Soviet

Soviet “Bed Spring” Armour

In Bolt Action game play, the common adage is “what you see is what you play” – the reasoning is that your opponent should be able to identify the qualities of your various units by what the model being played exhibits – hence we want to have a half track festooned with machine guns be represented by a small truck, or vice versa.. This gets tricky with issues such a pintle MGs (some designed require you to commit to install them permanently, although you may not always wish to employ them in every game, or with Schürzen side skirts for German AFVs, which similarly may be permanently affixed to the model yet not always paid for point wise,

With that in mind, a friend asked me if I could come up with something to represent the “bed spring” skirting employed by the soviets in the last months of the war. It is offered to the Soviet player in the “Road to Berlin” book, and has the same benefits and point cost as German Schürzen side skirts. One of the ironies of the European conflict is that the Germans used countermeasures – side skirts, anti-magnetic coatings – to anti tank weapons they themselves employed liberally – fausts/shreks, magnetic mines, while the recipients of their potent A/T wpns made do with haphazard sandbags/track/wood planks to improve their chances of survival.

The Soviets tankers were painfully aware of the loses they were suffering in the desperate defence of the Reich, from faust equipped German troops. Their forward workshops used sheets of metal mesh banding – which resembled bed springs – to frames and fastened them onto the sides and turrets of the Soviet tanks, to cause the hollow charge weapons to prematurely detonate a distance from the armour and thus minimize the penetration of the weapon. Photos of this installations show a wide mix of styles and mountings.

This .stl pack has two sets; one a full size and one reduced size. The full size is intended to be wired together with very thin wire or thread and made to be removed and replaced as needed. The smaller scale allows you to permanently fasten it to the model or even add in CAD to print with it attached. I found the smaller scale difficult to thread but that may be my old eyes and fingers and not the actual model. There are two choices of square manels and a single rectangular side panel (please see photos),

Make no mistake, this print is not intended to be diorama worthy. Think of this as a durable game aid, not as an exact scale replica for a display piece. Drop a set on the turret and you opponent will know you paid the extra 10 points for the supplementary armour. Remove it after the game and you are good to go with your standard T-34/85.

These are meant for resin printing. I have not tried to print in FDM and would not expect them to be as the mesh is small and would not likely do well.