Right out of the blister this is a good kit, it’s not great, but it isn’t bad either. My one big gripe is that the German equivalent comes with a figure who is holding the range finder binoculars and that figure is sadly missing in the Finnish version. Aside from some minor flash to remove this model went together quickly and I was away!
I won’t bore you with the details of the Finnish uniform painting, it’s very standard, but I do love painting the Finnish Support and artillery pieces. The combination of Vallejo Beige Brown 875, Golden Olive 857 and Highlight Japanese Tank Crew 332 really helps the model to stand out.
The small areas you can add flair to are the yard sticks on the bracing arms and of course the base itself, I had a conversation recently with a good friend about the importance of really using your support options and artillery pieces to tie an army together and to really tell a story as far as the theme of your army is concerned! For this base I used a combination of static grass, real twigs out of the garden, tufts from a couple of different sources and silver birch seed pod leaves. Put together I think you get a wonderful sense of an army that’s fighting through Finland in the autumn time.
Using the Pak40 can be a little tricky, once its set up it’s not very mobile and therefore position is key! I tend to pop my anti-tank gun on or near a road and wait for my prey to come to me! Ambush is a great option but again be aware of the likelihood that your AT asset may catch the attention of a mortar, Howitzer or even the dreaded artillery strike and given we now have to take templates into consideration it’s a good bet that if you’re not careful you may end up with nothing more than a smoking crater or a pinned out liability!!
Until next time, roll you 6’s and have fun
Tristan
