Review - Model 1/72, KP Mi-8 and Mi-8T Hip

The Mi-8 was the principal Medium lift Helicopter of the Soviet armed forces throughout the later period of the cold war, It operates in armed and unarmed models and together with the export version the Mi 17 is one of the post prolifically produced helicopters in the world.  The utility version is capable of carrying 4 UV-16-57 Rocket pods whilst the attack versions carry a mix of machine guns rocket pods and ATGWs.  Within Soviet Frontal Aviation they were deployed by the Army Attack/Assault Helicopter Regiments, The Frontal Transport Helicopter Regiment and the Divisional helicopter squadrons.  The Aircraft was introduced into the Soviet Airforce in 1964 it carries 24 passengers or 3,000kg.  It is a true multi purpose platform with many variants being produced these include: Transport, Transport/Attack, Ambulance, Command Post, EW, Mine laying, Photo Reconnaissance and Search & Rescue. All round a bit of a must have if your a cold war Soviet fanatic.

The model is quite simple particularly, if like me, you leave out the interior detail and don't bother with the rotors.  I ended up with 5 of these which i bought for £5 a piece at this price they really can't be beaten if you have to pay full price £10 ish you may want to look at some of the other options as the level of raised detail on the airframe is low compared to other versions.

The build is very straight forward I removed the locating lugs on either side of the airframe as it made alighning the airframe halves easier.  It's worth spending a bit of time on hull alignment and I used clamps on the airframe until the glue had set.

Inserting the top of the engine can be a little fun but ultimately not too frustrating and the engine nacelles can be enhanced if your not putting the external covers on by inverting said covers and sticking them inside giving an impression of some interior to the engine other than a big hole.

I added a two pence piece into the nose to ensure they sat on the undercarrage when built.  The under carrage and wing struts are a little painful as the locating points are indistinct.  For the armament outriggers I drilled a hole immediately above each fuel tank and forward of the square protrusion that sits on the upper edge of the fuel tank and this allowed the outriggers to be constructed in a fairly reliable way all the other elements were glued direct to the hull.  I built left side then right adding outriggers wheels and tail fins and left that to dry well before proceeding.

I am painting three in each of these colour schemes the armed ones using the top colour scheme and the unarmed ones using the bottom the intent being to represent aircraft of the different units.

I obtained the Bergamot Decal set for the SU 27B Sea Flanker, as it gives me enough coloured numbers to introduce some variety amongst the 6 Mi - 8s.

The base colour of the aircraft is Vallejo Iraqi sand, with a golden olive disruptive pattern, pin wash is GW Agrax Earthshade, raised detail is dry bushed with Vallejo Light Flesh and the rocket pods are Sky Grey. The underside is Vallejo Sky Blue and the windows and exhausts Grey black.  The numbers and stars come from the decal set shown above.  After the pin wash and the dry brush the aircraft has been washed in a very dilute solution of the base colours to tone down the impact of the wash. 

A nice simple model which I'm hoping it will prove effective when used on mass even without the rotor blades.

References:

Mi 8 Kits available in 1/72 
Mi 8 Development Overview

ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability, Part 2 Army Air Assault Battalion

Each Soviet Combined Arms Army in the forward deployed groups of forces included an Air Assault Battalion in its make up by the mid 1980s.  The Army level Air Assault Battalion deployed a mix of BMD equiped and Infantry sub units all of which were parachute trained and part of the wider Desantno-ShturmoviyVoyska (DSHV) rather than the Vozdushno desantnye voyska (VDV) both of which were characterised by the term Desant. By 1986 the strength of the DSHV was assessed to be 16 Air Assault Brigades, 2 Regiments and 20 Battalions.

Prior to the deployment of Army Air Assault Battalions Soviet divisions would have a battalion of Motor Rifle troops trained as Heliborne Air Assault.  I assume these would be drawn from BTR units with dismounted Anti Tank platoons. Sources indicate that the 3 Companies might be drawn from different Units (Regiments) which would allow them all to be strongly task organised as in the illustration bellow.  I am not clear if this capability persisted once the Air Assault Battalions were available to the Armies of a Front but assume it would be.

ORBAT

The Air Assault units at each level were quite different, this post concentrates on the Army, Air Assault Battalion.

