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Painting Afgantsy

Painting Afgantsy

Painting Afgantsy
With Aaron Mathie

Soviet air assault troops are coming to Team Yankee, and so here is your opportunity to differentiate these elite soldiers who ride into battle aboard powerful Mi-24 Hind helicopters from their motor rifle brethren.

You can read all about the Afgantsy in Team Yankee here... 

Heavy Assault Gun Company (Plastic) (SBX37) Painting Afgantsy

The Soviet military called their airborne troops Воздушно-десантные войска (Vozdushno-desantnye voyska – 'Air-landing Forces') or VDV for short. These troops were considered elite formations, as such their uniforms and equipment would quite often be more suited to soldiers assigned to deploy and fight behind enemy lines.

Painting Afgantsy

To distinguish your Afgansty infantry on the table, you could paint some or all of your figures wearing the VDV's distinctive TTsKO (tryokhtsvetnaya kamuflirovannaya odezdha - 'three-colour camouflage') unifom.

This camouflage pattern was developed in the early 1980s and was used extensively by Soviet airborne forces during their involvement in Afghanistan.

As well as the distinctive camouflage uniform, VDV troops wore a number of other uniform items that differed from the rest of the Soviet Army. These included a white and blue striped T-shirt (Telnayshka) adopted in 1979 due to their commander-in-chief Vasily Margelov continuing to wear one to commorate an earlier point in his career when he served with the Soviet Naval Infantry during the Second World War.

They wore a distinctive light blue beret when not in combat. They also exchanged the usual red shoulder boards and arm insignia with the same items in light blue.

(Uniform images courtest of Vadim Aleksanderovich Taras - 'MoscowNights92')

Painting Afgantsy
Painting TTsKO Camouflage
Painting Afgantsy To paint this pattern start with Comrade Khaki, which is the same colour as the uniform worn by your Soviet motor rifle soldiers.
Painting Afgantsy Then paint a fairly sparse pattern of branch shapes with Motherland Earth.
Painting Afgantsy Finally paint sizeable irregular blob shapes in Heer Green in between the other two colours.

Modelling the Afgantsy

Since the uniforms are essentially the same as the standard motor riflemen (aside from the striped Telnayshka, which is not really visible except when proudly displayed on parade), you can use the normal infantry pack for your desantniki.

If you already have a motor rifle battalion, you can use them as they are, with heavy weapons painted to match. But if you’re a purist, you will want a whole new infantry force with airborne blue epaulettes and camouflage uniforms!

An Afgantsy Company
Painting Afgantsy Painting Afgantsy Painting Afgantsy
Painting Afgantsy Painting Afgantsy

There is a new blister pack to add the new heavy weapons, the AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher, and the AT-4 Spigot anti-tank missile.

You can read all about the Afgantsy Heavy Weapons here...

Find out how to buy the Afgantsy Briefing in Digital here...

Or, purchase the printed booket version in the Online Store here...

Afgantsy Heavy Weapons (TSU726)
Painting Afgantsy