35. Day, December 10, 2019



First of all, I just mounted the self-made decoration - the NKVD decoration - on the hero's breast of our comrade (in a fold, as in the prototype!), primed and painted ...



The second was the golden star of a "Hero of the Soviet Union"!

This "Geroj Sovetskogo Sojuza" (Герой Советского Союза) was the highest honor and the highest honorary title awarded in the USSR for "personal and collective meritorious services to the state and society of the Soviet Union".

The award was introduced on April 16, 1934 - and was awarded to 12,600 people by early 1986, just under 11,000 during the Great Patriotic War, many of them posthumously.

With more than 13.5 million soldiers serving in the Red Army between 1941 and 1945, that's not much!

This order is the highlight of my collection - real ones are very hard to get and when I was offered one (with matching papers!) In the 90s, I immediately struck!



Mine bears the number "11345" and was awarded in early 1945, ie in the last days of the war in Europe!




Materially, the Order is not completely worthless, because the star is made of gold (albeit a relatively impure alloy)!

For the so awarded, the order was also financially rewarding - who got the "golden star", which was paid as a "bonus" a full annual salary!

In addition, the award was always accompanied by the additional "Lenin Order"!

Our hero does not wear it on his service uniform - unfortunately!

Of course I have the "Lenin Order" as well - the thing is also worth a lot in terms of the material: The plate with the Lenin portrait is made of platinum!




But back to the "golden star":

Multiple awards were possible - and those who received the Order a second time were entitled to a bronze bust of the hero in their hometown or, by order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, to a different location!

The only one who got the "golden star" four times was Marshal Georgij Zhukov!



In some lists also KP Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev is led as a four-time "hero of the Soviet Union", but that's not true!

Brezhnev (who was enormously vain!) earned the Order twice honestly - as Political Representative (Politruk) of the 18th Army ...



... and gave it to himself two more times during his term as Secretary General (or expressed the "desire" to get him awarded)!



After Breshnev's death, the Supreme Soviet revoked the two unlawful awards!

Three times the "Golden Star" became the aviation heroes Marshal Alexandr Pokryschkin ...



... Aviator Marshal Ivan Koschedub ...



...and Marshal of the Soviet Union, Semjon Budjonnij...:



The "Golden Star" was also awarded to foreigners:

German "heroes of the Soviet Union", for example, are the spy Dr. Richard Sorge...



... and Fritz Schmenkel, a deserter from the German Wehrmacht, who joined Belarussian partisans in 1941 (and was captured by the Germans in 1944 and executed in Minsk) ...:



To paint the "Golden Star" of our hero I took the following colors...:



And this is what our Hero of the Soviet Union looks like now ...:








Cheers

There are two possible ones - one of it I will realise this winter:

1. A Cossack veteran comes home after ww2 (double bust/canging one/sculpting)

2. A fighting "white" Cossack on horseback during Russian Civil War (rider-horse-bust)

I have not finally decided...!

Cheers

36. Day, December 11, 2019


Today I start to paint the medals on the ribbon that our hero wears ...:




And if they were - coincidence! - not all in my collection ...




... I would have encountered two unsolvable problems during the research, which will be discussed later.

The first medal - I'll start with that - is easy!

We see a very bright medallion with clearly visible thin and even lighter stripes on the edge.

This is the "Batle Merit Medal"!




This paramedic lieutenant wears two of them - multiple awards were possible ...:



The medal "For Merit in the Fight" was donated by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on 17 October 1938 - during the Russian-Japaneseconflict at the Siberian-Manchurian border ("Chalchin Gol Incident").

The medal could be awarded to all members of the Red Army, the Red Fleet, the border troops, the internal troops as well as other citizens of the USSR. Furthermore also to persons of connected brother states.

The award itself was for clever, initiative-rich and bold action in the fight, which was shown in the successful fulfillment of the task set.

In addition, they were also given courageous conduct in protecting the state borders of the USSR, for excellent results in political and combat training, as well as for the introduction of new fighting techniques and ultimately for ensuring a high combat readiness of the units.
The medal is made of pure silver, has a diameter of 31 mm and shows on the front over diagonally crossed saber and Mosin Nagant rifle the three-line inscription: "За боевые Заслуги" (pronounced "Sa bojewje Saslugi" = For merits in combat) , it is recessed and red enamelled to read the country code СССР (USSR).