In broad terms the Army Air Assault Battalion consisted of a BMD Company, 2 Parachute Infantry Companies, a Mortar Battery, Air Defence platoon, Recce platoon and an AGL platoon.  I am choosing to represent it as follows:

• 1 BMD Coy  4 AKM, 1 PKM, 1 RPG 16, 2 BMD
• 2 Parachute Coy each, 5 AKM, 1PKM, 1 RPG 16, 1 AT-7
• Mortar Battery 2 82mm Mtr 1 x MOP
• Air Defence Platoon 3 AKM 3 SA7
• Recce Platoon 1 BRDM2
• AGL Platoon 2 AGS 17
• AT Pl 2 AT4 1 SPG9

The items in red are not supported well with hard evidence, they would normally be left out of BMD/BMP equipped infantry units.  In this particular case this makes little sense as the Companies would deploy independently and the two parachute companies would lack anti armour assets that would be available to them if they were in the Parachute Infantry Battalions of Air Assault Brigades of the DSHV, I have threfore included them where others have not.

Task Organisation

The companies were quite heavily task organised on operations as they tended to be deployed on company level operations and therefore each company deployed a slice of the battalion support assets.  The company level deployments would be made in support of operations by forward detachments in order to speed up the rate of manoeuvre through the seizing of key terrain such as river crossings mountain passes and key cross roads. Other Missions included Raids ambushes and blocks. These battalions would be used within 15km of the forward line of own troops to allow for rapid link up and fire support from artillery throughout the mission.

for the wargames table this will create an infantry company group that could contain:

• Parachute Infantry Company 4 AKM, 1PKM, 1 RPG 16, 1 AT-7

• Attached Support elements:

• Anti Aircraft detachment (1AKM 1SA7)

• Anti Tank detachment (1 AT4 1 SPG 9) 

• Mortar detachment (1 82mm Mor, I OP) 

• Direct Fire Support detachment (1 AGS17)

There is evidence to support this level of task organisation and it fits with the articulated doctrine of Air Assault elements being used in Company and Battalion groupings.  Depending on missions the battalion might choose a less even split. Use of BTR D is not clear if any were available to add Mobility to Mortars or if light trucks were used.

Lift

A BMD equipped Company required a lift of approximately 12 Hook or 7 Halo. I estimated this based on a figure of 37 to lift a Battalion with 3 BMD Companies.  This breaks down to:

• 30 Hooks carrying BMDs (15 Halo)
• 2 per Company Group for the remainder of the personel and equipment including HQ and support (either aircraft)

With out vehicles a battalion required 13 Hip about 4 per Company group.

Given a flight of 4 Hips could lift a Company of Infantry and 5 Halos 10 BMDs the lift assets available to an Army in the Mid 80s together with the support of One + flights from the Heavy lift squadron from the Front Transport regiment could move the 3 Divisional Rifle companies, the two air assault parachute companies and the BMD company simultaneously.

The regrouping of 2nd Echelon Army Aviation assets and Front aviation assets would remove the lift constraint to the deployment of Army and Front Air Assault assets simultaneously, which provides an interesting concept of manoeuvre support on the main axis of advance, a bit like Operation Market Garden on steroids but much more viral.

I am still unraveling the story of the evolution of Helicopter support but will explain the organisational evolution of this force in a future post, if your interested the storey is well told on the 16 Air Army site

For Game purposes at a vehicle scale of 1:3 I'll be using 1 Halo and 1 Mi 8 for the BMD Company group and 2 Hip, or  a Hook for the Parachute Infantry company groups.

Artillery

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that missions would be supported by Artillery and it is feasible that this artillery could be grouped under command on such missions and operate from behind the Forward Line of Own Troops. This could provide suppression of the LS and Route as well as support during any fighting.  Route suppression would require careful planning in order to avoid friendly fire.  examples of both these approaches as well as on call tasks in more direct support are provided from analysis operations in Afghanistan.  Given the Soviet concepts of the forward grouping of Artillery from the second echelon the impact of this could be significant this is outlined in more detail in the Orbat Post on Soviet Artillery.

