bases them up.
The box should be winging it way to Wyoming by Thursday afternoon.
I chose the Minifigs T34 for my project, being somewhat of a treadhead but never having done 10mm. So what theme to use? Typical would be paint it green, slap a red star on the side, and send it to the front to die a glorious death battling the fascist invaders. I decided to go a different route and make it a captured tank used against the Red Hordes.
Started by looking at pictures of captured T34s in German service, when I ran across a photo of one being used by the Finns. There's something different, thought I! So it would be a T34 used by Finland, first against the Russians, then against the Germans. I started with dark green, then did some drybrushing of progressively lighter shades. I finished with some black- and rust-colored washes (Future/pigment mixes) to represent some of the dirt and grime.
Then came the stumbling block. For whatever reason, I could not paint a Finnish swastika that looked decent. Maybe it was the small scale, maybe just not feeling well, but whatever I tried just looked bad.
Bummer, what to do? Back to google.com (which is your friend) - and lo and behold, the answer came forth.
It seems that after the war, swastikas were no longer in fashion (surprise, surprise!). Bless the Finns, they went to somthing simple like a roundel of white/blue/white. I broke out my decal paper and color laser and printed out a few. There you have it, a Finnish post-war T34-76 ready to defend the borders from Russia, Sweden or those pesky Lapplander Reindeer troops. Apparently these tanks soldiered on until 1961.
About the Photos
The college where I work is the home of the Texas Heritage Museum, dedicated to the role of Texans in the nation's military conflicts. While mostly focusing on the ACW, there are also displays on WWI and WWII as well as Vietnam. Additional plans are being made for the Gulf Wars. I took the pictures next to some of the displays at the museum.
Here's a picture of the T34 and Hood's Brigade display.
Here's the tank and a Vietnamese 75mm recoilless rifle (the tank isn't quite 75mm long!)
The T34 poses with Parson's Mounted Cavalry's battle flag.
Here's the tank with some WWII equipment: first from Japan...
...and from the U.S.
Overall, this isn't the best work I have ever done, and I apologize for it. We just experienced a major restructuring at work and it has seriously cut in to my free time. Hopefully at least the subject matter will prove to be interesting to you.
Other links to Finnish armor:
Now onward to the wilds of Wyoming!