"Winter War 2: Finns vs. Russia 2018" Topic

Lets say for whatever reason, war has come to blows between Russia and Finland some time in the next few years. And it is going to be winter time when the shooting starts. This has been a fantasy what-if scenario that I wanted to do, as an excuse to do a few things:

i) Field some ultra-modern equipment on the table. I'll be using O8's 1:600 stuff. I am also assuming the Finns have upgraded their Leopard 2A4s to 2A5/Strv122 standard (with secret help from the Swedes!)
2) Paint and base models in a snowy winter setting.

I am not going to argue whether it is possible politically or economically for such a war to happen. After all, why let things like reason and logic to get in the way of a good wargame? :)

I have a few questions related to this setting:
1) What is the terrain like along the Finland/Russia border, especially down south in Karelia? Is it still like what it was back in 1939/40 or has it been developed a lot more now?
2) Does Finland / Russia / USMC (gonna get a MAU involved) have any kind of standard winter camouflage design for their AFVs? Or is it "just splash some white paint on top"?
3) Tips on basing models for a snowy environment? Keep in mind this is 1:600.

Sorry, can't help with any of the above, but did run across an interesting tidbit a while back.

Apparently, the Swedes had set aside a number of Drakens, to give to the Finns, should such an eventuality occur, under a secret agreement, before the Viggens were retired, back during the Cold War. Perhaps they are still available, and/or there are some mothballed Viggens too, just in case.

I have been looking for pictures of Estonians with the USMC in Afghanistan recently and have been finding pictures from BALTOPS annual operations in The Baltic. I am sure The Fins are involved in these too.

I haven't bookmarked anything as it is not what I was after but hope it helps.

Few notes:

i) My government, right at the moment, is purschasing roughly 100 units of surpluss Leo 2A6s from netherlands – no idea about the destination of Leo 2A4s yet, either we create more mechanised "kampfgruppes" or then (finaly) replace the T-55 in all roles with Leo-based vehicle. But with this budget (major cut downs, like everywhere in europe) Im quite confident that they wont be upgraded – the main point of 2A6 purschases was to save the effort of upgrading A4s as they were deemed to be good enough untill 2015. Most likely part of those is stored for reserve, part of them is modified to support-vehicles and part of them is dismantled into spares.

Arguing from such thing would be unnecessary, Im gaming Sino-Russian conflict of 2016 knowing it wont (much likely) happen with such schedule in such scale, and so there is no signs about russias agression towards finland, but you can allways play the "hey, nobody knew that winter war was coming in 1938!"-card.

1) Similiar – better roads, but AFAIK mostly it is similiar, with the exception that the southern karelia is far more populated than the isthmust was in 1939. But in general, quite similiar.

2) At least FDF does – the basis is standard m83 three-tone sharp-angled pattern (Dark Green, Moss Green and Black – 1/3 each) which is painted partly over into winter configuration (by covering Moss Green completely and roughly half from the dark green with white – so that around 3/6 of the vehicle is white, 1/6 is dark green and 2/6 is black)

There is two XA-203s at the backround, in such paint though Im quite sure I am seeing some moss green there..

And oh btw, we are not having any snow at the moment in southern finland, so you might do well just with the summer camo.. :D

3) Cant really help you with that – white paint on top of the flocked ground?

Thanks for answering Maahis! It is nice to know there is a legitimate reason for the Leo2A6 (my favorite modern tank) to be included for my little what-if project.

Better reference, Leo 2A4 in (official, and correctly done!) winter configuration:

link