*Clack-shick* - it's the Bolt Action thread!

[Stoof]

So, many of us (by us I mean the TribeMeet committee mainly) have recently been infected with the Bolt Action bug.

@Tiny, @spafe and @MancInventor are already involved, myself and @ClockworkOrange have just started/are about to become involved.

I just built my first couple of chaps this morning for my chosen force - the 8th Army in North Africa.

North Africa is my personal favourite WW2 setting. I recommend reading Iain Gale's El Alamein and Forgotten Voices - Desert Victory if you're interested.

So, show us your forces! Talk about your favourite theatres! Tell us how we've used the wrong item of equipment for August 1942 when it was *adenoids* only introduced in October 1942 haw haw haw classic mistake */adenoids*

 

[Atom-Cat]

Mine are a platoon of British infantry of thr 14th Army. I have a Ghurka squad to go with them.

 

[Tiny]

Woo. We got our own thread.

Photos of some painted defenders of national socialism coming soon.

Edit: ok, ok, here’s some flamethrowers.

Flammenwerfer

• Tiny
• Oct 24, 2021
• bolt action german

German flamethrowers for Bolt Action

 

[Atom-Cat]

E664552E-9872-43EC-9C97-885EB9AFCD4B.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 No.3 section and sniper team 57F81411-D88A-423F-B4DC-9DB74CB4ECEB.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 Royal Artillery observer and escort, RE flame thrower team and Platoon HQ 93A569D7-9A56-4D6F-8151-0F29D93A2CB0.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 The Grant tank. 78852E88-7FC8-4F6F-8C3D-97F369E2F7D5.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 No.2 section and AT boys team. 89461EDC-65D8-4C78-BF0E-25104272676F.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 Ghurkas and AT gun. 01CFFF06-17B7-497D-9F2D-438A51784C3F.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 Daimler Recce vehicle. B2AB082F-E021-43DE-AA51-14E02E1A30E9.jpeg Atom-Cat Oct 24, 2021 No. 1 section with HMG squad

 

[Tiny]

I love that they all have names. Sadly the skinny Warlord bases don't have space for names.

 

[Punktaku]

I’m guessing this isn’t the place for my British Commando squad with phaser rifles?

 

[Tiny]

Couple more pics of my Germans. Not got round to photographing any of the older stuff so this is stuff I painted in the last month or so.

Feldengendermes

• Tiny
• Oct 24, 2021
• bolt action german

Goliath mine

• Tiny
• Oct 24, 2021
• bolt action german

Checkpoint

• Tiny
• Oct 24, 2021
• bolt action german scenery terrain

Panzer III

• Tiny
• Oct 24, 2021
• bolt action german tank

 

[Tiny]

Something I finished off this morning.

Orchard

• Tiny
• Oct 25, 2021
• bolt action scenery terrain

Inspiration taken (meaning I stole it wholesale) from Wargaming with Silver Whistle blog.

 

[Stoof]

I finished my first section & support team today.

NCO with Thompson (& assault whistle!)
Soldier with Thompson
Bren LMG team
6 chaps with SMLE's.
Gordon Highlanders, so a mix of tin hats & tams.

I also did the 6-pounder AT gun, which I glued myself to for a bit and was generally a pain to construct

I still have to put on their packs and things, plus extra bren magazine pouches and the like.

Now I'll annoy @ClockworkOrange by posting a pic of unpainted models assembled as per the instructions with no conversion... joke's on him... there were no instructions!

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Edit - Strangely I think I’m ok with you doing it for rank and file bolt action stuff.

 

[Tiny]

Edit - Strangely I think I’m ok with you doing it for rank and file bolt action stuff.

Disagree. All rank and file infantry should be converted, kitbashed and painted.

Speaking of which... Volkssturm. Kitbashed from a bunch of kits. Mostly Warlord winter Germans and WGA French partisans, but there's bits of about a dozen different kits in there including Vikings and Frostgrave wizards.

Volkssturm

• Tiny
• Oct 27, 2021
• bolt action german

Their fearless leader Wilhelm

Wilhelm

• Tiny
• Oct 27, 2021
• bolt action

He likes to investigate foreign objects he finds in his garden.

