Big forest

After dealing with some Warhammer Fantasy puppies and repainting Bolt Action winter G.I. squad decision was made to improve game table a bit. Some time ago I've managed to assemble small piece of forest, but after using it for over 2 years I've realised I want something bigger. For 2 reasons:

1. It provides more tactical options during the game.

2. Decently made terrain feartures look great on battlefield and on photos, which is double important if you are planning posting battle report. Especially when it comes to Bolt Action.

This piece was made more less same way as the previous one. I wanted it to be useful for gaming purposes so you can remove trees to move even large units or models inside (tanks,  warbeasts or whatever). It's pretty large terrain feature (~24" x ~18") so decision was made to cut it with a path, so units can cross it this way without penalty. Otherwise this thing would be just a line blocker most of the time probably.

I wasnt's sure about final result when I started working on these Heki trees (they still are pretty fragile despie all the varnish I sprayed over it) but I really like the final result. This is the first wood / forest piece I've ever had which shows the scale of models staggering around ^^ 

There's an empty space in the middle so I'm going to add another tree to make it look pretty thick from above of from a distance. I should have enough materials for another 6 ot 7 "trees strong" piece of wood so sooner or later my game table shoud get even more dense.

So here're the piccies:

Below - column of US vehicles crossing cutting the forest:

Most of trees are removable so any model can easily get inside:

Even such big as Mercurian Maculator!!! 

Cat is banned from entering the forest but it's ok for showing the scale.:

And some pics from the gaming bunker. Looking at this now I am sure I want another one! ^^

If anyone's interested those sweet buildings come from Black Grom Studio. And since we're here - big thanks to Andrzej from Terrains4Gamers for ideas and actually encouraging me to give this project a shot. You can surely call youself godfather of this piece! 😁

Cannot wait to test this piece in combat!

Selling 2000 pts Bolt Action army

The time has come. I am selling my trusty Bolt Action US force. Don't have spare space for more models and that might be opportinity to change sides: always wanted to paint some more Axis stuff...

Selling what you can see below. All models painted with acrylics, sealed, with bases done. All models apart from vehicles are metal from: Warlord, West Wind, Artizan, Black Tree, Stoessi's Heroes. Metal is tougher then resin or metal and US GIs are toughest  of all! 💀 

For gaming I prefer regulars so here's the list of units + point cost: 

• 1st liutenant regular inc. assistant 85 
• medic regular inc. assistant 33 
• forward air observer 75 
• 10x regular infantry inc. SMG & BAR 108 
• 12x REG infantry inc.SMG,  2 BAR 128 
• 11x REG infantry inc. 2 BAR 125 
• 6x veteran infantry, 4 SMG, 2 BAR 113  
• 2x MMG section regular 100 
• 2x regular flamer section 100 
• 1x regular bazooka team 60 
• heavy mortar regular 65 
• medium mortar regular 50 
• light mortar regular 40 
• heavy AT cannon 110 
• medium AT cannon 75 
• medium howitzer + spotter 85
• Chaffee 185 
• Hellcat 190 
• Greyhound 135 
• Jeep, MMG 36 
• 2x Dodge, MMG 92 
• Jeep,transport 21

If you are interested - contact me for details (contact form in right panel) or visit Bolt Action buy / sell group on Facebook. Shipping worldwide. 

Eldritch Jeep

A while back I painted some Jeeps to support my Bolt Action US force. It turned out there was one more model left. At this stage I have more Jeeps my army can use, so decision was made this one is coming back where it came from - to the manufacturer 😊

Obviously it wasn't supposed to be a "normal" gaming model (more like a souvenir) so it got unusual paintjob and some eldritch junk inside: I imagined it leaving some excavation site or maybe ancient graveyard, loaded with robbed stuff.

Must say I really like the final result - working on model was quick and pleasant (the piece is pretty simple) and adding the bits was just fun (these also came from Warpainter btw). Pink color is pretty unusual on tabletop battlefields but I've painted such models before: Italian Autoblinda and German Brummbar. Choosing unusual colors is ton of fun every time.

So here it is. 

Below - some pathetic christian priest trying to stop grave robber from stealing ancient tomes and mysterious flask (split-second before getting bullet in the stupid head):

And the wheeler in the full grace:

Beep! Beep!

Hey again,

This time my US force got some new toys to deliver flamethr...  Eee... Eee... Democracy! Yes! Democracy! To deliver democracy even faster!

Recently I got some more fresh prints from Warpainter - this time it was US army Jeep bundle. It's the third attempt to paint models from this manufacturer after M12 GMC and Renault FT 17 and must say I am very pleased about this stuff. Printed models sure have pros and cons but it's just great source of models unavailable from the major players. 

