Getting Ready for Operation Spring Awakening

Rather embarrassingly, this post was started at the end of February! My excuse was that I was focused on the Painting Challenge, and neglected to do any updates. So a slew of things are coming, including a big post with all of my remaining entries. But first comes this post on getting ready for Battlegroup Spring Awakening.

I am a big fan of the Battlegroup rules; they are quite quick to pick up, reward balanced armies and realistic tactics. The Orders and Battle Rating system limit 'God-like' command and control and mean you have to make decisions between what you want to do and what you need to do, introducing friction into the game. The game can be played at a variety of levels from platoon up to battalion, although I think it really works well with 2-3 platoons a side with some supports. So I was pretty excited to get the latest supplement - Operation Spring Awakening.

Operation Spring Awakening follows the usual format of a historical overview of the fighting in Hungary in 1945 (pretty handy as this is an unfamiliar aspect of WW2 to me), some special rules to recreate the feel of the fighting, a new Army list for the Germans and a campaign of 6 scenarios recreating the operations of 1st SS Panzer Division along the Sarvitz Canal.

One of the nice features is that the campaign scenarios are mostly set at platoon level and I have quite a few of the units already in 15mm; of course, I would have to buy a few new toys to be able to play all of the scenarios but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make! Luckily, PSC have just had a Valentine's Day sale, which allowed  me to pick up a box of Zis 3 guns, 3 Zvezda SU76s and 2 Zvezda SU100s at a reduced price.

Whilst waiting for these to arrive, I dug out my 15mm Russian forces and decided that they were in need of a facelift. My painting has come on a bit since I first bought these and so I have set about upgrading the tanks and finishing off a platoon of infantry.

First up I did a platoon of T34s. Originally, these were done in a dark green with a basic lighter green drybrush - quick and simple but not very interesting to look at. I was inspired by the pictures of Russian tanks over at The Tactical Painter, so set out to see what I could with mine.

First off, I re-painted each tank with VJ Yellow Green and then gave it a wash with AK Interactive Wash for NATO tanks. This brought out the detail and also made the tank look suitably grubby - most appropriate for the fighting in Hungary, where conditions alternated between snow, rain and quagmire mud. With the AK wash it really needs vigorous and regular shaking whilst using it.

Then I used AK Interactive Dark Earth pigments to weather the running gear and lower hull of the tank. I found the best effect on the hull was achieved by lightly brushing the pigments to create a light 'film' of dust; heavier deposits were used on the running gear. The pigments were then fixed with liberal use of AK Pigment Fixer and left to dry over night. Finally, a protective coat of matt varnish was sprayed on.

The great thing about the PSC T34 kit is that you get two tanks for the price of one, as both 76mm and 85mm turrets are included. So here are they are as T34/76.

I was much happier with the look of the tanks now, so am working through the rest of the collection.