28mm Partisans: Supports and Specialists

Here are the command, supports, and specialists for my small partisan force. (You can find the infantry squads here.) While there is a fair selection of basic partisan infantry available in 28mm, finding suitable figures to represent a complete force needs a fair bit of searching the catalogues of figure manufacturers, and indeed a willingness to convert and kit bash. From a hobby point of view, its been a challenge, but I am pleased with the results to date, and am looking forward to starting the next few additions. And they are a great little force to play - always needing a lot of thought and a fair bit of luck when facing conventional forces, as it should be with a partisan force...

This sniper is Black Tree Design model - built as supplied. The antitank rifleman is a Warlord Games plastic Soviet figure, with a headswap from the Empress SCW range.

An Empress SCW figure, with scratchbuilt improvised flamethrower.

The standing mortar crew member is a Black Tree Design "tank bomber" - I replaced the molotov cocktail with a mortar shell - and the spotter is from the Black Tree Designs "snipers and spies" pack. figures. The kneeling figure is another Warlord Games plastic Soviet figure with Empress headswap. 

The anti-tank gun is mostly Warlord, but its "tow" in the form of the reluctant horse and handler is a complete hodgepodge: I took one of the diminutive Westward Volksturm (some of them struggle to be 25mm, let alone 28mm) and gave him some new bare feet (a shortage of shoes and boots was a constant problem for many partisan bands) and longer legs from a Warlord Zulu sprue, got rid of the teeny panzerfaust he was touting, and added an Empress head. The halter is twisted fuse wire.

The command figures are all from the Empress Republican Command vignette pack. Wonderful figures and a pleasure to paint. Some got new heads, and a few weapons were added from various Warlord plastic weapons sprue.

The transport pool:

And the communications team:

28mm Partisans: The gathering storm...

Almost three years ago, I first posted images of the start of my 28mm partisan force. At that time, they were seeing action in skirmish-scale games - Operation Squad and the like. Since then I have been adding bits and pieces as the mood took me, and they have done good service as "inexperienced" troops in my Bolt Action Red Army force. But its only recently that I felt that I have enough of them to field in larger engagements as an stand-alone force, using the BA Partisan selector.

So here are the core infantry as they stand at the moment. They are deliberately generic - I wanted to be able to use them in games set on the Eastern Front, the Balkans or in northern Italy. They are a mix of figures from a broad range of suppliers - partisans from Warlord Games, Artisan Designs, Westward and Black Tree, Volksturm and civilians from Westwind, Republicans from the Empress Spanish Civil War range, a fair few plastic figures from the Warlord Red Army boxes, and even some Muttonchop VBCW figures.

The Bolt Action army books allow each "nationality" a few special rules which are designed to add flavour to the force - one of partisan rules is the ability to place mines/explosives that can be triggered when enemy forces approach. I made a few markers for this purpose...

Specialists, support, HQ and transports can be seen here.