Review: Jääkäri Rifle Platoon (Winter) (FI721)

by Dirty Jon

I think some of the coolest looking stuff in Rising Sun comes from the Finnish section.  To start any of the Companies in the book, you need to get some infantry.  I really like to have lots of leg options in any of my Flames of War lists, so I dove right in to the standard rifle platoon for the Finns: (FI721) Jääkäri Rifle Platoon (Winter).

The pack comes with enough guys to make 8 Rifle teams and 2 command teams -- the thinking is you get a CiC and an 2iC with the purchase of two blisters.  I expected there to be a lack of variety in the pack, but was pleasantly surprised with a bunch of different guys.

Figures grouped by sculpt.

Seven different 'basic figures' and a bunch of guys for flavor -- not bad at all!  I found the infantry relatively free of flashing, and they cleaned up quickly and easily.

The blister included the newer brown bases with the holes - I had not used these before, and they were fine.  They really did not save me much time, as the thickness of the infantry bases are varied -- I had to put down some ballast cover anyway.

I had never painted any winter troops before, so I had to develop my technique.  I decided to base them all up and hit them with a light grey primer as a first coat.  I wanted to get a light grey color in the recesses, so I thought this was a good way to do it.  Next, I drybrushed heavily with white.  After that, I used some black wash to create some shading.  I found that the color darkened all over quite a bit and I went back and did a lighter drybrush to get the white to look correct.

The real challenge with these figures was in painting all the equipment.  I had not realized how forgiving a black primer coat with a relatively heavy drybrush of green or grey is.  It took a LOT of time to paint all the equipment without really messing up the white smocks and pants.  Be warned:  These guys take a ton of time to paint.

I paint most my figs on the bases, and I decided that I just didn't want plain snow drifts.  I wanted some rocky areas to fill in where the figures had a gap with the base.  When I glued down the bare figures, I also ran some superglue around randomly on the base and dipped them in some ballast.  This way, the primer coat would help to seal the ballast on the bases.

I did a very heavy drybrush for the bases, hitting the uniforms at the same time.  After I was completely done with the figures, I used white glue and some hobby snow I had sitting around.  I did a second layer of this over uneven areas, as the snow is very thin.  After drying, I put on some Silfor Tufts in random locations - I put a little glue on the tufts and sprinkled some snow on them to tie them into the base -- this is hard to see in the pictures.

My camera sucks.  It always auto-focuses on the guy in the back.  Oh well.

Conclusion: 9/10 Winter Parkas
These figures are very good, indeed.  The poses are very nice and offer a surprising variety.  I was surprised at just how LONG these took to paint -- you really need to budget some time to get them right.  Checking in at USD$23, I think they are a good buy, and I think they turned out looking awesome.  If you want some Early War Finns, pick up two of these blisters and you are on your way!

Models provided by Battlefront Miniatures