Strange foreign object 1

• Tiny
• Oct 27, 2021
• bolt action terrain

Strange foreign object 2

• Tiny
• Oct 27, 2021
• 1
• bolt action terrain

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Oooo I didn’t realise there was so many opportunities - yeah I agree with @Tiny sort your life out @Stoof

 

[Stoof]

I like the chap in the middle of your Volkssturm with several panzerfausts. He clearly means business... "When life gives you panzerfausts, make wreckage!"

 

[spafe]

I like the chap in the middle of your Volkssturm with several panzerfausts

They..er... fell of the back of a truck... yeah, thats it... fell...

 

[Stoof]

My force is expanding, quite rapidly by my standards!

8th Army so far...

• Stoof
• Feb 4, 2022

My aim was to paint them reasonably well but quickly, it's going well so far. The second set I did went quicker than the first despite doing more models in the batch. Maybe 3 or 4 hours work between actual work.

I have an HQ on order and still have another infantry section, mortar team, two Bren Carriers and a Matilda II to assemble.

I still can't believe how cost effective Bolt Action is compared to... Well, anything GW!

 

[Stoof]

My 8th Army Reinforced Platoon is done!

8th Army Reinforced Platoon - Finished

• Stoof
• Feb 23, 2022

Set1

• Stoof
• Feb 23, 2022

Matilda II, Officer, Medic, Radio operator (forward observer?), Pigeon wrangler (another...

Set2.JPG

• Stoof
• Feb 23, 2022

Medium mortar team, Light mortar team, 25 Pounder, Universal Carrier, 1st Section.

Set3.JPG

• Stoof
• Feb 23, 2022

Universal Carrier, 6 pounder AT gun, 3rd Section, Vickers MMG team & Boys team.

I promise to stop spamming as these guys now appear in several different threads. This lot comes to around 1080 points depending on what pick for a couple of items.

I played a little game by myself with an infantry section, gun, carrier and mortar on each side. It went quite slowly and I need to keep reminding myself that pin markers and testing to follow orders is a thing.

Notable events in the game - hitting a Universal Carrier with a 24pdr field gun and failing to damage it (must have been a dud!), and getting a 6 for the very first mortar shot - instant zero!

I'm keen to play someone else. I am however slightly peeved that at 1000-ish points my army has 17 units and the dice come in packs of 12 *shakes fist*

I intend to do some desert buildings (with domes etc), some kind of oasis type thing perhaps, and maybe a fuel/ammo dump. I am also very close to clicking "buy" on an Africa Korps army - that starter army set plus the HQ set comes to just over 1000 points as well and means I could be my own adversary.

 

[Tiny]

They definitely need an opponent. Perhaps some Vichy French?

I need to keep reminding myself that pin markers and testing to follow orders is a thing.

I forget this a lot. Get halfway through moving a unit and then realise they might not be able to even do anything.

the dice come in packs of 12 *shakes fist*

I happily managed to get half a pack of spare order dice from a nice person on Facebook the other day for my brother's Soviets so now I have 3 sets of 18 dice which should be enough for any eventuality. Maybe worth seeing if anyone wants to split a pack of British dice.

 

[Stoof]

My order dice are just standard brown ones. But if anyone wants to split a pack, gimme a shout

In other news - pin markers! I prefer the idea of having a physical representation of incoming fire rather than just pips on dice. I knocked these up from penny coins in a day.

Pin markers

• Stoof
• Feb 26, 2022

Pin markers

• Stoof
• Feb 26, 2022

I did fifty. At a rough guesstimate I reckoned a 1000 point game might involve around 100 markers. @Tiny suggested using 2p coins to make counters that are two or three pins each, which is a good idea.

 

[Stoof]

If, like me, you're tight and don't want to spend lots on ancilliary stuff like order dice - which are, by Bolt Action standard, excessively expensive considering the requirement to always buy at least two packs (at least that's what's happened with my 8th army and now my DAK force I'm building) - you might want to have some kind of cheap and cheerful marker that lets you display a unit's orders. To that end, I made a thing (pdf attached).

As a helpful aside this ALSO means you can use any old token in the bag for drawing orders. Handy!

Speaking of DAK, my first section is taking shape.

DAK WIP Squad

• Stoof
• Mar 9, 2022

DAK WIP Rifleman

• Stoof
• Mar 9, 2022

I wasn't sure of my method for these initally but as I do more detail it comes together alright, I'm happy with it now anyway.

 

[Tiny]

I did a thing for my Normandy set. Base model by Wargames Tournaments with a lot of modification.

Still need to make a larger scenic base for it with integrated graveyard.