With these colors I have painted the medal ribbon and the medal itself ...



... with the light violet tone of the gray band with a hint of "Hexed Lichen" in a basic mix of "Light Gray" and "Light Flesh".

The typical Russian yellow - more of an orange - originated from "Flat Yellow" and "Scarlet Red".

The symbolism on the medal is highlighted with washes from a very watery blend of silver and black.

The result...:




Cheers

Actually, the following rules applied:

Orders, medals and badges WITHOUT ribbons were to be worn on the right side of the chest.

Medals and medals WITH ribbon on the left chest.

The "golden star" always on the left - and above all other medals at the level of the clavicle.

Furthermore, the important and higher orders and medals were always to carry as close as possible to the button facing of the uniform jacket - the less important ones towards the sleeves.

In case of several rows of awards: orders had to be worn over medals!

During the war, however, nobody took this too seriously at the front. At parades that was different! There was paid close attention to that!


Cheers

40. Day, December 12, 2019

The painting session today was straightforward - very different from the way there, which turned out to be pretty tricky!

Hmm - where do I start?

Best in the beginning ...:

On my template photo, on the far right, almost covered by the "Schnitzels" ear, you can see the third ribbon. It is hardly recognizable as such, it almost seems to merge with the Gymnastika-uniform shirt and does not show any other colored stripes ...:




Damn it! What's this?

If I know one hundred percent, then this: The medals for this multitude of medals awarded to Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War were ALWAYS figured somehow. Monochrome ribbons - no matter what color - did not exist!

To be on the safe side, I asked my reference books again, and they all say the same thing: there was no single color!

Then I scoured the internet, hoping to find some "exotic" medal that was solid green, light gray or light blue - I thought I had identified those possible colors.

Result: De nada! Zero! Nothing!

But I had the solution all the time in front of my eyes, means: Under the butt, because down in the basement is my collection ...:



...and there was actually this medal here - with a solid color ribbon!




So there is something that doesn't exist!

I took a close look at the inscription on the medal to get clarity ...:




It reads: "За оборону Ленинграда", spoken «Sa oboronu Leningrada», which translates means "For the defense of Leningrad".

This confused rather than creating clarity! Because according to all relevant sources, the ribbon looked very different, namely with stripe ...:




What kind of rare thing did I have? Any special award maybe?

Haaach, these are nuts that I want to crack!

So I got to the bottom of it:

The medal "For Leningrad's Defense" was personally launched by Jossif Stalin in early 1942.

It was invariably awarded to all defenders of the city during the 900-day siege of Leningrad by German and Finnish troops.

This also included, of course, the defenders of the insulated boiler west of the city called "The Little Country" (Маленькая страна / pronounced "Malenkaya Strana"), which the Germans called the "Oranienbaum Cauldron" and which the Soviets with doggedly anger was defended.


Tens of thousands of medals, like so many other things, were made in Leningrad, and they had to get by with what was there!

So they took uniform fabric for the ribbon - and the dark green stripe was not woven in, but only printed out.

And this fact - rather the inferior printing ink - is the explanation for the appearance of the medal in my collection.

It looked brand new like this ...:


But after a few months, wind, weather and sunlight (UV radiation) had so badly affected the dark green streak that it began to disappear or better: to fade.

Can you see well on this ribbon ...:




And after a year at the latest, the strip was completely bleached away...:




That's the explanation!

Only: what am I painting now?

I have two options, both of which are historically correct, but mutually exclusive!

I paint the ribbon as it was new and in accordance with regulations - with stripes! - or do I stick exactly to my role model photo and leave out the strip?

"Historically correct" vs. "historically correct - I've never had a case like this!

All this research took place last summer and autumn - and now I have decided:

I paint the ribbon a little faded, but with strip!

First, because it looks nicer, and second, because it is more painterly than simply painting a brown-green flat cake.

These colors are in the medal and the ribbon ...

... where the dark green blue turquoise of the strip was the most difficult to hit.

