Clever Hans - Part 12 (An Army Re-Org for 3rd Edition Bolt Action)

During the holidays I was able to meet up with a Bolt Action gaming pal, Stephen, gift him my NIB WW2 French minis (Cos I will never have time to work on a 5th army) as I knew he needed an Early War army option and it turned out he'd just gained a new Char-B tank kit - so job done. In turn, he handed over a few sprues of Warlord Games Winter Germans that I have decided to fill out my Bolt Action German force so that they'll be usable for 3rd edition events and tournaments. 

For those uninitiated or ignorant to the changes in this current edition, the accepted "standard points value for a game of Bolt Action is now 1250. My previous German collection could meet that, but would not be very much fun or all that competitive to play, so changes had to be made. Below is a Draxian Paint Chart like the one I have maintained for my WW2 Greeks (See previous posts on that project). 

To that end, I've added and put primer to the Sd.kfz 10/4's (Etsy 3D prints) and glued some of the new Winter plastic Germans together to represent the Rifle Officer's 4x Adjutants. 

3x Platoons - Mandatory Rifle platoon: Officer with 4x Adjutants armed with SMG's, 2x Squads of Veteran Heer Grenadiers, 1x Squad of Volks Grenadiers and a small 7-man Squad of Waffen SS with their Sd.kfz 251/1 Half-Track transport; Artillery Platoon of lone Officer and a pair of Flak 88's; Armoured Platoon containing a pair of Sd.kfz 10/4's sporting 2cm Light Autocannons each. I call this force my late war Holding Kompany and it's supposed to represent the type of ad-hoc Kampfgruppe the Germans might have thrown together on the Eastern Front to try to push back the Soviets during the Winter of 1944.

These four will represent the adjutants for the Officer's squad. Gritty looking blokes with SMG's and no helmets like the standard Grenadiers.

Lots of random gear added to their rear sides so they'll stand out more-so from the Grenadier squad that'll be made from the same set. 

This pair were the last two body-sculpts from the sprue (6-to-a-sprue). The fellow on the left will be an extra crewman for one of the Flak 88 guns and the yelling chap on the right will end up as a spare adjutant should I need one for bigger points games.

Again, with more gear on his rear, including some mittens! 

Per usual, these will see basing and paint as time allows, but I'm glad to have had a little time this weekend to get any hobby done at all, so score!

Be well and safe out there,

- Dai

Bolt Action East Front Winter 1944

 This weekend saw the wife and I make our way to Vacaville where I met up with my friend Densmol at Forgotten Path Games for a rare face-to-face game of Bolt Action whilst our wives went off and did "wife stuff". 

I brought my Winter mat and terrain (Though stupidly forgot half of it so the table looked a little bare!) and both fully painted forces for the game, Densmol playing the desperate Germans and I the invading Soviets. 

We played "The Ivans are coming" scenario from the Road to Berlin campaign book which was fun - my Soviets defending a road crossing and Densmol's Germans trying to wrest control from the commies. All went well with some rules look-ups due to neither of us having played for almost 2 years (!!!) aside from completely forgetting to apply the effects of "Snow" the whole game through. (Insert eyeroll here)

Whilst I won't be attempting to put in a turn-by-turn account, here are some photo's of the game. The mdf fencing terrain is brand new and got it's first run out that day; it looked great and I already have a second set ready to assemble and paint/weather on the hobby setup.

The German Officer and a Squad of Grenadiers approach the crossing cautiously out of the village outskirts.

Hetzer tank killer in the distance, killed a tank...

... which in this instance happens to be my Soviet T34/85.

Then it went on to kill my poor wee BA64 Armoured car. 

First casualty of the game was Densmol's officer and Adjutant. The T34/85 gunned them down mercilessly.

Here's a late game image showing the Soviets swarming the objective. At this point, the Germans only had a handful of fanatical SS troops alive and the Hetzer. Not enough to hold back the Commie tide.

Earlier in the game. I have bases to prep for the tree's and about 20 coniferous trees to go in them too. That table was very bare.

Soviet reinforcements to come on in the foreground. Germans toward the back of the table.

A Guards squad hunkers down behind these woods, waiting for the optimal moment to dash up and add their fire support.

On the left a second Guards squad patiently wait behind a copse of trees whilst a small SMG-toting squad of inexperienced troops are forced to leap from their burning transport after a very unliekly shot from the German Panzerschreck team blows it up!

The late game mad-dash.

That GAZ jeep (on fire) had the Soviet Flamethrower team mounted up inside. Flambe'd flamethrower! Is what they get for missing twice in a row earlier ingame. 

The Hetzer was Densmol's MVP. It blew up 3 out of my 4 vehicles and put pins on my ZIS-3 artillery gun. 

The GAZ jeep right after the Hetzer shot it with yet another amazing dice roll by Densmol. Guards squad looks on horrified.

Hard to make out, but in the top left corner of this pic is an anti-tank-rifle team that took a rather improbable shot at the above German Half-track and blew it up, killing the German Flame Thrower team inside and causing a Volksgrenadier squad that was also the passenger to hop out!

Earlier in the game, German Panzerschreck team, SS Vet's and a Medic team carefully make their way to the objective.

