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[Image] Death to the fascist invaders! 28mm figure from Warlord Games' "Bolt Action" range. In Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I continue to plot my way along the "Challenge Island" map (for info on how and why the participants do that, see here).  I needed another balloon ride, and so I looked for another chance to paint a female figure.  The Soviet Army of WW2 offered a great opportunity to do so.

28mm Female Russian Infantry Scout

[Image] Dangerous work, close to the enemy - a female scout for my 28mm winter WW2 Russians. As you have seen I have been working on a 28mm winter WW2 project.  Amid the many submissions involving various late WW2 Germans, a few have asked if and when their tabletop opposition might appear? Well, I'm hoping Dallas will get his 28mm winter US troops organized for some "Battle of The Bulge" games.  But in terms of painting opposition myself, well, I'm focused on the Eastern Front as always, so this is the first opponent - a 28mm Female Russian Infantry Scout.  This is a metal figure from Warlord Games' "Bolt Action" Range.

[Image] As always, great details on these metal sculpts from Warlord. The "scout" set from Warlord's WW2 Russian figure range is not intended for winter, strictly speaking.  They are sculpted wearing the "ameoba" style body suits, which are often seen in browns and a (rather bright) green.  So I'm taking artistic license of a sort - I don't think it's a huge reach, as scouting would still need to be done during the winter fighting, so I just painted the suit white instead.  Warlord also tends to give you some options for alternate heads for the figures, and they include a female head among them - so I thought this would be a great figure to accompany a passage on Lady Sarah's Balloon.

[Image] No reason the scout suits couldn't be white, right? The war in the east in WW2 was so tremendous and vast in scale.  I read about it, I try to study it...but it is hard to truly understand or picture, such a complete and total mobilization of an entire people across vast distances in an all-out effort to repel the Germans and their allies, and vanquish them totally.  Of course all the main countries in the conflict did the most they could to pit their entire national power into the effort - it was total war. But in the east, and Russia in particular...the scale, it was incredible, and the sacrifice it took - the numbers get so large, so fast, they sort of lose their impact.

[Image] Russian women - fighting at the front lines. Women made tremendous contributions to the Allied war effort in many countries. But in the case of Russia, this contribution stood out to my mind.  Russian women - hundreds of thousands of them - served in what were thought of as traditional non combatant roles - nurses, medical support, industry.  But huge swathes of Russian territory came under occupation, and as the front lines found the Russian people, Russian women made important contributions to front-line fighting.  As pilots, snipers, partisans, machine gunners, all in the front line - decorated for bravery and courage under fire, and in untold cases, making the ultimate sacrifice along side so, so many of their fellow people.

[Image] Once again, some fine blanquette from Limoux to enjoy during the balloon trip. Bad Squiddo Games have some fantastic sculpts of female Russian soldiers - just look here for some examples painted by the incredibly talented Dave V. I will look to add one of their sniper teams down the road. But the scouts will work for now, and I thought it would be great to have one of my first 28mm Russian painted as part of the small scouting squad, the first of what I hope will be a healthy-sized collection of 28mm Winter Russians to oppose all of the Germans I have been painting.  Scouting is dangerous work, but she is more than up to the task...we see here she has snuck into a position, and is tossing a grenade toward some unwary invaders...

[Image] This balloon trip involves a perilous destination... This figure allowed me to take a balloon trip directly to the centre of "Challenge Island", where Curt will hit me with a hobby challenge to complete prior to March 21st. Stay tuned for more on that.  In the meantime, thanks for looking!