writes:After enlarging my U.S. force for Team Yankee/World War III (see previous articles), I'm back to work on my Soviet force.
This is the Storm AT platoon, which consists of three MTLBs mounting an anti-tank weapon.
I wasn't sure if these really existed or were Team Yankee inventions, but Wikipedia says there really were MTLBs with AT mounts. I have no info on how common it was.
It would take some courage to go to war in this vehicle, as the MTLB is little more than a tracked truck, originally intended to move towed artillery. It has minimal armor.
The MTLB has been seen in the Ukraine War, where it seems to be a favorite vehicle for ad-hoc weapons conversions. I have not seen any actual Storms in Ukraine. According to one source, the Russians have pretty much exhausted their storage yards of every MTLB that can be made to run. The Russians still have a lot of them in their army, but the numbers will now decrease and not be replaced.
This was my first attempt at painting a modern Soviet model in 15mm, and I followed the basics: prime black, basecoat Russian green, highlight with a lighter green, black wash, drybrush with muddy colors.
I probably went a little overboard with the weathering, but the Russians aren't known for taking the best care of their equipment… (the Ukrainians captured a T-64 recently, converted to a 'turtle tank', and they discovered the turret and gun were completely rusted and inoperable!).
This model has a resin hull, plus metal tracks and anti-tank weapon. The AT weapon easily gets knocked off, so I have to remember to be careful in handling. I mounted the vehicles on LITKO 3mm wooden bases and FlexSteel underneath, as usual.