40M Nimrod

After  recent getting ass kicked by Soviet-o-French commie alliance, the high staff decided to work on some more Axis in my disposal, and looks like the only unit left from the range was 40M Nimrod SPAAG (self-propelled anti-aircraft gun). The model is 3D print I purchased together with CV-35 tankette and 39.M Csaba bundle, during painting Strategie painting contest.

It's printed model so it's much better quality compared to standard Warlord Games' resin casts but after getting it done I think if I could choose again I'd go for Warlord's version anyway. The model is pretty simple so don't think there's much difference between both wersions but most important: 

there's the crew in the Warlord's piece. Anti aircraft turret is large - it contains 4 men which looks just damn cool. Even though I like my painting, the model looks like the guys haven't manned it yet or even worse: failed morale check and run for the hills 😵.

As you notice model has front right mudguard missing - my cat knocked if off the desk, part of model broke off (missed in action forever) but it still looks like pretty believable battle damage. The "blanket" (or whatever it is) bit on the turret comes from other vehicle. It's not much painting work but makes plain model more interesting. The turret also got little magnet so it doesn't fall off during transportation or heat of the battle. 

The camo is the same style I applied on other Hungarian vehicles before - the final effect is just really cool and it's such a relief after painting all those United States models. Sadly don't think there'll be more coming - armored platoon is already full 😒

So here it is:

And some scale shot - US engineers about to stop Axis menace on a very far and forgotten front of war.

I think I will mail Warlord games and ask them to think about making proper scale tanks and vehicles. These are just way underscaled...

Unknown episode of WW2 (part 2)

Last Friday night history of World War II took another surprising turn and had a pleasure to re-enact another unknown episode of war: battle between US and Italian forces against Soviet and French menace. It's another game we had to play at Rilian's place - last time it was Italian vs US and since then we were still kinda hungry got more WW2 gaming.

Since the last game Rilian also found 2 more commanders willing to start Bolt Action adventure, so we had 4 armies on the table - each 1250 pts worth. Must say no matter how much I like the game, the size of battle was just too big: the battle started about 20:30 and the last bullet was fired after 2:00 a.m.
My side clearly lost but we didn't manage to bring game to the 6th turn.

Any post-battle conclusions?
Not realy: it's Bolt Action so no matter what brilliant plan you prepare the dice drawing and rolling is true god of war. Because all other armies were early war, I also had to adjust my force to this period. Sadly that made my unit choice very limited but still it was fun.

Also I tried to upgrade some photos with AI so make the report more eyecatching but I'm not really sure it was good idea. I got feeling the upgraded photos look like taken from WH40000 battle of video game 🤔 Here's the material anyway - judge for yourself:

Below: brave G.I.s defending crucial supplies...

And here: Rilian's seld made aerosans:

That's it. Hope the next time I get opportunity to field proper mid/late war stuff 😎

US infantry (winter war) #6

Road to Berlin 2026 event is getting closer and closer so it's high time to prepare the boys for 2 days long battle. After last year's event I was hoping to field 100% themed winter force but because of my pathetic painting speed - some suppoer weapons and vehicles still require painting. Still I am really glad I've managed to get gid US winter infantry box of the painting list. these are really cool and magnetized so moving between tables might be little bit easier. 

As for painting itself I tried to use similar color combo like on previous squads (contest squad or command squad). Sure each team is slightly different but they will sure look cool mixed together. I was hoping to work on some more US models but Hungarian Nimrod is also tempting - especially after really boring US olive/brown combo...

Sherman M4A2(76)W

This one is kinda re-post of model painted recently.

As you remember (or not) it was painted for local paining contest. After all entres were done one of organisers asked me to prepare another set of pictures, because the ones I sent were too messy. Those pics were taken on painting desk (which I actually cleaned a bit before taking shots...) bur there were some painting stuff, mug, plinths or crap like that.

Back days I tried to use different backdrops: white sheets, printed backgrounds etc. All in all conslusion is I cannot take  decent photos using any background except "natural ones" you can see on my pics. But contest has it's rules so if you don't like them - don't participate. For the second set of photos I took the only bright t-shirt I found in the closet. It's linda beige but colors on the model turned out pretty fine. I now can see I could use one more lamp straight from above to get rid the shadows. But apart from that - ain't that bad.

Here's the gallery of all entries - take a look, some really cool miniatures were painted for the contest!
And the final results are here - check the small scale infantry!

CV-35 tankette (Hungarian army)

Last month was pretty busy - sadly busy in real life, not just having huge line of models waiting for painting. Worse luck next 2 months don't seem to look any better because of some shit job I got involved into, but I guess Mighty Universe wouldn't give me a quest I'm not able to deal with 🙄

Anyway a month ago I dealt with 39.M Csaba for upcoming Hungarian project and just yesteday CV-35 tankette rolled off the painting station. Just like the previous model it's printed (that works great for vehicles) except for the commander. This dude comes from Warlord's tank crew set. The driver is nothing special but there was no other opcton and the idea was to make tankette bit more unique - in case I ever want to get the second one for the Axis ally.