And this is how it turned out ...:



Cheers

41. Day, December 14, 2019


I still owe you my yesterday's construction report - which is because yesterday it was too gray and dark outside to take a single reasonably presentable photo of my painting progress!

I'll catch up now!

If we take again a closer look at the enlargement of our comrade's medals, then you can see - as far as the missing medal is concerned:



We can see a very thin bright border on the ribbon - and three wide stripes, the outer ones of which are significantly darker than the one in the middle!

There are basically only two medals to be considered - these ones ...:



Let's take a closer look at the first one:

This is the award "For the liberation of Warsaw" ("За освобождение Варшавы" / read: "" Sa oswoboshdenije Warshawvy ") on January 17, 1945 ...:



That the chapter "Warsaw" is one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Red Army during the Second World War - after all, the Soviets were unmoved within sight of the eastern bank of the Vistula (and without lifting a finger) watched how the Germans broke the neck of the Polish "Armia Kraiowa" ...

The medal "For the liberation of Warsaw" on the hero breast of Comrade Unterleutnant sounds logical at first - after all, the route led from Leningrad to Berlin via Warsaw.

But this medal is not!

The ribbon, worn on the uniform every day in the field, also weathered very quickly and could take on the strangest colors ...





... but the template photo clearly shows us that the wide stripe in the middle is much brighter than the other two!



There remains the second possible variant - this one ...:



This is the award "For merits during the Great Patriotic War - For heroic work"!

So the thing is not an award for military merit - it was usually awarded to workers who worked in areas important to the war - for example in the defense industry!

IF that is the right medal: How does a soldier (let's call our NKVD worker) get an award for workers?

This can only be explained by the special circumstances during the 900-day siege of Leningrad - which, incidentally, was the second longest in modern times. Only the siege of Sajarewo during the Yugoslavia wars in the 1990s lasted longer, at 1,425 days.

The head of Leningrad's defense, Andrej Aleksandrowitsch Shdanow, the head of the Leningrad party organization, was a iron tough man!



As the unmitigated fighting on the containment ring subsided (the German besiegers "limited" themselves to constantly bombarding and bombing the city with artillery, choosing primarily vital areas such as water and electricity plants, schools, hospitals, maternity homes and food Delivery points) in Leningrad was not only starved, but also worked.

The two most important arms factories in the Soviet Union, the Baltic Shipyard ...



... and the huge Kirov factories ...







...did not stop their production for a single day!

In the "Kirov-Works" (already an important armaments factory under the tsarist regime as "Putilow-Works") tanks were built every day, under bombed-out factory roofs, with provisionally tied-up machines - sometimes even under the open sky!







Sometimes tanks were manned by crews from workers who had previously welded them together and rolled straight out of the depot into combat!

For this they need electricity and light - and capable people.

Shdanow, however, only approved reasonably adequate daily rations for front-line soldiers and heavy workers (300 grams of bread a day) and otherwise proceeded according to the motto: "If you don't work, you shouldn't eat either!"

And when people were needed somewhere, he put them there - and brutally and brutally defied any resistance!


**continued next post**

A million Leningrad people starved during the siege - but the city held out! Shdanow was - despite or just because of! - his ruthless behavior probably the right man in the right place.

Stalin could no longer hold him accountable for this after the war, because Andrei Shdanov died of a heart condition on August 31, 1948 - and there are still rumors that, on the orders of the "Father of the Nations", deliberate treatment errors were made Accelerate Shdanow's demise!

In public, the "landlord" naturally shed crocodile tears around Shdanow ...



... but when he was dead and could no longer protect his wartime Leningrad employees, Stalin's NKVD grabbed one after the other and put them on the "conveyor belt".

Without exception, all of Shdanov's close employees ended up in GULAG - or in the neck shot basement of the NKVD prison "Lubjanka"!

These events went down in history as "Leningradskoje delo" (Ленинградское дело / Leningrad affair)!

What does that tell us about the unusual distinction that our comrade Lieutenant has?

He will have been one of those who earned the medal "For heroic work" during the siege of Leningrad in a war (arms) business!

(As a NKVD member, he was not, so to speak, a "first class" front soldier ...)

