Soviet riflewomen

My work is taking every waking hour of my life at present, and a few of the sleeping ones as well. So, I decided I needed a day’s break from the computer screen to do some painting.

Looking for a quick option from the lead mountain, I choose some Soviet riflewomen that I picked up from Bad Squiddo Games. Having finished the Hungarians, I needed some Soviet opponents and I wanted some different units to break up the monotony of the standard rifle squads.

Some 800,000 women served in the Soviet armed forces during the Second World War. Like most of the combatant nations, this was mostly in medical and auxiliary units. However, the Soviets did allow a significant number of women to join combat units. 

The snipers are probably the best known, with 2,484 serving, of whom about 500 survived. Lyudmila Pavilchenko was the subject of the 2015 film Battle for Sevastopol. Nicknamed Lady Death, she was credited with 309 confirmed kills. Bad Squiddo do a very nice female sniper team, which I will paint when I have a bit more time to do them justice.

There were also three all women air regiments, one fighter and two bombers. Women also constituted significant numbers to the partisan units. Nearly 200,000 women were decorated and 89 received the highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union.

This is my first batch off the painting table. The figures are nicely sculpted by Alan Marsh and come in a blister pack of six. Virtually flash free as well.