Painting was fun - not sure the camo pattern is what I wanted to achieve but working with Blu Tack on such a small and kinda busy surface was problematic (contrary to Hetzer and Toldi). So here it is - ready to stop soviet invasion on Budapest:

The tank crew set contained models standing on ordinary bases (ready to add them to infantry squad or something) and some to be placed into hatches. Again - to make model more unique (and even more properly Hungarian) I replaced original German tank comander with the Hungarian. It's slightly smaller compared to original model, but it can be barely noticed from a distance, It's only gaming model after all: 

39.M Csaba (Hungarian army)

Bolt Action is on a roll at the beginning of 2026!

After dealing with two entries for painting contest (infantry squad and vehicle) I decided paint one more toy for VERY slowly growing Hungarian army. 

At first it even wasn't second army project - I simply liked camouflage pattern (nice change after painting US stuff olive, olive and olive) and some weirdo Hungarian vehicles. But during the painting contest on Strategie.net.pl I spotted some printed entries - which were remarkably cool! 

So I got 3 models, which means this with 38.M Toldi and Hetzer makes the armored platoon full... 

In new edition of Bolt Action we can field more vehicles then in the previous one. Hungarians have many rather cheap models available (absolutely most expensive is Hetzer from Axis support: barely over 200 points) so I plan to field full armored platoon: 5 vehicles. Battle experience clearly shows cheap, mostly anti-infantry vehicles are much better investment then expensive, fat über-tank.

For this one I tried another version of ambush camouflage. It's much more "vivid" compared to previous models, because during painting I ran out of olive green and the only color available was light green from Vallejo line. I didn't want to wait for delivery so it was mixed with bronze and violet to make useful base color and all in all final result is acceptable. Maybe not enough dirt for my taste, yet still cool. The turret got magnet to secure it from falling off (this resin or whatever it really is) is quite fragile and I do not want to risk breaking the barrel.

Apparently I f#cked magnet inserting, becuase the gap between turret bottom and hull seems to be just too large. Might put it on hobby station to fix it.
And add more dirt... 😁

And below - new Hungarian ride together with it's tracked cousin 38.M Toldi and Hetzer from German support. Warlord Games sells Hungarian tank crew to I hope to get this set and replace officer in Hetzer:

Sherman M4A2(76)W

Having some more foot soliders prepared for winter, the time has come to provide some heavy support for the boys. I always wanted my GIs to have heavy tank support and recently I've found mint condition model on second hand market. Plus I needed the second entry for the painting contest so apparently once again Allmighty Cosmos has been guiding me 😵‍💫

Although it's another tank from Sherman family in the display case, painting this one was kinda challenging, because as it turned out - I run out of all olive paints and the only one I could use was grassy light green tone. It's been mixed with some browns and violet and all in all it turned out fine. It's clearly brighter then it's older brothers: M4A3 Sherman 105 mm howitzer or M4 Sherman T34 Calliope but I think I like such "pale" tone even better: makes bigger contrast on the battlefield and exposes mud, dirt or oil streaks.

Last weekend the model was brought to gaming-bunker for some field tests. It survived (yaaay... 🙄) but didn't perform anyhow spectacular. I know, it's Bolt Action so some bad luck with dice rolling can obliterate the best battle plan, yet I was hoping for little more. On the other hand I was facing Soviet army swarm without armored platoon, so it's cannon didn't get proper target: the meat chopper was much more effective. Oh well, it's nothing new 250 points vehicle for 1000 points game is just too expensive so I think it might re-appear in larger battle.

 

So here're the pictures and hope you like it:

And below Mr and Mrs Flatnoses taking Sunday ride:

US infantry (winter war) #5

The entry for 25 mm - 28 mm infantry unit category for ongoing painting contest just left hobby station. As menioned before - I am more then satisfied with new US winter infantry box, even despite the fact painting the same coats was simply boring. 

What you see below is the basic United States infantry unit I field in Bolt Action v3: no assault weapon, no Browning - just 12 rifles to maximize army's special rule. In fact I am trying no to leave deployment zone without 3 solid units of grunts, so sooner or later you might expect to see more of greatcoats and repainted metal models painted earier. After all not all soliders got proper winter clothing on time for Battle of the Bulge...

The next piece which just arrived on painting station is M4A2(76)W tank. I know most tanks in US disposal ale quite similar, but for this one I chose early hull to make it stand out and of course - this one is equipped heavy anti tank gun, which should make enemy think twice before entering into my fire zone...

The unit was painted for winter campaign, so I tried to take some shots using proper backdrop. Must admit I've found taking photos with such a bright background quite pain in the ass: the camera couldn't catch proper white balance which was kinda weird since most of enviroment is white 🙄

To show the difference I took photos of the same unit also in standard grassy land and straight on the painting desk - as you can see models' colors are different despite it's the same camera, settings and lighting. Taking pics it probably most frustrating element of this silly hobby...

Anyway here they are and I am off to assemble and undercoat zze tank!

See? Same settings, different background and models instantly look better... 🙄

And here're the boys led to battle by the command squad painted recently: