When it comes to Bolt Action or Chain of Command, I personally love to find any kind of minor power or specialized division and research and then reproduce it on the tabletop. On the Eastern front there were a ton of minor powers on the Axis side, and the Soviets of course had myriad specialized and interesting units as the war progressed. Today we’re going to look at how I sourced minis for my Slovak Rapid Division and then how I painted them. I’m also going to include much newer sources – 3D printed sources – that you can find today and print out for yourself. I’ve covered my minis here before.
I hope to provide a quick guide to painting Slovak infantry during WWII. I am not a master painter but I have developed ways to help myself paint models that look good enough on the tabletop and portray the units they’re supposed to. I use mostly Vallejo colors for these models.
| Item | Color | Vallejo Model Color |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | Olive drab | Brown Violet 887 |
| Side cap | Olive drab | Russian Uniform 924 |
| Peaked cap | Olive drab | Russian Uniform 924 |
| Uniform Jacket and Pants | Olive drab | Russian Uniform 924 |
| Boots | Brown | Flat Earth 983 |
| Puttees | Light olive drab | Green Grey 886 |
| Blankets | Green | Olive Grey 888 |
| Breadbag / shovel cover | Sandy | Khaki Grey 880 |
| Helmet Rim | Blue | Medium Blue 963 |
| Belts / Leather pouches / canteen, shovel handle | Brown | Flat Earth 983 |
| Collar tabs – Infantry | Maroon | Red 926 |
| Sleeve Cuffs – officers | Dark red / brown | Burnt Red 814 |
| Insignia / Badges | Silver | Silver 997 |
Uniform Notes
The Slovak uniform of this period really pulled most of its look from the Czechoslovak uniforms of pre-war unified Czechoslovakia. Overall the entire uniform is olive drab; I have distinguished the helmet and puttees a bit by making the helmet darker and the puttees lighter.
The leathers (ammo pouches, belt, etc.) are brown while the bags and personal equipment are a sandy color.
The Slovak troops on the eastern front took their Czech helmets (again, olive drab color) and painted a blue rim on them with the Cross of Lorraine (Slovak national symbol) on them. I have included a sheet of these symbols at the end of this document. I loathe freehanding so I just printed them out using an inkjet printer on water slide decals.
The symbols themselves are VERY small, so some attention to detail is needed to cut them out and put them on correctly. One could make a simple freehand double cross if you have the skill. The cross should be pretty close to the blue rim; don’t go too far up the helmet itself.
Infantry would have a red collar tab with no decoration on their epaulettes. Officers had maroon cuffs in many photos, but it seems that practice may have been discontinued.
Painting Tips
I basecoated the entire model – putting color on each piece that needed it, then I washed it using Army Painter soft tone ink. This works very well to pull out details and show areas of shade in the model. Afterward I dry-brushed on pastel green on some folds in the uniform to further highlight detail. I also highlighted the edges of the officers’ caps. In general I do not like a ton of highlighting on my WW2 models, but there are definitely opportunities.
Sourcing Models
There really aren’t any dedicated plastic/pewter lines for Slovak or Czech troops during WW2. I found the following site via some creative searching – it’s currently under reconstruction:
http://www.horcata.eu/category/czechoslovak-infantry/
Emil has commissioned basically a squad of Czechoslovak infantry for the 1930’s period sculpted by Paul Hicks. The uniform didn’t change between that time period and World War 2, so they work really well. I’ve picked up enough to field four or so squads in Bolt Action with enough variance.
I did some head swaps with German plastic heads with side caps on and sculpted some Czech looking helmets on some other German infantry to create some variation. Winter coats could work especially well as almost every army wore greatcoats on the eastern front during winter periods.
Italians also work rather well with their puttees and oddly shaped helmets. I would recommend the Bolt Action range from Warlord Games. The Italian medium artillery model (Italian army 100/17 Modello 14 medium artillery) was a Czech WW1 gun used by the Slovaks.
Panzer 38t and Panzer 35t tank models can be used perfectly; the armored cars (OA vz 30) the Slovaks used are very hard to find in any good scale – I actually had to get one made by Trenchworx. The same goes with staff cars. Machine guns can be converted from British models as they look very similar; the 37mm tank guns used by the Slovaks can also be converted fairly easily.
Other Miniature Sources
I first started my Slovak Rapid Division project around 10 years ago – there were zero plastic or pewter ranges back then, and zero STLs for 3D printing. Luckily since then we now have two different sources for STLs, one of them being entirely comprehensive. It definitely shows how deep the WW2 STL universe is now that armies like Slovakia are getting their due.
Eskice Miniatures
Eskice is a sculptor on MyMiniFactory that has a pretty great monthly Tribe, which is like a Patreon where you get mini STLs every month for a fee. Usually he provides a few things from one time period, a few from another, and a few from one other period. He produced a ten man squad of Slovak troops that are nicely sculpted but lacking in an MG. I think it’s worth a purchase if you’re making an entire platoon of Slovaks – there are different poses that you can throw in. You can find them here.
Studio Historia
Studio Historia has done quite a few different campaigns for WW2 and other wars – they did a massive Kickstarter for their Swords of the Two Barred Cross. You can get pretty much any vehicle you’re looking for plus three squads in greatcoats and three squads in regular dress. I really like that they provided the greatcoat infantry, as it gives me an opportunity to do another platoon that looks different. Each platoon includes a medium machine gun, sniper, medic, flamethrower, a mortar, and four HQ guys.
The minis are sculpted well, with great facial detail and plenty of equipment. The only choice I probably wouldn’t have gone with is sculpting the cross onto their helmet – it was just painted on – but I understand why they did it. Not many people are going to want to make waterslide decals of the helmet cross or paint it on freehand.
The list of vehicles is huge:
VZ 35
VZ 38
VZ 40 (the first one available!)
VZ 33
Praga RND
Praga T-6
Skoda OA23
Skoda OA27
Tatra 57k
Tatra 82
Tatra 92
Tatra Oa VZ 30
Tatra T-72
The trucks and cars are really welcome, as for a long time I’ve just been using tanks as a Slovak player with German trucks. Pretty much the only thing missing from this Kickstarter was artillery – but you can use Italian artillery (it was Skoda stuff) and 88s as that’s what the Slovak army had. The only vehicles I can think of that you’d bem missing are the Panzer IIIN, Panzer II, and Marder IIIH, but you can get these as plastic kits from other manufacturers. You’ll even find the armored train that Slovakia used in one of the packs.
Final Thoughts
We’ll have more painting guides coming up for the Eastern front – including sourcing minis, research suggestions, and uniform guides – so make sure to check back as the Summer of the Eastern Front grinds on!
Further Reading
Axworthy, Mark W. Axis Slovakia: Hitler’s Slavic Wedge, 1938-1945. Europa Books Inc, 2002.
Kliment, Charles K. and Nakladal, Bretislav. Germany’s First Ally: Armed Forces of the Slovak State 1939-1945. Schiffer Military History 1998.
Abbot, Peter and Chapell, Mike. Germany’s Eastern Front Allies 1941-45 (Men-at-Arms). Osprey Publishing, 1982.
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