Sunday, December 29, 2013

From BenD: 15mm WWII Lend-Lease Soviet Armour (130 points)


Ben has his Challenge debut with this excellent herd of Lend-Lease Soviet Matildas.

From Ben:
Hello All,
Been a few weeks since the last time I did an update for my Soviets, so here is a nice little Matilda horde made up of 21 Zvezda Matilda models with a little conversion work. These are also my first models for The Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So hopefully a nice up chunk of points for me!
I have to be honest I have completely fallen for the current "meta" with this purchase. With the new Red Bear the reduced cost, top armour 2 and a surprisingly good all around armour, the Matilda is a great infantry assault unit.
The Zvezda models come with no open hatches, a problem as I want the commanders to be visible to make it easier spot them in the middle of the game. This was solved by cutting off the modeled off hatches and replacing the whole section with some spare Battlefront T-34 hatches I was given by my friend Robin.
Overall I'm happy with the models and the paint job. The Zvezda model is a pretty good model, I would say one of their best when a few of them have been a little hit or miss.
Next up I have a company of Stuarts and 21 Soviet Shermans. Thanks for looking and until next time...

Brilliant work Ben! Did you use an airbrush for these models, the finish is very smooth. Great decals and weathering as well.  I also really like the Soviet tank commander signalling with his special, 'What did we say? All Together! What did we do? One at a time. ' flag.

These 21 (!) Matildas will give Ben a base of 126 points but I'm adding a few more for the hatch mods and commanders.

20 comments:

  1. Tanks for these, they are really excellent.

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  2. Really great work they look awesome

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  3. Ahhh, but do they waltz?

    Nice tanks Ben :)

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    1. They're Russian. Waltzing is too petit bourgeois ;) great work.

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  4. Thanks for the kind works guys.

    @TamsinP - they don't Waltz as they Kommissar told them they can't ;-)

    @Curt - The base coat is airbrushed but after that it's all by hand.

    Ben

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  5. That's a great looking big bunch of made in England, Ruskie tanks.
    cheers

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  6. No Matilda worth her salt is going to listen to the Komissar. It's disorderly conduct all the way! Nice work on these Ben, I've been tempted a couple of times for my desert stuff and this may just tip me over the edge.

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  7. Fantastic work a great looking troop of tanks
    Peace James

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  8. Nice work - never knew the Russians used these.

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    1. They had about 918, they were used in the Battle for Moscow and the whole of 1942 in large numbers and limited numbers in 1943 and 44.

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    2. I never knew that - brilliant place the web at times. I know the Soviets didn't have a high opinion of some of the kit we sent but I wonder what they thought of the Matilda???

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  9. Very nice work on those Matildas, Ben!

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  10. Great looking tanks and the weathering is very nice!

    Christopher

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  11. These look great, nice swarm

    Ian

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  12. That's quite a few tanks! A splendid force

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  13. Very well done! Those Matildas look ACE and should teach the fascist invaders what it means to fight the soviets.

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  14. Excellent.. I do like Matilda's. Good work.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)