Bolt Action Desert War Bootcamp

[commodorerob 11076xp 1]

On the subject of swastikas I added them to my Blood Red Skies ME109s so I don’t see it as an issue.

[a27cromwell 3187xp 1]

Yes , war flags can be a little off putting for some people . My great Uncle spent a few years in a Japanese prison camp ,and had nothing but nasty thing to say about them till his death  Not to mention the old Hammer & Sickle which flew over most of Eastern Europe , lots of folks who managed to get out ( an old  neighbor stole a helicopter with 3 buddies and got out of Hungry in the 60s ) live here in Canada and still have ill feelings toward the Russians  .  But to be historically accurate , you do need to add them to your models

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Wow, thanks very much @warzan  @leifer1971 , and @suetoniuspaullinus – yeah, that photo is from another of our old article series, on Force-on-Force, 20mm moderns.

And I agree with @suetoniuspaullinus , @damon , and others regarding the insignia issue.  Yes, everything should be in context and history is king.  But at the same time, is it really necessary?  The swastika in the DAK insignia, yes … that was there on every vehicle, but almost always so small it would be barely visible on a tabletop.  And the swastikas on the tails of fighters @commodorerob mentions – put them on there, it’s history and they were there.  I mean, anyone who’s <i>really</i> uncomfortable with that is probably not comfortable with games that include the Luftwaffe “killing people” anyway.

The aerial recognition flag on the truck (which @suetoniuspaullinus is making detachable) maybe less so.  Wasn’t an integral part of the truck / unit so isn’t “historically necessary.”  Also, fixing that thing permanently to the truck limits it to perhaps six months of campaigning if you’re being a historical purist.  I don’t have hard data, but I would HAVE to assume that this practice was stopped by the time of Crusader in late 1941, due to a growing and improving British presence in the air.

But besides all that – the “context” that’s perhaps a little more relevant isn’t Operation Skorpion or Brevity or Battleaxe or Crusader or Lightfoot or Supercharge … it’s a Boot Camp with people having fun.  😀  So I support @@suetoniuspaullinus in making the flag detachable, I feel its the right cause.  That red really does pop from a strictly aesthetic point,  I have no problem with it and think the colors (if nothing else) make the miniature even more amazing.  But if people are even slightly put off, ehh … just take it off.

Ran across a small version of a similar situation at the FoW 4.0 boot camp.  I had an original recording of the DAK march playing on my iPhone – Panzer Rollen in Afrika Vor.  Of course it fit the theme, was historically accurate, and had no politics in it (even if you knew the German), but technically it is Nazi Party approved state music, so after one or two nervous glances from people I switched it off.  No worries. 😀

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Thanks for the tip, @commodorerob – I wasn’t really planning on building a “list” or army with these guys, but this will help me figure out how many points I’ll actually have in case I get an extra few hours (yeah right) for a game in somewhere.  Then again, with so many people bringing in LRDG … who are we all going to play against?

@warzan ‘s Bolt “ACK ACK ACK”tion force?

Or his Space Monkeys from Mars in Power Armor?

[commodorerob 11076xp 0]

@oriskany that was the aim just so you had a little context for what you have in terms of points I think you could get an ok force together as the specialist squads are smaller than the regular troop types 🙂

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

@orisakny thanks for advise on music Jim, won’t play panzerlier then!

Mind you it was used in Girls und Panzers!

Cant bring up trucks for weekend as too heavy but might bring up Captain Smirk and his 24 lads, as most probably wont have foot figures.

 

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 0]

@bobcockayne Bolt Action is predominately infantry, I would expect to see more foot than anything else mate.

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

@avernos sorry was thinking more about foot LRDG than standard infantry.

Your right though looking at most of starter sets seems to be a box of 30 infantry, and a tripod mg.

Of course you have never played Wayne, many years ago when the old Platoon 20 brought out Normandy ranges, on the way to Northern Militarre (boy I’m ageing myelf) we decided to start a infantry based game on above, I went British Paras , Don Maddox went German and Wayne Went Russian, we were supposed to have a platoon each and little bit of supporting armour.

I went a recon troop of M5 Stuarts (mainly as found some nice resin kits at same show)one being the turretless one.

Don went mainly Hanomags with an Skdz 10 with 75mm and then Wayne!!!

We turned up to play 1st game and he had being buying, the game ended up being a fictional 1945 with Paras supporting the Germans against what ended up being the 5th Guards tank army with  supporting cavalry!!!!!

 

[commodorerob 11076xp 0]

I will be bringing a few trucks

[limburger 21688xp 0]

I’ve got zero problems with historical markings of any kind.
Over here we’re more likely to make fun of the war (and wonder when the Germans will give our bikes back ;)).
I suppose we’re a bit more practical about things as there was money to be made from all those Germans visiting our country after the war (and buying kilos of coffee, sigarettes and cheese).

It is a bit weird to realise that some of the music is a bit *eh* iffy when you put it in historical context.

otoh … you can say that about quite a few ‘normal’ bands and their songs as well. A band named ‘Rammstein’ isn’t too subtle … and some of their lyrics would make you go ‘hmm’ if you understood them.

@oriskany : is that why you stopped that music ?
I didn’t recognize it as ‘offensive’.

@warzan :  yikes … it is weird to know that northern Ireland wasn’t as peaceful as it is these days not too long ago.
I must admit that to me it’s all a few barely remembered things on the news.

I suppose it is a bit like what our parents and grandparents must have felt like after WW2.
It’s hard to express in words stuff that others haven’t experienced themselves.

Anyways … war is hell. No doubt about that.
I’m glad that to me it is just a game with interesting hardware.
It’s probably why I have no problems picking the Germans. I definitely don’t support that rotten ideology of theirs.

@oriskany : were there any of the more fanatical units in the african campaign ?
Were there no attrocities aside from the ‘normal’ hell that war itself is ?
I’ve heard about a ton of attrocities committed on both eastern and western fronts.

I can’t imagine them being ‘friendly’ to the natives …

[maxkee 1415xp 0]

Typical for WW2 germans, I have five color schemes to choose from. I like the Ral8020 but that is from March 1942 onwards. The RAL8000 is suitable for 1941 and matches nicer with the tropical uniforms.

What would you guys advice?

[bobcockayne 20723xp 0]

You know it might be an idea for us nearer the date to list what paints we are bringing up if any , plan was to bring up the rarer stuff , and buy of Beasts the more basic colours.

[noyjatatParticipant 16155xp 0]

@maxkee great pic for comparison. Might be worth searching online for a paint comparison page if you don’t know if you have something that matches.

@bobcockayne agreed buddy, I think it’s worth us getting colours identified if we can that are the ones meant to be used for those that wish to try and stay close to historical. This would be for vehicles, infantry and other stuff for both sides.

I was hoping to find out what’s in the 600 points but no-one seems to know so I could plan what I need to bring or get sent over.

[maxkee 1415xp 1]

@bobcockayne, I’ll probably get a couple of primers but I plan on bringing my own paints. It’s just that I am a big fan of vallejo paints and am comfortable with how they paint and dilute etc.. More so than Army Painter which I have experienced to be relatively ‘gelly’ in comparison.

@maxkee, It’s the Vallejo DAK Colors 1941-44 set I bought for bootcamp. And I find it difficult to choose 🙂 Mostly because in my mind the colors of Afrikakorps vehicles were almost a bright desert yellow and apparently they aren’t! Well, live and learn.

[torros 23816xp 1]

Just remember unless your driving home you can’t take aerosols on planes

[Author]

Posts