My first batch of Bolt Action minis are complete!

It's TOMMY! Who's still pinned down by Jerry... 

Whew, I did it! All minis were painted before anymore were purchased arrived in the mail! Whilst it's obvious none will win any awards being just 'table top quality', I'm rather pleased with all of them as a whole. 

Not going to get too wordy with this post, but rather just post pics of them so far. Am taking a bit of break to paint some of my woefully neglected Battlech stuff before delving into the next batch. 

I like how there's even the option for some variation to the prone minis' positioning. 

The first half of my infantry section.

...and the second, with the Mk VIB in support.

At the current time, the Boys AT rifle team is still the potent anti-tank weapon in my army. 

Reinforcements! Though still not sure what I'll do with three Stuarts...

I also have my two, 3D printed transports, however both are only half primed at the moment as I ran out of primer. Sad face.

Soooo...I went and did a thing.

Yep, you guessed it. I (predictably) bought MOAR stuff before painting all of what I had first. I came close though, really I did! 

Originally, I had a dozen infantrymen and a Mk VI B for my British Bolt Action 'army'. Out of that little force, the tank and a half dozen Sikhs are painted, with another three in progress. I did decide to slight expand it by raiding my quar again, stealing their 3D printed Tilly and 15CWT truck. Both of those need some sanding to get rid of the worst of the print lines, afterwhich the Tilly will require a repaint, yet by adding those and dropping my Sikh's LMG gunner, my list would top out at 300pts for no extra cost. 

But then...

...any guesses on who is having a sale?

It's all Table Top Fix's fault really. Damn but that site has cost me a bloody fortune in impulse buys over the years! Needless to say, last Friday I added to the tally. But seriously how could I resist? Looking thru their site under the 'UP TO 66% OFF!' submenu I found the Stuart light tank for $16. Hell yeah! I wanted one of those! Swap it out for my Mk VIB and my little list instantly goes to a mid-war, later North African campaign list.  Add to cart, go to checkout and...

...there's a $50 minimum for orders outside of the UK. 

Fuck. 

Well lemme see, maybe there's something else that I might want that's on sale...don't really want to spend that much $$$ tho...

Nope, not really. However I can just get 3 Stuarts and then be able to do Tank War or an armored platoon (with which 3 Stuarts and a Mk VIB really aren't much of a threat to anybody else's Tank War and/or armored platoon armies but still...), toss in a $5 Desert Rats decal sheet and we're there! Wait what?!? Shipping is $24!!! 

Sad fac-wait what's this here at the bottom of the screen? 'You maybe entitled to a free boxed set to offset shipping costs...' sure! Clicks said link and...shortly thereafter finds the 8th army infantry box (the same one that my Sikhs came out of) on the list. So...a $47.50 box for free to offset the $24 shipping cost. Sounds good. 

Indeed, going on full retail price my order would have set me back $139, whereas I instead only paid $77 (almost a third of which was shipping!). As such my Sikhs now clock in at 42 infantrymen, 3 Stuarts, a Mk VIB, a truck and a Tilly. Playing around with that in Easyarmy's list builder, I've come up with several 500-750pt army lists. My AT weaponry is woefully lacking in most all of them, but whatever, I have more than enough for now. 

Now my only concern is: which old, unused minis do I eBay off to offset this latest round impulse buying???

Sikh and Destroy!

 o/

Now with three Sikh riflemen completed and three more in progress, I guess I can say momentum has been achieved. How much? Who can say, but I have it for right now anyways, propelled all the more by the fact that Bolt Action has been resurrected from the dead at the FLGS.

Better yet, there's a guy regularly fielding a Russian tachanka which makes me happy. I just love it when hideously poor units are fielded purely because somebody just likes them. From what I hear it's actually fared quite well too!

My second trio is going better than the three above as I now have the color scheme down .Originally I had the browns for the skin tone and leatherwork/packs and webbing reversed. Ultimately I didn't like that and switched 'em which looks much better I think. 

Not sure how historically accurate my colors are, but given my limited selection of paints here at the house it'll have to do. This scheme is fairly quick and easy to do, which is kind of a necessity considering that most BA armies are fairly infantry heavy.

