I’ve got a lot of my boxed FoW stuff in shelves next to the stairs, so I see them quite a lot as I move around the house. This was the case with these Zvezda model kits that I kept seeing every time I went up and/or down the stairs, and so the other day I decided to just get rid of these in the most productive way – by assembling and painting them.

Despite being a Soviet-produced vehicle, captured BA-10 were used in relatively significant numbers in the Finnish forces during the Winter War and Continuation War, so it seems a historically appropriate use of my Zvezda kits that I picked up during my major FoW aquisition days during the days of The Pandemic. They’re simple assemblies, (though two of the headlights pinged off the painting desk and through a dimensional portal, never to be seen again – so replaced with sprue). I also added some very simple stowage with milliput and some space tiny plastic crates and jerry cans. Being captured vehicles, I also left them painted in a plain Russian Green rather than applying finnish 3-colour camo.

Finnish vehicles had registration numbers, following the pattern “Ps” and then several numbers designating the vehicle type and then the individual vehicle number. I wasn’t as aware of how the system worked at the time I painted these as I am now (these should be Ps.27-xx), but given the size of these models it was more of a case of giving an impresson of the Ps. numbers, and then using some larger number decals for “in-game” unit numbers so we know the “command” vehicle. I may or may not go back and try to “fix” the Ps. numbers on these three.

You might have noticed the symbol on the sides of the turrets and the rear of the hulls. Yes, it’s a swastika, but no, it’s also not a swastika. It’s actually a hakaristi, and just as many people are aware that the swastika is an ancient symbol of luck in many Asian and Eastern buddist cultures, it also has a long history of use without any association with nazis or fascism in European cultures – being in use by the Finns since 1918, some time before that Austrian guy came to prominence in Germany. For a more detailed background of it’s use in the Finnish military, click here or watch the linked video down below.

I have to admit, trying to hand-paint tiny two-colour hakaristi on the back of tiny armoured cars wasn’t on my Bingo card for the year, but I’ve always had an affection for the Finns, so I’m good with it being their time now. In theory, these cars should have six of them each – one on each side of the hulls as well as one on each side of the turrets – and I simply don’t have anywhere near enough decals for those numbers, so I decided to freehand the larger ones on the rear of their hulls. They’re a little rough, and also an excellent example of why I prefer to use decals for insignia that should be consistent across multiple models.