15mm East German Volksarmee air support and transports for Team Yankee

For the last installments to the East German army, we have the air support and transport elements.

There are:
4 x Hinds - Nice big models from Battlefront. Painted using the East German camo scheme from the Volksarmee book.

2 x SU25 Frogfoot strike aircraft - Diecast models from Fabri. Slightly larger than the Battlefront models (1:113 from memory). I just need to get some sturdy flight stands. I repainted the underwing hardware and the undercarriage light blue ("Hind Blue") to match the Hinds. Nice models.

12 x BMP2 transports - these are 3d printed models. The Konkurs AT missile tubes turned out strangely (or not at all) so I replaced them with plastic tubes and they look much better. The bodies look like a mix of the BMP1 and BMP2 but they have the BMP2 turrets. No one looks that closely at them anyway...

Hope you like them and this completes the army. For now...

Cheers,
Mick

15mm East German Volksarmee supports for Team Yankee

Additions to the East German forces for my Team Yankee army.

4 x SAM 'Gophers' - these are 3d printed models.

Very sturdy, if basic models. I think they do the job quite well.

I got them from a bloke on TMP. They are a reasonably effective AA unit.

4 x AA 'Shilkas' - kits from Zvezda.

Nice models with moving barrels and radar. Easy enough to put together.

These models can also be devastating against infantry if they haven't got AA targets. It makes them a handy unit.

6 x 122mm SP Artillery 'Carnations' - also from Zvezda. 

Very nice models and the cannon can be moved up and down to show when they are moving or in firing positions.

I find that having 6 of them makes them effective and resilient as they tend to get targeted. 

I still have more to show you soon...

Cheers,

Mick

 The Gophers and Shilkas

 The Carnations

15mm East German Volksarmee infantry for Team Yankee

Next up for the Cold War East German army is the infantry.
Probably the backbone of the army, at least using the Team Yankee rules.

They are nice looking models and I more or less followed the painting guide in the Volksarmee book. These are the combined infantry company and heavy weapons packs from Battlefront miniatures.

Cheers,
Mick

 The infantry

 Command stand and RPG teams (x9!)

Heavy Weapons group with anti-tank teams, and AA teams

 LMG teams

AK47 rifle infantry

15mm Plastic Soldier Company T55AM2 for Team Yankee East German army

I've never had any interest in the Cold War, but after enjoying a demo game for Team Yankee, I decided to begin playing and collect an army.
It might say something about my personality, but I decided to go with the East German 'VolksArmee'. They seemed an interesting choice even though they aren't particularly powerful.

The T55AM2 tanks of the VolksArmee are very cheap (in points) but are the weakest tanks I know of for the period.
I pre-ordered the Plastic Soldier Company T55s back in January and they arrived around April/May. They were quickly built and undercoated and I got in an early game with them. I'm pretty sure they were mostly destroyed so I thought they may as well look good for the next game before they get blown away.

I'm not a modeller and painting tanks and vehicles is not an area I'm too good at, so it was a good challenge to experiment with ideas and colours to get a result I was happy with. The main focus was trying to find the balance in weathering techniques while being subtle.

The numbers are decals from the Zvezda Shilka AA kits (I'm still waiting on the VolksArmee decals on back order from Battlefront) and the commanders are from the Soviet starter army box "Potecknov's Bears".

I hope people playing Team Yankee find the photos interesting.

Cheers,
Mick