The medal in question from my collection is also clearly worn - only the bronze plaque with the image of the "homeowner" is almost intact ...:



Exactly like that - somewhat faded - I painted it yesterday ...:





Here is the comparison again:

1. Template photo ...:




2. Schematic representation ...:




3. The bust ...:




And that mens the end of poainting awards (too bad that our friend doesn't carry more "blink blink" with him)!

Next week he continues with his gun ...


Until then!


Cheers

42. Day, December 16, 2019


Our comrade sublieutenant is of course also armed - with a submachine gun!

You have to look at the original photo pretty closely to recognize the weapon, but it's there ...:



This is the Soviet model "Pistolet-Pulemjot Sudajewa obrasza 1943 goda" (submachine gun type Sudajew, version 1943).

The weapon is named after its inventor, Aleksej Iwanowitsch Sudajew (1912 - 1946) ...:



Sudayev's goal was to optimize the well-known "Pistolet-Pulemjot Schpagina obrasza 1941 goda" - PPSch 41 - especially for tank crews for close-range defense.

The "PPS 43" came out ...





... which was lighter and more compact than the "PPSch 41" - but had the disadvantage of only being designed for continuous fire!






However, the "PPSch 41" was much more popular with the troops, as the wooden butt of this weapon could be used as a "door opener" - especially in house-to-house combat...:



Like the "PPSch 41", Sudajew's "PPS 43" was also very robust - it still fired when it had been pulled through the mud...:



The German opponents also like to use it if they were lucky enough to capture one!





The - thoretic - shot cadence of the "PPS 43" was 700 shots per minute, which was still significantly more than the German counterpart, the "Schmeisser MPi 40" ...



... accomplished (500 rounds / min.).

Although it was only manufactured between 1943 and 1945, the "PPS 43" had a long life: It was still used by the Viet Cong against the US Army during the Vietnam War ...:




Palo really sculpted the weapon in great details!

I start by attaching the magazine to the weapon with two-component adhesive...



...taking care to align it with the handle..:






After the adhesive has hardened, the little thing is cleaned in an ultrasonic bath ...



... and then primed ...:






So much for today.


Cheers

42. and 43. Day, December 17 and 18, 2019

I've painted the MPi in two runs yesterday and today.

Herewith...:




I can only apologize for the photos, but metallic colors under artificial light look well now like !








Cheers

44. Day, December 19, 2019


Today I build the missing belt ends for the submachine gun, which I have to patch to the shoulder belt that is already sculpted by Palo!

This is what a complete belt for the Pistolet-Pulemjot Schpagina obrasza 1941 goda looked like ...:



And so it was attached to the weapon with two eyelets ...:





Thankfully, Palo has already made the two eyelets - so that "only" the two strap ends remain!

After much thought, I decided to slaughter an old tailor's tape measure for the fabric parts of the belt ...:



The thing is made of plastic, i.e. flexible, can be painted and glued - and above all has the right strength. The available lead or tinfoil films are all too thin in scale, so I had to laboriously double the belt.

The leather straps are made of thick tinfoil ...:





After - what miserable fumbling! - I threaded the "leather" straps through the eyelets, and finally I got the two buckles, which I bent back from 0.5 millimeter solder with tweezers.

These super tiny things are hardly recognizable in the photo!





That's it for today...


Cheers

45. Day, December 20, 2019


The weapon is mounted with two-component adhesive!

On the back I camouflage the transition between the belt modeled by Palo and the self-made belt with an additional buckle made of 0.5 mm solder ...:



It is not in accordance with the regulations, it did not exist in the original, but this variant seems safer to me than filling and sanding there.

Such "Maskirowka" is not necessary on the side - the belt disappears under the arm ...:



At the moment the PPS-43 is hanging freely on the two belts!

But if the glue is completely hard, I will unpack the base and attach the weapon to the base with two small adhesive points - as a safeguard against damage in transit ...

Happy weekend!

Cheers

46. Day, December 23, 2019



Today I first primed the two belt parts with a brush - then removed a piece of the protective packaging from the base and attached the submachine gun magazine to the base with a small drop of two-component adhesive ...:






After the primer had dried, the belt parts - if they were painted with oil paints - were with these colors...



...painted...:






Cheers