Air

It is highly likely that Air Assault operations would be accompanied by Air support both on insertion and during the attack.  This would be increasingly likely if taking place beyond the range of own artillery. Forward Air Controllers were provided to battalions for this purpose.  Air Units would be drawn from the Fronts Air Army.  This would likely include both Ground attack, Fighter and Air Defence suppression assets who would be part of a comprehensive insertion and suppression plan in line with  operations in Afghanistan

Attack Helicopters

Transport Helicopters would be supported by Attack Helicopters as well as carrying some suppression capabilities of their own.  These would provide additional Anti Armour capability to the Air Assault force prior to the link up with the ground force.  Whilst the Afghan experience highlights the escourt role of the Gunships, the differences in the operational environment on the central front would call for these assets to play a wider variety of roles during air assault operations. Both divisional and Army aviation assets would be available, likly missions include fire support into the DZ on landing and blocking and engagement of counter attacks against the Air Assault force

Perestroika, Glasnost and Air Assault Capability Evolution

Some of this capability was deployed late into Air Assault units, post 1989 and by then they were being removed or pushed back into the Soviet Union along with critical Engineer assets such as assault bridging units and long range fighter ground attack.  This was done in order to underline Soviet Political policy, they were adopting a less aggressive and more traditional defensive posture, where forward defence had moved from France all the way back to the IGB. It was probably also underpinned by the economics of the Cold War.  This creates a degree of confusion in trying to interpret Orbat evolution in the Cold War as in train changes were stopped as the cold war came to a close.

When we start considering how we get to war fighting positions at the end of the Cold War these may have come from different political agendas so it is reasonable to hypothesise events unfolding where some of the restructuring at the very end of the Cold War may not have been followed through. As ever with the cold war when your scrapping on the central front you have moved into the realm of alternate histories or fantasy.

References:

ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability, Part 1 Overview and Lift
ORBAT- 1980's MRR and TRR, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Red Thrust, 1989,  S Zalouga

Military Balance 1986-87
Military Balance 1990-91

Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army
Soviet Air Land Battle Tactics

The Soviet Afghan War, 2002, L Grau

The Bear went over the Mountain

The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre

FM 100-2 Specialised Warfare and Rear Area Support, Chapter 3 Heliborn Operations
FM 100-3, Soviet Troop Organisation and Equipment

FM 100-60 OPFOR

Inside the Soviet Army

SASO The Soviet Combined Arms Battalion - Reorganisation for Tactical Flexibility

Fire and Fury Modern Cold War Orbats - Soviet

Soviet Bloc Elite Forces, Zaloga and Loop, Osprey 1985
Soviet Airborn Operations in Theatre of War, SASO, 1988
16va.be Web Site - Excellent resource for Soviet Air Force in GDR

Terrain - Modern Farm Buildings

As part of the terrain building effort for Wissenberg I wanted to create some farm buildings with a modern flavour to add some 1980s context to the battlefield.  I have been looking at this project for some time and had settled on a couple of styles of modern barn using pressed metal components the inspiration came from these images of Barns and Cowsheds.

The build process was similar to the supermarket, create a base out of hardboard, create a sketch and dimension everything then create the basic structure from foam core before building the facards on to card before mounting on the structure.  

As with previous builds a variety of card stock items and pre molded plastic sheet were used, this included the coregated clading and the breeze blocks.

You do need to think a bit with this stuff especially around pattern matching with roofing material, or you can end up with some interesting effects as I did on at least one of my buildings.  Most roofs will need you to make some form of ridge tile to cover the gap and I have used both paper and plasticard successfully for this.  

The other top tip from this build was that foam core Stanley knifes and wine don't mix well as i narrowly missed taking the top off my thumb when I left it the wrong side of the steel ruler that I was enthusiastically running the Stanley knife down.

The buildings were painted using a mix of Vajello colours and liquid Poster Paints and the effects were achieved through the application of washing and dry brushing as ever the intent was to avoid uniform colourings and make the building look used and abused. 

The first building was an open Barn built from breeze blocks asbestos and tin cladding sheets on a metal frame work.  The Metal framework was constructed from plastic strip and the rest from preformed plastic sheet.

The second was a metal framed Modern Cow Shed, built from preformed concrete blocks and aluminium cladding, with large sheet metal gates. The sheet metal gates on the front were constructed from plasticard and plastic strip.  The concrete slabs were scored cardboard covered in diluted wall filler, the remainder being constructed from preformed plastic sheet.

The last of the buildings was a more traditional structure, inspired by the first picture in the post in this case it was built entirely out of the moulded plastic sheet with no foam core structure.  I have a mind to make a few more farm outbuildings as they are really very useful and worked well in conjunction with the Byzantium farm house.

Other posts in this Series:

Terrain - Byzantium 20mm, German Buildings
Terrain - Modern Supermarket

Terrain - Hikki Trees, Pine Forests

Terrain - Making It Modern

Terrain - Camouflaged Hides