And that's it. Was great to play my first game in a long time and against Densmol too who I hadn't seen for a game in yonks. Playing again has gotten me motivated to get a second set of fences put together and also paint minis! 

Thanks for getting to the end of this post!

- Dai

A Frosty Goose-Step (WW2 Late War Germans on parade)

 As promised in a previous post, here is a small parade post of my fully painted WW2 Winter Germans force. I do have more to add to them, but I think I'll leave those pieces for when the mood takes. I think all of these sculpts are by Warlord Games from their Bolt Action range (Including the plastic half-track and resin Hetzer tank). Lots of fun details and dynamism to them which made them fun to paint.

To start off a full shot of the whole force. The organisation of this collection is per the basic German Reinforced Platoon Bolt Action army list on Easy Army dot com. (Shame about the background, but they are stored in a barn so "barn-background" is what you get.)

When I took this and checked the pic on my phone it looked fine! O well. Daylights gone now and all these guys are packed away now.

Lieutenant and Adjutant. 

Waffen-SS Squad and their Half-track ride.

Heer Grenadier Squad.

Volks Grenadier Squad.

Heer Medic.

Flame Thrower Team.

Panzerschreck Team.

Hetzer tank hunter.

Those observant enough may well notice the absence of this tank from the initial group shot. We’ll the blighter was hiding deeper in one of my storage boxes than I had anticipated and I had thought it had gotten lost somehow! But it turned up so I had to get a pic in for completions sake. 

And a bonus Forward Artillery Observer.

And that's it! As mentioned above, there are more pieces in my unpainted mountain to add to these: 

Panzer iv H tank

Sniper Team

Heer Grenadiers in Winter Greatcoats

The remainder of the Waffen-SS squad

Hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I found enjoyment knowing that this project could be called "done" AND that I can now host a fully painted Winter themed game of Bolt Action at home once time allows - something to post on in a later publication.

Now back to finishing that last section of Canadians before I can get in with this year’s new army.

Cheers - Dai

Clever Hans - part 8 (Winter Grenadiers squad compete!)

These nine Grenadiers are from a project last visited in 2018 (!!!) and their completion finishes up a 10-man squad for my WW2 Winter Germans for Bolt Action project. My main hobby goal for the first half of this year is to get my German force painted and ready for play before the Summer so that I can have two fully painted armies (My WW2 Soviets are already done) to run demo games for mates. 

The sculpts are all Warlord Games from their metal Winter Grenadiers Squad set. Very well detailed miniatures with most of them featuring separate heads which I liked playing around with to get the best looks possible. The only negative aspect is the sculptor's choice of equipping so many Assault Rifles and Panzerfausts - Regular Rifles were far more common in general and I prefer the look in general, but that's a personal preference I guess.

Painting German troops in WW2 is a different beast compared to my previous Canadians and Soviets in that they have SO MUCH KIT and each piece is a flippin different colour which took ages to pick out! But other than that, they painted up nicely and I really like the finished results. Per my previous Winter posts, these fellows got some red/pink added to their faces and hands to represent the cold they are supposed to be fighting in and I managed to get eyes on all but two who's headgear made that effort impractical. (Not all eyes were done "well", mind. But I just wanted these finished so after a couple attempts left them as-is on some.)

Here are some individual pics highlighting all the mess-ups and crappy eye-jobs. :)

This bloke is a prime example of where I just couldn't get the eyes right. Good thing he's looking down a bit to read the instructions on that Panzerfaust so on the table you can't see his peepers.

All of these mini's bases snow effects are still drying in these pics. For those wanting to know, it's Games Workshop's snow effect product - Vallhallan somethingorother.

Aforementioned bloke who's cap is pulled down too low to be able to attempt eyes. yay.

Liking his helmet hooked onto his belt.

Cold effects on this one's face are a little too "rouge-like", but they'll look fine on the game table. 

Added a little snow to the bottom of his boot - it made sense at the time

This guy has a bit of a googly-eyes syndrome. 

The squad's Light Machinegun team in the classic, "Here, rest the weapon on my shoulder and deafen me" pose.

Actually I'm a big fan of this duo. They just look cool.

Managed to give the bloke in the foreground a fun "This sucks" expression, which I thought was rather appropriate.

Another face I'm rather happy with. He has the "100 yard stare" that you see in many photos from the war.

Must have tried to get this bloke's left eye (Viewer's left, not his) done four times before I just gave up. I also neglected to paint the strap on his helmet (Bugger!) so I'll have to go back and do that later.

The last chap in this squad and he's about to let go of that potato masher, or at least I hope he does. 

So that's my effort at "Batch Painting", something I've long avoided in the past, but getting these 9 figs done was a satisfying endeavour and not as bad a challenge as I'd feared once I'd gotten past the base colours stage. 

Next up I'll be tackling the remainder of this Medic (Pictured below) and a Sniper Team (Not pictured below), then a Hanomag halftrack and the last outstanding squad of VolksGrenadiers to complete the initial list. There will still be a few more options to be painted (Another squad of Winter Grenadiers, Flame Thrower team, MG42 team and a Panzer IV), but they'll be saved for when I feel up to it. 

So as these partially painted fellows limp off painfully into the snowy hell of the East Front, I'll end this post here.

Hope all are staying safe and well out there,

- Dai