Soviet Russia - Winter Guard - Lady Death of the Red Army

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INTELLIGENCE FILE

Code name: Lady Death
Birth name: Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko
Nationality: Soviet Union

Affiliation: Winter Guard, Red Army
Known special skills: exceptional marksman, sniper
Current whereabouts: Eastern Front
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Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, (Russian: Людми́ла Миха́йловна Павличе́нко) was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army at the start of World War II, who was credited with 309 confirmed kills, making her the most successful female sniper in recorded history.

Pavlichenko was nicknamed "Lady Death" for her incredible ability with the sniper rifle. She served in the Red Army during the siege of Odessa and the siege of Sevastopol, during the early stages of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

After she was injured in battle by a mortar shell, she was evacuated to Moscow, where it was decided she was too valuable to the war effort be crippled and was administered an experimental drug to ensure a full recovery. Thanks to this, Pavlichenko made a full recovery and, being somewhat of a national hero, was assigned to the Winter Guard, where she continues her fight to this day.

The model is another resin, stock model without conversions. She comes with two options for her right hand, a gasmask, as pictured, and a chain attached to a cross, which seemed altogether too fiddly to bother with. Even with going with the easier build, there is still plenty of detail to work with. The figure is a wonderful little sculpt, with intricate detail and for me, somewhat above my paygrade paintingwise. Still, I like how she came out in the end, so that's all that matters. 32mm clear acrylic base to work on any table.

Lady Death and the Red Widow

Not always seeing eye to eye...

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MODEL INFORMATION
Scale: 1/35
Brand: Mauser Earth (Smartmax Miniatures/Blackbird Miniatures)
Figure reference: Chapochka
Material: Resin
Conversions: /
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Soviet Russia - Winter Guard - Red Widow

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INTELLIGENCE FILE

Code name: Red Widow

Birth name: Yelena Romanoff

Nationality: Soviet Union

Affiliation: Winter Guard, Red Room Academy

Known special skills: marksman, unarmed combat, superhuman strength, fast healing, superior agility and athletics, fluent in 13 languages, ballet, infiltration, assassination

Current whereabouts: unknown

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The Red Widow is one of Soviet Russia's elite operatives and a prime member of the (in)famous Winter Guard, Russia's own supersoldier team. A skilled spy and assassin, she has been endowed with strength, endurance, agility and healing beyond that of a regular human. Little is know about her past, as she was one of many orphans who were sent to the Red Room Academy at a young age and one of the few to come out of that hellish training place. Her mastery of at least a dozen language besides her Russian mother tongue, makes her a master of infiltration and she has conducted more than one clandestine mission resulting in the theft of secret files or the assassination of key politicians or military personnel. 

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MODEL INFORMATION
Scale: 1/35
Brand: Dust-Models
Figure reference: D85005 - Koshka Rudinova
Material: Resin
Conversions: /
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The model is a stock model from the small range of 1/35 Dust-Models kits, with no conversions. She is pinned and glued to a 35mmx2mm clear acrylic base, so she can look in place with any terrain. This was my first finished model in this scale in over 25 years and I tried to use some different painting techniques than the more standard wargaming ones I usually use on 28/30mm and 60/65mm scale. While I did not manage to break free completely from those habits, I am relatively satisfied.  

Soviet Russia - Intelligence Report - Red Room Academy

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INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Identification: Red Room Academy
Nationality: Soviet Russia
Location: Belarus, exact location unknown
Nature of the site: superspy training facility
Number of personnel: unknown
Known affiliations: Red Widow
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The Red Room Academy is a Soviet-Russian training facility posing as a boarding school, presumably located in the Maryina Horka Forest in Belarus. It is home to the Red Room Program, aimed at training and conditioning child assassins and superspies, while medically enhancing their natural skills to superhuman levels. 

All of the pupils are orphans, with the majority of them being girls. Each morning they are indoctrinated and brainwashed through films they are forced to watch and learn by heart. The films serve a double purpose, as they show the behaviour one should display to not raise any suspicions, as well as brainwash the children through subliminal messages embedded in the movies. They are trained in hand-to-hand combat from a young age, as well as in the use of a variety of close range and ranged weapons. 

Fatal "accidents" are not uncommon during that training period and only a fraction of those who enter the Red Room Academy will come out, as deadly weapons for Mother Russia to aim towards its enemies. One such graduate is the infamous Red Widow.

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Inspiration source: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Agent Carter/Black Widow)

Weird World War II : Larger than Life! - A Blog introduction

Welcome to - yet another - blog of mine focusing one of my miniatures and wargaming project, this one dedicated to the alternate history version of WWII, were supernatural creatures and occult artefacts mingle with scientific marvels and enhanced supersoldiers. While I've built up and painted a sizeable collection for this theme in 28mm a decade and a half ago, I have recently rebooted it in 1/35 (~50mm) scale. In time, pictures of my old collection may find their way onto this blog, but for now it's all about the larger scale.

I'm slowly cobbling together a detailed timeline for the setting, borrowing generously from loads of appropriate movies and other pop culture references, but that will be a post for another day. Roughly, I'm planning to include the following factions:

* Allied Forces: mainly USA, with occasional allies from the British Commonwealth (including Canada). 

The Allied will focus on good old infantry, supersoldiers, rocketeers and the new walker technology. They will include appearances from occasional non-military characters, such as daring pilots or intrepid archaeologists.

* Soviet Union: the Russian warmachine, with occasional allies from the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. The SU will heavily feature infantry, with a penchant for snipers, their proper brand of supersoldiers and blocky walkers, but will not be above dabbling into the darker aspects of the war.

* Occult Germany: Hitler's madness and obsession with the occult is such that he will shy away of nothing on the road to victory. Supersoldiers, some barely human, superweapons, walkers, but also supernatural creatures as vampires, werewolves and zombies abound.

* Japanese Empire: allying with Germany in the fight for dominance, the Japanese warmachine forms a mix of traditionalism, with use of both regular soldiers as skulking ninjas, and technology, with their version of walkers and supersoldiers. Their alliance with Germany gives them access to some more questionable science secrets, such as the reanimation of fallen soldiers (zombies), which are very divisive among the more traditional factions within the Empire. 

Aside from these, some civilians and scenery will complete the worldbuilding aspect.

Figures will be a mix of available WWW2 figures (DUST 1/35, Mauser Earth, MAIM, WAR,...) and cherry picked historical figures (Mantis, MiniArt, Masterbox, Hornet, Verlinden, Tamiya, IGM, Trumpeter, ...), with the occasional suitable figure from a different theme and of course a whole load of conversions.

The modelling posts will be interspersed with some Intelligence reports, focusing on specific aspects of the background, liberally drawn from various pop culture references.