"15mm Russian / Chechen fighter." Topic

Have wanted to tackle the Chechen Conflicts for a while but always seem to get distracted.

Popped this guy together today and rather enjoyed it so have lined up 30 or so more on the desk. Regular Ruskis, Spetsnaz , tank troopers and a load of Chechens

Initially put together as a Russian, could easily double up as a Chechen.

Went for chest webbing and wooly hat. Sadly the webbing is mostly obscured by the AK but it helps to add to the bulky winter feel.

I reckon most if not all would fit in to Balkans themed theatres too. Plus you could use them as baddies against US / European forces. Could see them also in post apoc / near future Sci Fi.

Any suggestions to troop types etc always welcomed

Size wise would match with Khurasans SEAL DEVGRU figures (I sculpted those too)

Cheers

Adam

Very nice work.

Very nice! Would be great to see some that could pass off as bundled up civilians… thanks for sharing!

Very nice indeed. I've always wanted to game the chechen conflict in 15mm.

I suggest a mini with a rpg and another with a lmg, so we can form full fire teams. To add variety, perhaps you could model some minis with the distinctive sphera helmet.

I have a question: where should I go to to buy some of these once they are released, any link?

Hi Barriere,

Thanks for you suggestions.

I like lots of variety in my squads so there will be plenty of weapon options.

They don't have an owner yet. As more figures get finished I'll put the greens up for sale. I'll happily let you know who ends up with them though.

WOW

They would make awesome post-alien invasion, post-rise of the machines or post-apocalyptic resistance fighters!

Finally, someone makes winter-wear fighters/survivalists.

Dan

Looks really good. Militants were/are also still using bolt action rifles (mostly M91/30s) alongside SVDs. It would also be nice to see female fighters represented, the militants in particular are remembered for their women fighters (And not just as sharpshooters) but female personnel in the Russian Ground Forces also saw action and I don't think I've ever seen a modern Russian female soldier in miniature.

Hey Adam! Very happy to hear you are working on Russians and especially Chechens! They are long overdue in 15mm.

If you havent seen them already, I would check these two pages for excellent pictures of both forces:
link
link

As for weapons for chechens, SVD, PKM, and AK/ w/ underslung grenade launchers would all be nice additions to the usual AK/RPG's that insurgents are armed with. An RPG-18 (or RPO) would be a nice addition as well instead of just the usual RPG-7.
link

If you do any support weapons, a tripod mounted MG, AGL, or mortar would do nicely.

Pretty much all of the Chechen's should be depicted with some type of facial hair/beard (as you can see from my pictures).

I really liked your SEALs so can't wait to see what you do with these!

If you havent considered it, some Russian OMON helmeted troops would be perfect for this conflict as well:
link

U.K.

Just reading a book on School No.1 at Beslan so though its a period that interests me, I personally would have to game the Russians (just like when we played some NI games quite a few years ago – whereby playing PIRA terrorists was distasteful ) – personal thing of course and totally subjective

Ho man thats nice. About time that conflict got the 15mm treatment.

Adam, sorry to say these figures suck!

they will suck more money out of my darn wallet! UK asked all the right question on the next figs in the range.
great job as usual.
cw

Dan
TMP link
TMP link

WOLVERINES!!!

That's some quality sculptin' by the way.

PS. VERY happy to hear about planned Spetsnaz!

thanks again for all the comments and useful links and info.

Will update this thread as new figures are finished. First ones will be ready by the weekend.

Cheers

Adam

Outstanding!

oh I like that Whiffy, look forward to more of them :-)

Red Dawn : one film where I was absolutely rooting for the VDV and the Spetnatz

Militants were/are also still using bolt action rifles (mostly M91/30s) alongside SVDs

However, don't go overboard with these weapon types. Contrary to popular belief the majority of the Chechens in 1995/96 were armed at least as well as the Russian troops they were fighting. The AK-74, the AKS-74 and the PKM were widespread in their use, as well as RPG-18 and RPG-22 anti-tank weapons. Remember the Chechens inherited a lot of up-to-date military kit from the Russians after the Soviet Union collapsed. Please try to avoid using AK-47s – I can't find any evidence of it's widespread use (although in 15mm I'm not sure you you could sculpt the subtle differences). If anything you see the odd AKM amongst the Chechens.

Also consider what period you wish to portray, as the Russian forces definitely developed after the first Chechen War. Russian motorised infantry in 1995/6 was further differently equipped in terms of webbing, camo uniforms, body armour and equipment to their MVD (Interior Ministry troops) counterparts and Morpeh (Russian Naval Infantry). VDV (Russian paratroopers) who saw combat in 1999 in Dagestan, also had subtle differences in their equipment and webbing.

It's a complicated subject, with few references in English. I should know as I've spent years researching the subject. The internet does have some pretty good Russian language sites on the Chechen conflicts, depending on the level of detail you wish to delve into. YouTube also has some interesting footage for both wars. The stuff in Russian is usually the best.

A couple of final points. When you view footage of Russian troops in combat (as opposed to posed shots), even the interior troops tend to be wearing helmets. True they wore wooly hats, but when the shooting started the Ssh-68s/Spheras/K6s/Altyns/TIGs/Maskas/Skifs (take your pick…) were worn on their heads often over wooly hats or in the case of the Ssh-68, over your Ushanka, as it was designed to do.

