Heer, there and everywhere : Adventures in Bolt Action

After my Frostrave and Stargrave MDF builds I had promised myself I would avoid MDF its like the plague. That ended predictably.

And so, having found my trusty thimble (to contain my enthusiasm for making tiny buildings from wooden kits ,again,) I cracked on.

Glueing bricks back onto a ruined building was definitely another ‘cocktail stick’ moment.

So , once again adding to Luke at Geek Gaming Scenics retirement yacht fund, I acquired some appropriate moss and foliage, then I hit youTube for some research. This was my first tilt at sculpt-a-mold, messy stuff , but all in all I was quite pleased with the results, although they seemed really big for the scale. I have all the bits to make some smaller hedgerows, but have yet to start on those.

I picked up some woodland scenics armatures and put them onto some round wooden bases, these slot into a larger base that holds two or three slots. I put some green stuff on the bottom to add some detail and give the base a little extra weight. I then sprayed them dark brown, I didn’t sweat the details as eyes would be drawn more to the canopy than the trunks.

Using some reindeer moss I had dyed and preserved myself and some of the leftover canopy moss from the bocage I got some tacky glue and started sticking the foliage on. Frankly it was a bit of a b*stard. Getting flock to stay on was also a challenge, but overall I was happy with the results

With an army ready to go, a player or two coming out of the woodwork at my FLGS dusting off  their Bolt Action armies. (My local store is very GW /MTG focused). I wanted to work on my home set up – so I will need buildings, hedges, trees and what the heck is a bocage? The sound a French chicken makes or something?

So a bit of research wouldn’t go amiss, fortunately I had not  long been over to France. Full disclosure the big building is my dad’s place, he restored it from a bit of a ruin. It served as German and allied head quarters during WWII. it’s about 40 minutes drive from Cherbourg.

Having  got past the cammo fatigue, I decided to finish off a handful of models to show me what I was aiming for overall. This trick gave me the impetus I needed to push on and finish off the rest of the army.

So that’s my German army sorted, but on reflection they could do with some terrain to fight over and some opponents.

(in the background the sound of a wallet faintly screaming)…

Fortunately , I found a chap looking for a game at my FLGS, Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby. We set up a game I took a few pics , apologies for the quality

It was the first time either of us had played a game, but we fumbled our way through. My MMG managed to miss on six dice at point blank (hitting on threes). When the unit next to them panicked and shot them I didn’t feel bad. My opponent managed to rout his own unit with his bombardment later. I also learned that flamethrowers are filth (and ordered one).

So, no need to built an opposing army as I had an opponent, a couple of folks wandered over during the game and said they were looking to play Bolt Action as well and were working on armies. So a good day all in all.

Of course, by then I had already ordered the British Airborne starter army….

Never painted a tank before, lots of flat surfaces, so any kind of contrast style paints were off the menu. Owned an airbrush but was too scared to use it! anxiety sucks sometimes. I turned to researching Youtube again. I built up a base colour in several thin coats, for smoothness. I then added the green and russet tones with a sponge, then did a very light drybrush with a buff colour. Once that was done I covered the models with Army Painter soft tone.

Full disclosure with regard to army painter , I like speed paints , I like their washes, but their regular paints I have really not got on with. (I am being polite here).

It took some willpower to start the next step, but I knew what colours needed to go onto what bit. I went with a get one colour on everywhere it needs to be on every mini before moving to a new colour, there’s various ways to approach the job, I reasoned knowing I was done with a colour completely would be more motivating. Any second coats required I also applied in this phase.

So I stuck to my one colour policy for a long old time. The hardest part was the camouflage, I had tried cammo on a couple of minis before and it looked pretty crap. This time I did my homework and got much better results. I was torn about being happy with how my Waffen SS looked ,given the units’ history. Despite my not being a stickler for historical accuracy in miniature painting, I do enjoy learning history as I go along. Never happier than when learning!

There does come a point where you own 200 quids worth of  paintbrushes, but find yourself painting with a cocktail stick where you question your hobby choices.

We’ve all been there, tripping over on the internets and accidently buying a starter army. The sheer volume of building to do was daunting in the extreme. Having said that, the models were pretty easy to build and I am pretty quick at getting stuff built and primed, it’s the step after that where things slow down.

Here are some pics of the primed minis (there are many).

With hindsight gluing the mortar and mg crews to their bases might not have been the best of ideas, but they weren’t that bad to paint.

So with everything primed, recommended paints research and acquired, I was ready to go.

I added a little extra stowage to some of the vehicles, while this may cause some purists to cry into their weak lemon drinks I really don’t care. If anyone asks what regiment do these represent, my answer will always be a German one. If you want to accurately create a unit out of history, that’s great, you do you.