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Red Thunder
Chris Townley’s Red Thunder
T-64 Tank Battalion

T-64 Tanks Advancing

Part 1: July 2017
When Team Yankee initially came out I knew I wanted to build my own Team Yankee rather than a Soviet force. Over the past year we have released British, West Germans and East Germans and my painting backlog has grown as I've started two new armies. Now with the release of Red Thunder I've completely failed my Last Stand check and decided to go headlong into another new army with a T-64 Battalion.

There are couple of reasons why I finally broke and decided to add more to an already overburdened painting schedule

  • The models really are just cool! As Phil mentioned during the Live Launch the T-64 is the sports car of the Soviet tank line-up. Add in a mix of new and original Team Yankee models for the Soviets and I get to have an interesting army that should be fun to field and paint.
  • You have to have an army for both the "good" and "bad" guys. I'll leave it to you guys to decide which is which (although when the New Zealand Army makes it into Team Yankee we can all agree they are the good guys right?) based on your own perspectives.

The Plan
I don't have one really. I have an intitial army list for which I have already bought the required miniatures (along with some Hinds that are not in the first 100 points) and started the initial assembly of the army.

I have all of my Acacia SP Howitzers, Storm Anti-tank vehicles, SA-9 Gaskin SAM and BRDM-2 Recce vehicles built so now I just have a pile of the new plastic T-64's and a mix of BMP-1 and 2's to start on.

Chris' Red Thunder Soviets
Chris' Red Thunder Soviets

Painting
This is typically the area where I have the grandest plans and the worst follow through. Painting the MERDC scheme on my American force really took it out of me but I think it was largely psychological and I am really happy with the final result. Currently I am thinking I might have a go at painting the Soviets in their own style of 3 colour camo using a combination of green and sand with little accents of black. To me it feels like a Soviet version of MERDC which makes it quite appealing as a painting project.

Check out Chris' American Team Yankee force here...

 
Chris' T-64 Tank Battalion
Soviet
T-64 Tank Battalion  
T-64 Tank Battalion HQ - 1x T-64 6 points
T-64 Tank Company - 7x T-64 37 points
T-64 Tank Company - 7x T-64 37 points
BRDM-2 Recon Platoon - 2x BRDM-2 1 point
SA-9 Gaskin SAM Platoon - 4x SA-9 Gaskin 2 points
Support Units  
BMP-2 Recon Platoon - 4x BMP-2 6 points
Storm Anti-tank Platoon - 3x Storm 3 points
2S3 Acacia Heavy SP Howitzer Battery - 3x 2S3 Acacia with Krasnopol Projectiles 7 points
BMP-1 Observation Post - 1x BMP-1 OP 1 point
Total 100 points

The Force
My initial 100 points was based around a desire to built certain models but also to put together something that is both fairly self-contained and has little or no extra or leftover models. Picking 3 boxes of Yuri's Wolves I got 15 T-64s (which I think is an optimal number to start with) and 6 BMPs. I knew I wanted some for a Recce unit and in the long term these might form the basis of a Motor Rifle Company and the remaining two gave me an OP for my artillery and one to model up as an objective.

Chris' Red Thunder Soviets

The rest of the force was easy with a box of Gaskin SAMs, a box of Storm ATGWs, a box of Acacia SP Howitzers, and finally the BRDM-2 where I need two out of four, but will most likely paint the other two as they cost 1 point for two so can replace the BMP-1 OP in my army.

Now lets see how the army comes together and if I can get it on the table for a Firestorm: Red Thunder game or two!

~ Chris



Last Updated On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 by Chris at Battlefront