of 
Thanks again to Dave Woodward of Ever Victorious for painting these Soviets for TMP! Here are more pictures:
I should note that, contrary to the dates on these articles, it didn't take Dave three years to paint these figures! He finished this commission long ago, but this article was waiting in "the vault" until TMP's editor acquired and learned how to use a new digital camera...
Dave originally provided "work in progress" pictures and a longer write-up - but unfortunately, he and I both managed to lose those files (Dave moved to a new website, and I failed to make a back-up of his website material!).
One of the command figures almost didn't make it back to TMP - when the box arrived from Dave, it was a figure short! Fortunately, the "lost" figure turned up at his neighbor's... the package from TMP had been misdirected to his neighbor, the neighbor had opened the box to see who it belonged to, and one of the figures had been set behind something on the mantle - which is where Dave rescued it.
Also, I should note that Dave provided the figures unbased (as requested) - I wanted to base all of the project figures, since I thought that would help give a unity to the army. I simply used some DAP Latex Wood Filler to smooth the bases, let it dry, painted with Americana Mississippi Mud and (while wet) dipped into a bowl of flock. When it was dry, I sealed the flocking by dipping the bases in water, applying Accent Satin Varnish, setting the figures on paper towels to wick off excess moisture, then placing on a hard surface to dry.
Looks like I'm going to need some flags - anyone have recommendations?