With some infantry nearby, you can see just how terribly small the Mk VI B is. Hard to believe there's 3 guys, plus an engine, guns and ammo crammed into that death trap!

I'm off to a 'dazzling' start!

Well that was easy(ish). I started off painting my Bolt Action force with my little (but mighty?) Mk VI B. I finished it out in an evening and am rather pleased with it. I opted for the caked on dust wash much like my Incandescent Coyotes. Google any image of a combat vehicle in a desert environ and they all invariably are caked with dust. 

There is much online debate as to whether or not the color scheme used a light blue, or a light grey. I chose the sort of middle ground using GW's celestial grey, which has a tinge of blue to it.   

The British, Dazzle camo style that was used in the desert campaign seems simple but is rather difficult to achieve. Painting straight, diagonal lines across the hull of a tank hasn't gotten any easier despite having painted a multitude of 40k tanks over the years. 

There's one famously photographed Mk VI B which sports the name ABERDEEN across the back of the turret bustle. However several others have (seemingly random) identification numbers, which as you can see is the route I chose to go. 

This particular color scheme isn't based on any sort of historical unit, rather it just looked the part to me going off of the myriad examples that can be found online. The markings placement is also based off of what I found in google searches, though truth be told there seems to be little rhyme or reason to any of it. 

The large geometric shapes on the turret rear were quite common. Just what the symbolism of each means, mystifies me however.

Also I figure it would difficult to take a whole lot of pride (or any for that matter) in crewing such a cramped, uncomfortable and ridiculously inadequate combat vehicle. Apparently the tank's crew agrees as they've named it 'TOAD'. 

Armed with an HMG with a co-axial MMG and sporting 7+ armor, the Mk VI B can best be described as...first blood.

Tommy!

This is Tommy. 

Tommy is at war with Jerry. Tommy is a lieutenant, ready to give his all for King and Country. Unfortunately for Tommy, Jerry is shooting at him with an MG42 forcing our beleaguered Tommy to lie on his tummy and hide behind this lowly rock. Tommy is cursing the fact that he's armed only with a bloody Webley that can't reach Jerry and his MG42. 

Today is a bad day for Tommy...

lol, and thus I foolishly delve once more into the game of Bolt Action (and this time, with actual humans!). I blame this latest foray on The National WWII Museum that we recently visited in New Orleans a few weeks back. It was a bit pricey to visit, but nonetheless I highly recommend it! We spent easily half a day of our very limited time in NOLA there and in all honesty were it just me, I'd have probably spent the entire day wandering it's halls and exhibits. 

Anyways, those three are just a few highlights of the many of pics I took there. Also, if you eat at the museum's restaurant, get the chicken & andouille gumbo it's delish! (it is New Orleans after all...). 

Sikh Infantry squad. I chose the Sikh heads having been inspired by Admiral Drax's Sikh army from a few years back.

So back on topic, I've been wanting once again to buy/build/paint MOAR Bolt Action minis. However at the same time I'm well aware that I'll likely not play BA anytime soon (if ever), especially as I've never been all that thrilled with the Bolt Action ruleset (1st. ed., I haven't played the current edition). 

My 'army' as a whole. Whilst it might be prudent under fire to be lying down, making a small target of one's self, Tommy doesn't exactly make for a dashing commander.

I've limited my self to a mere 12 minis, along with stealing a tank (and I use that term loosely) from my Quar. Clocking in at a grand total of 250 points, hopefully this little contingent for will scratch the itch without getting too costly. 

My favorite anti-tank weapon in Bolt Action. It's quite effective at taking out...trucks, jeeps, stray camels, but not tanks. Unless they're as bad as my Mk VI B.

The Quar gunner in the previously open hatch was so dedicated to this tank, that what's left of his mangled, headless, half body is forever entombed within the turret.

Given that I recently only managed 8 painted minis for my Smurfs before wandering off, a dozen infantrymen and a tank seemed like a good, manageable goal to set for myself. Also were I actually to play, 250pts. is an easy number to latch onto somebody else's army like some sort of little allied barnacle. 

I left the Quar crew stowage as its both well glued in place, and of similar size/appearance to that of regular Bolt action stowage.