Hi Martin and everybody else,
As of late, I've been assembling a WWII Soviet force out of PP figures. I base them individually, so I use figures in clearly "leading" poses for leaders to aid in their quick recognition. When preparing the forces for the earlier half of the war, however, I've run into a problem: unlike other armies, the Soviets at first didn't arm their squad leaders with sub-machine guns, going for standard rifles instead. We have pretty good coverage of this on surviving Shtat documents (the Soviet equivalent to WETs or TO&Es) and all infantry squad leaders (both in rifle units and in the organic infantry components of motorised and tank units) were explicitly assigned rifles. As a note, SMGs were present, but assigned to other men in the squad, which suggests that it was a conscious choice based on doctrinal reasoning, although I haven't seen this actually stated in any document. This only changed in May 1943 when squad leaders (along with a bunch of other personnel) were rearmed with SMGs across all types of infantry units.
This is unfortunate because I cannot rely on figures in "leading" poses for quick identification of their role on the table. I have to use regular riflemen figures instead, resorting to other tricks to "mark" them apart as leaders. Late war isn't a problem because fortunately there are excellent NCO figures in appropriate poses carrying SMGs.
My suggestion therefore would be for a pack depicting early war NCOs carrying Mosin rifles. Would this be possible? Would it be worth it?
It's my first post here, let me know if I did anything wrong and thank you for your time!
First of all welcome!
Nothing wrong with that post! We do prefer people to sign off with their name if it's not obvious from their username. If I was a betting man, I'd guess Vic, but I'm not so I won't 😆
In the absence of an actual figure, is a conversion possible? I often find useful figures elsewhere in ranges such as artillery crew that can be re-purposed. Head swaps are a great way of an easy conversion, though I appreciate this doesn't help the weapon situation 😆
How about the chap in 653?
How many figures do you need?
martin :)
Both figures look perfect.
One of these might work too.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mzyqYnzg/wpd5ad459e-05-06.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Thank you all for your responses!
Quote from: Sean Clark on August 31, 2023, 12:41:05 PMWe do prefer people to sign off with their name if it's not obvious from their username. If I was a betting man, I'd guess Vic, but I'm not so I won't 😆
Understood! You'd have won that bet indeed.
QuoteIn the absence of an actual figure, is a conversion possible? I often find useful figures elsewhere in ranges such as artillery crew that can be re-purposed. Head swaps are a great way of an easy conversion, though I appreciate this doesn't help the weapon situation 😆
Yes, my back-up plan is to use regular riflemen but with the helmeted heads swapped for pilotka-wearing ones, so that at least these are clearly distinct from other riflemen in the same pose.
Quote from: martin goddard on August 31, 2023, 01:06:38 PMHow about the chap in 653?
I hadn't considered these but I'll definitely add a pack to my next order. Thanks!
QuoteHow many figures do you need?
That's part of why I'm looking for more variety in poses; with 4 squad leaders for a platoon-level game and 12 for a company-level game, I'll need some conversions to get some variety.
Quote from: Sean Clark on August 31, 2023, 02:02:00 PMOne of these might work too.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mzyqYnzg/wpd5ad459e-05-06.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Another good suggestion, thank you!
- Vic