has shaved their pubics it is said that they are sporting a "porcelain". Could've been another way to underline that the replacements were youngsters…)

BTW
All Battle Honours Finns seem to be wearing non-army regulation boots with pointed fronts (aka. "lapikkaat"). The color of these is basically always light tan. Just do a google image search with the word and you'll see examples.

Naturally plenty of these were worn, especially by more northern troops (since they are more common there) but vast majority should be wearing the common black leather boots.

It is not a bad thing that the figures are wearing lapikkaat since you can easily file the pointed fronts away…

-Lönkka/Finland

Hey, thanks Lönkka. Good to know on the helmets. I probably painted too many, but you have to admit it does look cool!

As for the boots, I had always wondered about that. I know others have commented on the fact all Battle Honors minis have them, when in fact they probably weren't all that common. My understanding is the lapikkaat (I learned a new word today!) were useful for attaching skis?

By the way, part of the interest in this period for me is my wife's family is Finnish, well her dad's family anyway. They are from Michigan's upper peninsula, which has a large Finnish population and and area I always suspected looks alot like Finland. In fact, I asked my wife's aunt, who had just returned from a visit to Finland, if the upper peninsula really does look like Finland, and her response was, "Yes, right down to the names on the mailboxes."

BEAUTIFULLY painted figures, Mac Sparty!

You certainly have a sizeable gaming force for a nice little scenario. The Winter War has always fascinated me, just like most of the early days of WWII. I've always wanted to see what the Battle Honors Finns looked like painted up, and hopefully you'll have some Russians (especially in the budionovka) up soon.

Thanks again, Mac!

Amazing work !!! these figures will be a great show on the wargaming table!

MacSparty, I'm unsure about the usefulness of lapikkaat when using skis. Would probably depend on the shis or actually the method of fastening the feet to your footwear and that has varied quite a lot over the years.

Yeah, from what I've gathered lots of Finns and Swedes settled over in that are of US. Apparently the climate was quite familiar.