After the Russo-Georgian war of 2008 I started to build contemporary forces. Several armies grew on my basement: a very large Russian force was built together with Georgian, Portuguese, Italian and German forces. The quickly available die-cast were a big help both for air and land and, together with the US units for Iraq 2003, all this stuff was gathered for an eventual enlargement of the 2008 conflict something that fortunately never happened. The Russian occupation of Crimea and the Donbass (with big battles like Debaltseve) made me start an Ukranian force. All these models are now in the hundreds and, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on the 24th February 2022, many of them just needed the addition of a few details like the "Z" Russian symbol or some digital camouflage in the case of the Ukranians, so I will not bother you showing them again as you can see them in the Blog Label "Georgia 2008". This war also has an incredible coverage by the media and even individuals and plenty of material surfaced in magazines like Raids, TNT, DSI and such. TV and the Web are also great sources of information on the conflict and soon a Russian BTG or a Ukranian Mech became very well known expressions that the armchair generals use like if they always did (my case also).
With this war having a strong support from NATO countries in behalf of Ukraine, much of the US, German, Italian, Georgian, Portuguese model miniatures (and so on, fortunately, many of the miniature armies I collected) can be used by the Ukranian side. Also built in the last few years were many of the more recent Russian models used after 2008 (even if built before) that were not used by the 58th CAA (T-90, BMP-3, etc)
Regarding rules... well, that is more complicated. Surely I want a ratio of 1:5 in tanks and 1:15 in infantry which is something that works very well in Able Charlie rules (the modern version of Rapid Fire! designed for Cold war and up to the 80ies). With the more recent RFR rules I intend to mix Able Charlie and RFR with my own ideas about drones, AAWS (Javelin type), stealth aircraft and all the stuff that came in the last decades. Not sure if I will ever make it but, in the mean time I´ll enjoy building and collecting models for this current war. I know this sounds cold hearted but I´m sure that this war will be a major issue in the wargaming communities in the future due to the amount, variety and size of the engagements. Hopefully this war will finish soon and we can have true historical information about it not corrupted by propaganda from both sides.
Even if very old material from the 80ies and 90ies is used in this conflict, you need some newer stuff. So lets see what can be done from my point of view.
The BTR-82A is one of the most seen vehicles from the Russian side in this conflict. At least one infantry company and the support company of each BTG (Battalion Tactical Group) should be equipped with it (or the older BTR-80A or even the basic BTR-80). With a total of around 100 BTGs that means some 1800 vehicles of the kind in this Russian invasion. My idea regarding the Russian army is to build six BTGs (a mixed group of around two battalions worth of tanks, infantry and artillery) with some surplus vehicles (different tank and AFV models) and one full Ukranian Mechanized Brigade, much larger than the Russian BTG (around six battalions).
A cheap way to do the BTR-82A is the 4D model ordered from Aliexpress. I ended up with 12 of them and half were converted to the BTR-82A. One went to the reconnaissance infantry company and the plain BTR-80 went to the support company of each BTG. By having six of each you can use also all BTR-82A in the Russian forces (3 BTG) or all BTR-80 in the Luhansk (LPR) or Donetsk (DPR) as I think these last two have older equipment.
The turret needs a lot of carving and sanding to bring it to shape. Then you can see the kind of material necessary for the gun mount: plastic card and tubes, metal tubes and GreenStuff. In the end you get a number of cheap and effective BTR-82A.
Each Russian BTG needs at least a command vehicle. The best idea should be the several variants based on the BTR-80 (the R-149 variants) but I already spent 12 of them as you can see in the previous paragraphs. So I used an older model, still present on the Russian side (maybe only LDR and NLR?) as can be seen from the Oryx site, the R-145 BM1 based on the obsolete BTR-60. This choice was quite handy as I was thinking to use them for the Angolan Bush Wars but, in the mean time, MiniGeneral also released the BTR-60 making it quite accessible.
This Fabbri die-cast conversion is pretty straightforward and it can be even simpler if you don't place the communications pole in the upward position, by far the most complicated part of the conversion. As you can see most of the converted parts are made of broom bristles (pink) and plastic or metal rod.
The rear of the vehicle also needs some mending and two component paste was used for that effect. The communications pole is much longer than this when extended and this solution, even if less accurate, is better for storage. With a Xan Miniatures commander the model is complete.
Of course better than one are six of the same, one for each BTG, and ready for priming.
Same idea for the AT company of the BTG. The Russian (and Ukranians) still use this 9K114 Shturm based on the MT-LB. So, six of them came from MiniGeneral and were converted for this version.
Same materials as before for this conversion, plastic card, two component paste and the toughest Styrofoam you can find. As I told you before the ugly printing lines at the front are gone with two layers of gloss varnish applied in spray.
All AT companies ready. You can replace these by the 9M123 Khrizantema based on the BMP-3.
Well, the next ones can´t be scratch built or converted, at least from my level of modelling, and thus the true things had to be bought. This is the Pantsir-S1, one of the latest AA systems of the Russian army. This is an Armory model, made in Ukraine, and nowadays not very easy to find. Its a complex model with some 400 parts made of plastic, resin and PE parts. Even if assembling the thing together took me some three days, after painting, as usual, it becomes a nice model.
I have another one of this model coming but I hope to find four other different AA models (modernized Shilkas, Tunguskas, Tor, Buk..), preferably die-cast for the rest of the BTG, as this one take lots of time and money!
One of issues with these kind of weapons in the BTG is that some advocates its replacement by HMGs as the Ukranian infantry with ATGW is far more dangerous for the BTG than Ukranian aircraft.
In these months I also looked for some infantry and found on Ebay several of the Orion modern Federal Russian infantry, which are obviously becoming harder and harder to find as they are made in Russia. The poses are very good but many of the figures are using berets, caressing dogs and other trivial stuff which are not very "wargaming" poses besides being better for the beginning of the century with the Chechen wars in mind. Of course no sign of the EMR, Barmitsa or Permyachka gear and uniforms which tend to be more relevant in nowadays Russian army, particularly from 2008 on.
The SPG artillery uses the tanker's helmet and these were made in GreenStuff replacing the original beret.
The 2S19 Msta-S is one of the main SPGs in use. The models are Zvezda, made in Russia, and I hurried in buying them for obvious reasons...
The model is a beauty, as everything Zvezda does. Together with nowadays Revell, Dragon and ModelCollect, its one of the best model kit brand around. The figures are Orion and Xan miniatures. The Akatsya SPG is still used in big numbers and I hope to find a few of them for the rest of the BTGs, preferably die-cast.
This 2S4 Tyulpan is a repainted fabbri die-cast with another Orion conversion as crew. The one you see is the one caressing a dog but here is somehow helping to place the mortar into position.
Finally a repainted TOS-1 from Zvezda. My Russian BTGs are now around 100 vehicles with just a hand full of vehicles and all infantry still to be made. Next to start in force are the Ukranians and then a Regiment of Russian VDV.
Next: maybe a video on the Russians in the current invasion of Ukraine.
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