As most of my Bolt Action games have been with my son, I've needed to provide two armies. The Soviets are definitely a favourite, and the obvious thing to do was to field a German force to play against (and of course they will be handy for many other games). I did consider Japanese instead, as we borrowed a force from Scrivs for one of our games .. but I digress..
The German force is currently smaller than the Soviets. A couple of Heer squads with mortar and MG support and a Stug III.. surely you HAVE to have a Stug?? I started with the Warlord 500 point starter army.
Recently I was looking at how best to bolster the force. Instead of just throwing extra infantry squads at it, I reckon I'll go for small and Elite to counter the Soviet horde. I think a 'Puma' armoured car is probably on the cards too.
Anyway, coincidentally, on ebay, I came across some groups of 28mm WW2 Germans being sold and I picked a 'squad' quite cheaply. I think these may be Artizan mostly (apart from one square-headed chap). One figure is now carrying a LMG from the Warlord sprues. Although I imagine Elite veteran types would probably be less uniform and I picture them in more camouflage, these will stand in a veteran squad for now, which will add around 140 points to the force.
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| Odd squarehead figure |
Painting was by the same block and dip method as I've described for the Soviet figures and I just need to finish off the bases.
I actually really like these figures, I was a little disappointed with the Warlord plastic German infantry.
In the last post I had applied the Army Painter 'Strong Tone' dip to the figures. They were left to dry off for a good 24 hours and then given a coating of the Matt varnish. Again I use the Army Painter product. I've tried others but had problems with misting and poor coverage, so I don't mind paying out a bit more and joining the masses by using a 'label' in this instance!
This step makes a huge difference, I see the appeal of shiny old fashioned toy soldiers, but it's not the effect I'm after here.
Once the varnish has had time to dry, I move on to the bases.
Confession - I meant to take pictures here but carried away and got the figures done.
Bases are first coated with PVA and dipped into a old biscuit tin which I have filled with Woodland Scenics Fine brown ballast. The excess is tapped off and then they are left to dry again.
Next up - more PVA in patches and a mix of static grass is applied on top of the ballast. (It's mostly GW at the moment but does vary according to what I have at the time to add to the pot.)
Again - drying time of a few hours and I finish off with some tuft material - this is Army Painter again (I didn't realise I used so much of their stuff!) but there are loads of alernatives. I've used a 'Meadow Flower' mix and applied it to the whole army, and their German counterparts, which helps to tie-in all the figures into a whole.
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| finished figures |
And, apart from a little tidying-up around the base edges, that's it.
It's entirely sensible now to perhaps go back over the flesh, and pick out some other details.. but for me, this is an army that I've painted incredibly quickly and are ready for a game. I think they look great at arms length, which is 'normal' viewing distance for most wargames figures anyway.
Finally a pretty impressive figure courtesy of Tim at Warlord.. he will either be backing up my CO, or perhaps acting as a Commissar in our games of Bolt Action.. An interesting rule where shooting your own troops can force a re-roll of failed command dice!