Especially if you plan running army of Italy or Hungary... 🤩

Below is what you get in the box: 3 Jeeps including armored one and one with tarpaulin. Models require little cleaning .and because of simple construction painting is pretty fast: it took me 2 evenings to paint each of these.

As for cons - these wheelers have no crew 😑

On the other hands the intelligence reports some works about it have already been undertaken so you just better check Warpainter's site once in a while...

And the Jeep family alltogether:

🤘

X-mas Eve manoeuvres

Hey,

X-mas just passed and because my brother came to vist once again there was a chance to confront US and German armies. Both bloodthirsty, both fully painted!

After setting the battlefield we randomly picked Top Secret scenarion:

long story short the plane crashed in some western Europe village, whole crew died but there was still a briefcase containing top secret documents to be retrieved. Most probably V3 rockets plans or something. Both sides need that stuff and need it now!

The battlefield:   

Round 1:

It was retrieve mission so both sides tried to bring in as many units as possible from the very beginning. Big surprise was German infantry squad mounted on bikes which got dangerously close to the plane in the very first round!
The only thing I could do was bringing Hellcat into the game: luckly for Uncle Sam my destroyer hit the nazi bikers both with big gun and machine gun, sending 5 of them to Valhalla and forcing the last one to flee. 

Most of US forces also reached the positions: 
infantry squad moved into building supported by medic and veteran sniper, on the other side of the road arrived the commander, bazooka team, mortar and air force forward observer. 

At the same time Germans brought medium mortar and spotter, infantry squad and truck loaded with another squad + force commander.
Those damn nazis dismounted reaching the plane! Disaster! 😤

Round 2:

Germans started the second round by bringing the biggest nightmare of any US commander: Flakverling! From the hill it had clear view on the most of the battlefield! 🥶

Before the gun crew left transporter I tried to reach it with bazooka but the target was an inch beyond the maximum range.
At this point I had no other choice then calling an airstrike on infantry next covering the plane.

German MMG and infantry opened fire to Hellcat giving it 2 pin markers:
which was just enought to make it fail order test and eventually - useless to the very end of the game. In responce my GIs left the building and fired at enemy machine gun:

11 shots at close range was more that enough to take it down. Still the Hellcat wasn't worth it.

German commander grabbed the briefcase and started falling back covered by infantry. 

My mortar  and HQ squad missed so shit got really thick right now...

Trying to cut off German commander Dodge packed with infantry squad and Jeep moved from the flank but they reached only the hedge line. Seeing that German commander moved the truck in front of my wheelers which opened fire at my Jeep pinning it.

Germans brought another medium machine gun to stop my flanking action, they also tried to take down my sniper with mortar fire but luck was on my side this time.

Round 3:

Suddenly US airplane came down from the skies aiming for German infantry squad but Flakverling did it's job right: plane pilot didn't even see the target before flak fire torn his machine into bits of scrap. The battle seemed to be over but in act of desperation another airstrike was called - this time on Flakverling itself.

Seconds after pieces of burning junk fell down from the skies Panzerkampfwagen III flanked my cars destroying Dodge and forcing the squad to emergency landing. PzIII also took down 3 GIs advancing nearby. Actually there were 4 casaulties but medic did his job.

It wasn't much better on the flank:

Kubelwagen rolled in trying to take down my mortar and then - lieutenant, bazooka team or the observer (all easy targets). But it missed all shots!

Seconds later my commander and his sidekick moved between trees and fired the invader - a perfect shot just under the line of Stahlhelm was just enough to get rid of mobile MMG.

The briefcase was now almost behind German line...

US assault squad tried to storm machine gun in the back but failed order check.
Germans put some more pin markers on the Jeep so it looked like the game was over. 

US commander ripped army list to pieces and prepared to pack the toys and go back home...

Round 4:

Since the game was practically over and we were bit drunk already decision was made just to solve an airstrike pro forma:

tha plane not only arrived but evaded all shots from Flakverling and second later there was no more German flak!

US commander had to take pieces army list from the bin trying to assemble it...  

There still was some hope!
I didn't manage to bring the other truck in the previous turn but it arrived now just from behind the hill. The driver fired at enemy commander but didn't even make a scratch.
Engineers did better: 

after jumping of the Dodge they gunned down Axis lieutenant and tried to torch the squad nearby but it was out of flamethrower's range. Gulp! 😬

Germans didn't take a risk:

they put on the bayonets and charged US engineers killing 5 and giving 2 in return. 
Without any US units able to pick up the briefcase nearmy the game was definitely over. 
Looking forward for rematch.