За Родину! Seriously...

What the heck has Peabody been up to for all these months!?

A fair question. It seems I have caught that most dread gaming bug: '20mm WWII'. And not the bog-standard 'Normandy virus', no. I have 'Kursk Pocket' syndrome.

The symptoms have impacted heavily upon my hobby lifestyle!

For most of a year now I have been browsing Osprey, Squadron, Concord and Tank Power publications, pretending to do research, all the while my 'Stash' has grown out of control with kits and minis wondrous and new. To me.
In hindsight, I have only just begun to tap the awesome resources available to the typical 20mm historical gamer.

Serious self discipline has been needed over the last months, an incredible total focus of mind and body, to clear the portion of my lead-mountain that had irresponsibly surged from the cupboard to invade my peaceful living room.

And my campaign is almost won! Soon 'The Rogue Stash' will be constrained to its allotted cupboard and the oppression of The Living Room will end!

Over the coming days and weeks, I look forward to recounting the glorious victories our 'Stash-Reduction-Programme' has achieved.

No better place to begin than with the humble оловянный солдатик - toy soldier.

The foot soldier is fundamental, even when gaming a theatre famous for clashing armour, like Kursk.

Urrrah! PSC and Elhiem minis work well together!

I turned to the Plastic Soldier Company for mass and relied on the Elhiem Figures Red Army line to add animation, versatility and class to my platoons of infantry.

Matt Hingley is the the talented chap behind Elhiem figures. His sculpts have a life all to themselves and while there is every reason to build your army entirely from Elhiem stocks, I especially like the way they mix with other lines.

The PSC Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform box is a multi-piece set that builds into 57 very nicely detailed and proportioned figures. Tremendous Value.


One box from PSC and several packs from Elhiem gave me enough infantry for a company! I plan to game with both ordinary rifle platoons and also one of SMG toting tank riders.

Plan your collection of infantry to be flexible. Soviet TOE's changed a lot during the war.

Painting was kept very simple, sticking to my tried and true Fast Paint Method and sticking close to the suggested colours from the back of the PSC box. Vallejo, Reaper and even Citadel paints did the job.
I strongly recommend this popular speedy painting technique. It's just the thing if you need to get busy painting a lot of minis. Also a great way to get going if you are just starting out, or making a switch from another scale. With a quality mini, the work is already done for you!

In time I'll be adding engineers, scouts, medics and command figures.
How I'm going to do those will depend on the rules we settle on for playing out our Summer '43 ETO battles.
No shortage of opportunities there!




This Kursk Pocket syndrome is not so bad... The toys created by all this effort have already provided terrific fun!

Peabody out!