Bolt Action: Team America

I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. is down! I repeat, we have no I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.!

After painting up 2 batches of infantry and a Bazooka team, (which you can see here and here), I was looking for a change of pace

And so, I'm ronery
A rittle ronery
Poor rittle me
There's nobody I can rerate to
Feewr rike a bird in a cage
It's kinda sirry
But, not rearry
Because, it's fiwring my body with rage.

I pulled out the metal 50 cal and 60mm mortar teams. These two teams are the only metal figures in the US Infantry starter box. They are a pleasant change from frame after frame of plastic, multi-part infantry.

The teams are pretty simply setup and unlike the multi-part plastic figures, there isn’t a lot of assembly required.

60mm Mortar:

First up the Mortar. The pack comes with 3 crew and the mortar in 2 parts. There is also a large round base. I decided that I wanted to individually base the mortar and the crew so I could easily remove casualties. I used a single standard Warlord round plastic base for the mortar itself and glued the crew to washers. The washers are marginally smaller than 1 inch/2.5cm in diameter. I cannot imagine this would have much effect on the game. I added some filler to the bases before painting.

The models are a big step up from the plastics. For one they have clearly been sculpted with a final pose in mind so they are each in a specific pose rather than the very vanilla pose that the plastics end up as. There is a man radioing whilst crouching over a round. The 2^nd guy is covering his ears and turning slightly and the final man is covering an ear and surveying the environment. 

Progress Shot

In addition to having specific poses, the models are way more detailed. The creases and crevices are deeper and the detail that is present is more lifelike. These will be much easier to paint and will look better on the table.

Hans, Hans, Hans! We've been frew this a dozen times. I don't have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?

50cal Machine Gun.

Like the Mortar, the 50 cal is metal, comes with a round base but has 4 crew. The gun itself is made up of 2 parts and is very easy to assemble. There is a simple locating hole and matching nub to fit the 2 pieces together. One of the crew is firing the weapon and just needs to be lined up on the base.

Like the mortar, I based up the rest of the crew on individual washers.  I based up the HMG on the supplied round base with leaves the MG barrel sticking out past the base. I am not sure this is a good idea as it might get damaged in normal use. I also added some filler on the bases for the crew and HMG.

Progress Shot

Unlike the mortar, the crew have lost their heads! There is a separate row of heads that can be attached. I had trouble with attaching the head to the guy with binoculars but after some maneuvering and trimming, I got it to fit.

OK, Hans. I'll show you. Stand to your reft

A rittle more.

Good.

Painting:

Finally the fun stuff!

I really enjoyed painting up these guys. Yes, they are another batch of figures in the same uniform but these models really reward effort. The depth of detail is such that washes have more effect as there are more pronounced raised points, especially in the uniform than the plastic models.

Whilst I don’t pretend to be any good at blended highlights, these were easier to work on as there is more area and depth to add layers of colour.

In terms of paint, I followed the same process and colours as detailed on my earlier bolt action US articles.

Overall, I am pretty happy with these guys and I think they look pretty good. I cannot wait to get them on the table.

Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles.

US Bolt Action: 2nd Wave

BAR Gunner from the 29th Infantry.

My US Bolt Action force continues to grow. Today I add 2 more units.

Last week I shared my first ever unit for Bolt Action - an 8 man squad of US infantry. You can see that post here. The army has grown since then and today I reveal the 2nd wave of a bazooka team and another squad of infantry.

First up the bazooka. The bazooka and the loader are made from the same infantry box that the infantry squad are from. The weapons frame not only contains a bazooka, there is also a bazooka round and a bazooka ammo bag. I think the loader really looks the part with the bag and round. I choose to glue the bag to the ground showing that the team had stopped and taken up a fire position. Really, I figured it would make it easy to pick the figure out from my carry box and on the table.

The GI firing the bazooka was actually painted up at the same time as the first squad. The loader was painted up in the 2nd batch with the second squad. The second squad didn't get a highlight on the flesh after the wash and I think this makes them look better. You can see the difference in the photos below.

Otherwise the painting was exactly the same method as the original squad.

Next up squad two.

Like the first squad, I wanted to run an NCO with a SMG, 2 BARs and 5 rifles. Given the box only has 3 BARs, I went with 1 BAR and plan to add another one down the track when I cracked my starter army box.

So, what you see here is just the 7 men, pending reinforcement.

Well, that's it for today's update.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Bolt Action - Here come the Yanks.

For a while now, I have played Flames of War (FOW) and little else. Whilst I enjoy FOW, it is time to expand my horizons.

There are a number of things that drew me to BA, the games I have seen look amazing - with beautifully painted figures and well prepared tables. It is a WWII game which is a period I am particularly interested in. The most popular scale is 28mm so presents a new painting challenge. There seems to be a large and healthy community and finally a couple of mates already play it.

My first FOW army was a US Rifle Company assembled many years ago. Starting BA with a US force seemed like a good choice. I started with a Warlord Games US infantry box.

Figure Frame.

My first thought as I cracked open the box was to wonder what I had gotten myself in to. The box was filled with 5 figure frames and 3 weapons frames. There were hundreds of pieces, all to make 25 infantry! However as I consulted the instructions, it didn't seem so daunting. Each frame provided a number of options designed to make a variety of poses with a variety of weapons.

Weapons Frame

The first couple of figures were a bit of a slog. However I quickly got into a rhythm of looking up the instructions and picking the correct arms and weapons for the poses I needed. I assembled an NCO with a Thompson Sub machine gun, 2 men with BARs and 5 GIs with Garand Rifles.

Instruction Sheet.

It has been more than 10 years since I painted a 28mm figure so I did a little research and read some of the excellent articles on the WWPD pages and looked at the amazing pictures on the Australian and New Zealand BA Facebook page to draw inspiration. There are some real gun painters out there. I figured if my figures look half as goods as theirs, I would be doing OK.

Initial Assembly

I chose to use a similar technique that I have used on my FOW figures and borrowed some ideas from what I have seen on the net. After a white undercoat and a base coat, I would hit the models with a strong tone wash before a highlight of the base colour again. Finally, I would do a second highlight with a 70/30 mix of the base colour and VJ Iraqi Sand.

Close up before dull coat.

After some feedback on the Bolt Action Australia and New Zealand Facebook page, I hit the helmets with a lighter dry brush and I think this worked well.

These are no masterpieces but I am happy overall with my first BA efforts.

BARs

BARs

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Rifles