by Tom Burgess
A BA-6 of the 8th Motorized Brigade, Khalkhin-Gol, August 1939
I’ve previously reviewed some of Battlefront’s “Rising Sun” Japanese tanks, now it’s time to look at some of their Early War Soviet adversaries. My first foray into Early War Soviets is the BA-6 Armoured car from Battlefront. The BA-6 was the predecessor to the later BA-10 Armored Car. The primary difference between them was that the BA-6’s used exact same 45mm gun turret as the T-26 and BT tanks. Nearly four hundred of these were produced prior to WW2 and they were primarily stationed in the Eastern parts of the Soviet territory.
Though they are recon type vehicles, in “Rising Sun” they are really more “recon by force,” i.e. they get no in game recon abilities and find the enemy by brute force! Fortunately with their 45mm gun and two MG's they are quite capable of that role as they can take on just about any Early War threat. The Battlefront BA-6's come packaged in pairs in a single blister, so you’ll need at least three blisters to complete a unit of these.
Rating: 10/10
Quality: Overall very good. All parts were present and well cast. However, one of the two BA-6s that came in my blister had a broken right front fender. The fenders are very finely cast and will be prone to damage. Unfortunately in the case of my BA-6s I could not find the broken off fender piece to glue back on so I had to resort to some “green stuff” body work. Fortunately as an owner of some 40 Battlefront T-34s, that have thin running board issues, this was something I was prepared to fix.
Quality: Overall very good. All parts were present and well cast. However, one of the two BA-6s that came in my blister had a broken right front fender. The fenders are very finely cast and will be prone to damage. Unfortunately in the case of my BA-6s I could not find the broken off fender piece to glue back on so I had to resort to some “green stuff” body work. Fortunately as an owner of some 40 Battlefront T-34s, that have thin running board issues, this was something I was prepared to fix.
All parts accounted for!
Ooops! The right fender of left model is broken!
"Green Stuff" makes for an easy fix!
Ready to prime and paint!
Rating: 7/10.
Versatility: The BA-6 was primarily an Early War vehicle for the Soviet OOB's and primarily used in the East at least initially. However, following the losses of Barbarossa many of the BA-6's came back west so they would not be out of place in a Mid-War or Even Late War Soviet Army. I’d suggest just using them to fill out BA-10 units and use the BA-10 stats as well. The BA-6 also was used during the Spanish Civil War and in captured German service giving some other options for gaming with this model. I do wish Battlefront offered a version with the turret mount radio rail antenna as shown below.
A BA-6 with turret radio rail antenna
Rating: 8/10
Paintability: These models were no issue to paint. I went with a “standard” Soviet green scheme, even though rather it’s a bit dull, will help me stretch these models’ use in to Mid and Later war Soviet Forces even if just standing in for BA-10s. But as I was doing some research on the I came across some really interesting painting schemes player may want to consider before they “just go green” with these models.
Paintability: These models were no issue to paint. I went with a “standard” Soviet green scheme, even though rather it’s a bit dull, will help me stretch these models’ use in to Mid and Later war Soviet Forces even if just standing in for BA-10s. But as I was doing some research on the I came across some really interesting painting schemes player may want to consider before they “just go green” with these models.
Cool paint scheme of a BA-6 from the 8th Motorized Brigade, Khalkhin-Gol, August 1939
A BA-6 from the Spanish Civil War
Rating: 10/10.
Overall Rating: 9.7/10.
Overall I’m very happy with these BA-6’s from Battlefront.
Overall I’m very happy with these BA-6’s from Battlefront.
Road Patrol!
The repaired right front fender looks ok after the vehicle is all painted up.
Platoon leader close-up
Tom has been playing wargames since the late 70’s, and Flames of War since 2007. He maintains a gaming website www.battlevault.com for the BattleVault Gamers of Kentuckiana and posts and moderates as Iron-Tom on WWPD
Models provided by Battlefront Miniatures.