Likewise remember the Chechens (particularly in 1995/6) were not generally radicalised in their outlook and tend to wear their beards short, or were even clean shaven. As the war went on certain groups became more radicalised and influenced from abroad by Wahhabism, leading to some growing their beards and shaving their heads.

A couple of links (use Google to translate):

warchechnya.ru

pbase.com/igor01/chechnya

Good point on weapons Monty. The Chechens forces in Grozny were very well armed at the start of the conflict. They captured large amounts of Russian kit during a failed Russian-backed coup attempt in November of '04, a month before the Russian attempted coup-des-main on Grozny in December:
link

I definitely prefer the earlier Russian uniform styles that cover the early war b/t '94-96 (ie. the first Chechen War).
Motor Rifle or VDV would be appropriate for the early Grozny battles.

Russian motorised infantry in 1995/6 was further differently equipped in terms of webbing, camo uniforms, body armour and equipment to their MVD (Interior Ministry troops) counterparts

------------------
were the MVD units more tending towards camo etc – my impression had been that they were better kitted out than the standard army units and in theory better trained for this kind of thing – but in some places have read that they were not much good. Presumably within the MVD there were the OMON units who would in theory approximate to Police Special Forces so so speak (there was an interesting article a few years ago that claimed that for all the size of the Russian Armed Forces (incl Internal Security forces) that there were only a relatively few number of OMON companies that were spread very thin across the country (in fact it may even have been talking about Soveiet days as it was commenting that many were veterans of Afghanistan and simply were not there in enough numbers to be able to shore up the crumbling empire)

It's difficult to deal in absolutes when looking at Russian forces in the first Chechen War, as invariably you'll find an exception to a rule. That said the standard uniform of the Russian motorised forces was VSR camo (in a dazzling variety of shades depending on the factory it was produced in), although you'll equally see a lot of old Afghan Khaki still in use. Morpeh or what you might call Russian Marines seemed to favour the TTsKO camo uniform, whilst MVD had a variety of camo uniforms, such as SMK, KKO and Tiger Stripe. By the time of the second Chechen War the army had developed VSR into Flora (the same pattern, but horizontal and slightly larger), but you'll still see examples of VSR. This is a pretty good website for trying to get your head around it all…

link

I would say that equipment was varied across all branches of the armed forces in 1994/6. A lot of photographs show a massive range of body armour for example (6B3, 6B4 and 6B5 for army and some MVD whilst interior forces tended to use the Kazak or Kora vests). Babchenko's book also suggests that soldiers scrabbled around in the rear areas trying to assemble any kit they could as a lot of the armour was missing the titanium or ceramic plates. I'm not sure the MVD had better equipment per se. They were armed just as well as the motorised infantry (with the standard AK-74), and after the disasterous infantry assaults into urban areas the Russians pretty much resorted to flattening entire areas with artillery and aerial bombing, often causing friendly casualties in the process.

In terms of combat performance I'd say the Russian forces did fairly badly, particulary in Grozny in 1994/5. Armoured columns drove into built up areas, where the Chechens armed with the latest Russian anti-tank weapons picked them off. It's true that the Russians did eventually gain control of Grozny, but I'd argue it was a hollow victory, given the casualties they took, the poor tactics and the fact that the city was so badly damaged, they pretty much alienated the remaining resident population. By the time of the Second Chechen War I believe Grozny was referred to the most bombed place on the planet at the time. Even then the Russians still made elementary mistakes, failing to properly escort convoys and taking appaling casualties when the Chechens resorted to guerilla tactics, plus they suffered the embarrassment of watching Grozny fall into chaos again in August 1996 when the Chechens reinfiltrated the city, eventually leading to a ceasefire.

Really useful info there. Thanks again.

Am running a day behind due to a commission over running but Sunday will see some more greens finished

Adam

Cant wait to see what u come up with Adam!

Some quick shots of a couple of figures I finished off today.

Problem with working of 50 figures in your spare time is that a 10 min job on a single figure turns into 8 hour job on the whole group.

Moving along nicely though and the first complete fire teams will be ready next week.

First up a Chechen commander receiving field updates

(the aerial is a bit thicker than I'd have liked on the walkie talkie but I had to keep it the thick of else casters shout at me…)

And finally a refugee moving out. There will be a whole set of these as I can see them being useful figures.

Cheers again for all the interest and comments so far. Will keep you all update with further progress as it happens.

Adam

Commander is awesome! Thanks for posting Adam!

Cheers, pleased with commander also.

Spetnaz should be finished first

A quick update, got another 3 finished this evening.

Figures are grouped in to fours, so there is another one yet to go to complete this pack.

Spetsnaz in Sphera helmets and assault vests.

Quick shots with my phone as it was getting late, will sort better pics when I finish off the 4th figures

Cheers

Adam

Really like the two poses on the right Adam! The first is a little static for me for a Spetsnaz (who should all be assaulting in my book ;-)

I'm sure others will like the pose.

These will all double as Omon troops nicely for me! Keep the great stuff coming!

Managed to get another Spetsnaz finished off.

Quick pics with the phone again…

RPG, Snipers and MG teams being worked on now.

Thanks

Adam

Very nice!

Please include some figures with the gp-30 grenade launcher please. This always seems to be overlooked.

link

Our Afghans have the GP-25 (initially designated BG-15)

I agree Rommel.