"1/144 Soviet T-60s ready for battle" Topic

Hi All,

Here's a few pics of some completed T-60 models finished up today. They're so small in comparison to their companion T-34s seen here, that I felt I was painting micro armor again.

The handy view that really brings out the size contrast. The T-60 below is a 1/144th scale resin models by Kamiya bought on ebay, and the T-34 comes from the game Duel Of The Giants as one of its included playing pieces (the KV-1 is a World Tank Museum model).

Nice!

Great work

Guys, thanks for checking out the thread and for your kind words!

I was needing these T-60s for a scenario I want to play (when it's safe), based on a Soviet counterattack that was fought in late July 1942 near the town of Lomovo, north of Voronezh.

Here's part of the planned board, with some of the units that'll be involved in the game.

As mentioned above, some of the T-34s (M40/41 variants) I found cheap, as playing pieces (8 per) in the board game Duel Of The Giants, which was on closeout sale a few years ago (bought 3 boxed games for $15 USD total and snagged 24 early mark T-34 models).

Along with KV-1s and these new T-60s, I have a fair mix of models to field a few of the of 1942-era Soviet tank battalions with.

Now you just need another whole set in whitewash.

Those look really nice. Very good work. As usual.

- Ix

Early war winter on the Eastern Front would be awesome.

I do have late war Soviets in snow schemes, and made the Emchas with two turrets each, for swapping to 75mm-armed Shermans when needed (have done the Bulge with those also).

The mat for the '42 game above is 5ft. X 7ft. in size, and I'm looking forward to this 'Russian steppes' game with its bit more space for maneuver.

When our area gaming first started playing around here, we would play on tables, or often on tile floors, and just with tape roads and simple, felt woods overlays. Then over time, our terrain demands got higher, and our game boards shrunk in size to fit the terrain pieces we crafted……but we lost much of the maneuvering room when we downsized our table areas (and bigger model scales seemed to conflict with these operations too).

Sometimes it's not just a choice of quality vs. quantity, but one that involves issues of overall fidelity.

The quality of these models is simply amazing. the track sag on the KV I, the engine detail on the T34 or the wheels on the little thing (a T60? I thought Putin was parading them through Red Square even now)

The Lend Lease Shermans in USSR hands are rarely shown. Let me risk a guess. M4A3 76s? But I think some have the circular, not oval, loader's hatch. (I know very little…I was going to put it stronger ending in all….about Shermans, but have learnt much working on my Free French 2eme DB)

The scenic photos are amazing

(Since posting I checked. Putin was showing off the T90 not T60, but now comes the T14. Well that makes numerical sense…..I guess)

Deadhead, those WTM KV-1s are some of my favorite tanks in this scale, they're just great models!

Now the T-34s seen are board game knockoff copies of what are the really crisp World Tank Museum T-34 originals, and the barrels and tracks from the board game pieces aren't as clean as the WTM originals (but at the price I got them they were great buys).

The Shermans…..well, the hulls come from M4A3 Revell kit models, those that have the driver and gunner "hoods" in the glacis plate, along with a standard 75mm turret each. The 76mm turret adaptations here come from Pegasus Hobbies brand 'M4A3' tanks (that are actually on M4A1 hulls with HVSS running gear), and so these 76mm turrets on early M4A3 hulls are not strictly accurate, but this offered a way to make the 76mm conversions with available retail models, and to feasibly do a separate/duplicate winter scheme collection.

I do have a company of WTM 75mm Shermans in OD color (my repaints), and these have the later flat glacis plate of the M4A3(75) – and they're great looking models too. Let me see if I've got a picture of those…..

Yes, here's a pic of minis organized for a game based on the 1st action at Guebling, France in Nov. 1944. It actually shows the standard 75mm WTM Shermans, a few as the 105mm assault gun Shermans at the box top (w/thicker, metal tube barrel replacements), and some 76mm Pegasus turrets mixed into the force (these with the muzzle brakes left on).

Most of the Sherman "76's" above don't have star insignias applied to them, in case I want to use them as Lend-Lease Shermans for the Eastern Front (and for non-winter games)……gotta try to get as much use out of the models as possible!

Guys,

It's looking like I'll get this scenario up and running at our local con this coming June…….my first game in well over a year!

I wish I could claim the work done on the TB mat below, but beyond its overall design request, the superb execution was done by Will at Sigil Hobbies. It's a 'big mat' for our usual gaming space – at 5ft. X 7ft., and reminds me of the board expanse we used to play on (and often on the floor) when we first started gaming WW2 and moderns in our area, back in the 1970's. Since then, things have shrunken down with the move towards higher terrain fidelity and detailing, but I've missed the memory of those big Eastern Front "steppe games" we had back then.

Anyway, enough waxing on, here's this scenario's design – printed maps with deployment areas shown will be digitally applied for player hand-outs. The Soviet attack approaches from the top (N), and is charged with gaining a crossing and exploiting it…..

Fantastic work and inspiring photos!

Cheers, Rob! :)

Those are excellent looking T-60s, T-34s, and KV-1s, FlyXwire!

Your terrain layout looks exceptional as well. It all comes together perfectly.

Thanks Pete!

(I'm working with twice the 'canvas' space at this model scale than you are in Micro-Armour, so in comparison your efforts are quite remarkable)

This scenario is all packed up and ready to run – here's the first portion of the German troops for the game – dug-in inf., AT support, and arriving remnants of a StuG Battery (historically, on advancing to the battle area, the StuGs encountered an unmarked German minefield and lost 3 guns from the unit before a shot was fired).

FlyXwire said above:

(the KV-1 is a World Tank Museum model)

I'm thinking you must have repainted these. I just took delivery of two of these in basic green (no star, log motto), and while I agree the model is nice, the paint job is not. The shade of green doesn't seem right, it's sloppily applied and semi-transparent in places, and I'm not terribly happy with the way the factory brown-paint-as-mud looks.

- Ix

Yellow Admiral,

I repaint all my 1/144 vehicles, as that's the only way I could match their schemes in my collection, made up of combinations of pre-painted tanks like the WTM KV1 above, the unpainted kits purchased, resin 3D prints bought, metals, etc., that are needed to mix and match when filling out the ranks.

Crazy having to repaint pre-paints, but we do it for our own good reasons.

A tip – keep track of your paints used (I find myself painting new additions sometimes six years or so later after I did my first versions).