Soviet Field Fortifications for Barbarossa

I've been collecting information on Soviet fortifications all year, though till now have little more than a stack of notes and rough sketches to show for it.

A couple weekends back, I started getting some work accomplished on these, and thought I'd share the progress.  This batch focusses on earth and timber field construction for use with 6mm miniatures.   I had to modify Soviet designs to work with my 6mm squad basing system, and decided to dispense with the timber detailing, as that would have only resulted in the positions being a little more oversized in width.

In my case, rather than having individual fighting positions for each soldier (that will come in 15mm), each 6mm fighting position accommodates a squad or weapons team.  

Though I intend make some more proper company strongpoints with fighting positions interconnected by trenches.  These are designed to be used separately, offering greater adaptability to other terrain, and as supplementary positions when used the larger fixed strongpoints.

Thus far, I've gotten the squad positions, mortar pits, some anti-tank gun, and anti-aircraft positions in done, and figured I'd share the method used to make these.  The ATG positions are the most complex thus far, and are initially intended for use with 45mm guns, but should work fine with 57mm or 76mm guns.

The gun positions feature what would normally be a raised platform position in the center for the gun, slightly sunken, but higher in elevation than the cutout for crew cover and a position ramping down to protect the gun to the left.  In practice, the gun would be pulled up a ramp and into firing position on the center platform.  Originally, I was going to do these as more developed positions with covered cutouts for the gun and crew, but decided to make them open to contrast some of the other positions with overhead cover for the crews or infantry.

In my free standing ATG positions, there is no raised gun platform, the gun simply sets in a slightly recessed center in a raised mound of earth, with the cutouts for the crew and gun at the same elevation as the firing position.

The positions are designed around my basing system to accommodate the typically 1/2 inch square bases that I use for gen crew and for mounting the smaller cannons.  All of the positions designed to receive figure stands will be designed around this 1/2 square base sizing, thus trenches will be wider in scale (in later pieces), than they should be for Soviet practices.

Anyway, back to the construction...

The first thing was to find sources with drawings from which to design the miniature positions.  I used several sources, but a most useful find was the 1946 Handbook on USSR Military Forces Chapter VI Fortifications.

From my stash, I found some pre-cut slabs of foam of the right thickness, about three eights inch thick (split on a bandsaw previously, though 1/2 inch and thinner stock is available from many DIY stores, and would work fine), and sketched a plan view of the position onto the foam with a pen.  In some of the photos below, I'll show the tool or tools used to complete the step.  Primary tools were a hobby knife, some Perma-Grit round sanding sticks (mine are older combination coarse/fine grit), and a Squadron coarse flexible sanding stick.

Plan view of the anti-tank gun pits on the foam 

with my original sketch.

The position was then rough cut out of foam with a 

hobby knife, and the center and edges were sanded 

to basic shape with the Perma-Grit sanding sticks.  

I modified the design a little, changing the outline for the 

berms or parapets of earth piled around the pit.  The cutouts 

have also been roughed out.

The berms were rough shaped by sanding down to the 

depth of the berms.

The surrounding foam was rough sanded to create a 

"mound" profile, the firing slit was shaped, and the 

entrance was located.

The entire piece was sanded close to final shape with the 

entrance being opened up completely and the firing slit 

lower a little.  The foam is now setting on a piece of .04 inch 

thick styrene plastic sheet, which will eventually be its base.

A plan view showing the crew and gun in the cutout positions, 

also notice that I've traced the perimeter of the foam onto the 

plastic base.

The base was cut out leaving a small border around the 

foam.

The base was then sanded on a slight diagonal with a Dremel 

and barrel sander to  make a smoother transition with the foam. 

The berms were also softened a little.

One step or light weight spackle was then applied to the edges, 

where the foam meets the base, and blemishes in the foam 

were filled.  Once dry the piece received a light final sanding.

The next step was to brush on a coat of acrylic paste.

These are some of the mortar pits after receiving the paste.  

Note that some of the ink markings that weren't completely 

sanded away have bled through the paste.  As is, they will

 continue to bleed through the paint and can sometimes 

be visible through the flock.  To stop that from happening, 

spray a light coat of Dullcoat over the pieces, and once dry, 

it will usually block the ink from bleeding through any further.

A base coat of green and yellow ochre was applied.

An finally, the positions were flocked using artist's 

matte medium with Woodland Scenics' flock.

Here are a couple pics showing more of the fighting positions completed to this point.

Clockwise from top left, an ATG position, and AA gun pit, 

a mortar pit, and an infantry position.

And a group picture.

I still have artillery positions to make, some company strongpoints (2 or 3), plus the bunkers for the Stalin line.  Lots of work to do yet, but making progress.