STALINGRAD Bolt Action Mega Battle!
Soviet Reinforcements. Desperate times call for desperate measures...'Not One Step Back!'.
In a City where the frontlines have been dissolved into a sea of conflict, movement is fraught with risk from concealed enemies with unexpected lines of fire! 
Strafbat Platoon with two squads and a 'Frontnik Commissar'.
After the barrel has been desperately scraped, a Strafbat platoon has been dispatched to empty the prisons, dispose of political dissidents and Red Army deserters, with the added bonus of hopefully delaying Paulus’s advance and draining the German ammunition supplies!
To denote the men as being from a Strafbat unit I have trimmed off all the Red Stars from their field caps.
I started this unit and finished 2/3rds of it before needing a break. That break ended up being 2 years. In all fairness it was going to be just a squad, then became a platoon.
The Strafbat squad is easily the the worst unit in the game, but is also incredibly cheap. It’s useful as a meat shield for other units, or to hold objectives. To keep it inline, a ‘Frontnik Commissar’ (‘Stalingrad Campaign Book’ Warlord Games) is essential, as he will shoot deserters to stop the others running off, and will give an encouraging patriotic speech to help them shoot less badly.
These are not willing fighters and only half of them get a rifle that they are most likely not trained to use. I have tried to model the unit to capture a suitable level of chaos, desperation and sheer panic that was depicted in the film ‘Enemy at the Gates’. After seeing the film, I had to have a Strafbat contingent for my force, and it should add some colour and chaos to my planned Mega Battle!
'Some are more equal than others!'. To make sure that all goes to plan, I have painted up an artillery man as an officer to direct the Strafbat platoon troops to Victory, naturally from a .safe distance. 
Congratulations your project figures and terrain look brilliant for gaming @intelligentmistertoad
Thanks @Zorg. It’s my absolute number 1 gaming bucket list, and I can keep adding to it as time goes on. It has been surprisingly satisfying so far.