Foray into Building Bolt Action Armies

German Army Book

Several weeks ago I was introduced to Bolt Action.  Since that time I abandoned my plan to use my AAM minis to play as the weapon type is so important in Bolt action and the AAM figures lack the detail and quantity required to assemble appropriate squads.  As a result I decided to spend some of the proceeds form recent gaming sales to acquire appropriate 28mm figs form Warlord games and War-games Factory.  Besides as one of my good gaming buddies always tells me 28mm is a much more manly scale.

Over the last month or so I have been assembling and painting my troops and this weekend I have reached the point that all my infantry are now complete for both my German and American Armies.  This was no easy task for me.  I have painted countless 15mm and 10mm figures in the past, but this was my first foray into 28mm plastics.  The plastic troops all have to be individually assembled to include attaching heads, arms, weapons and other equipment.  After completing my first German squads I quickly learned that the trusty super glue was no longer the way to go and that nothing beats good old plastic model glue for this task.

U.S. Army book

In the end I now have a total of three squads with leadership, crew served weapons, special weapons teams and two vehicles per Army.  This is enough to field 1000 points for each with the ability to change a few things up and try new options.  Additionally, I have another box plus of troops to assemble as I better learn the game and decide on new options.  As the troops are custom built I decided to wait on assembling these so I can configure them later as needed.  The specific army books describe the various units and vehicles in detail to include how many points they cost in an army list. This allows one to customize their armies.  At this point I have constructed a German and American army that are fairly conservative.  I did not build these with the intent of playing in tournaments yet.  They are based on the Normandy selector and follow fairly historical builds versus a competitive tournament style.

This is what I have so far.

Three U.S. Squads 12, 12 and 10

Leader team, Bazooka Team, Sniper team

50 CAL HMG team, 30 CAL MMG Team, 60mm Mortar team

M8 Greyhound Scout Car

M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank

German Platoon 3 Squads (10,10 and 7) with Leader team

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Flamethrower team, Panzerschreck team, Sniper team 

Medium Mortar Team, MG42 MMG Team

Pin Markers

German Vehicles yet to be completed

So that is it for now.  As mentioned 28mm is an entirely new scale for me.  While I am happy with how these turned out as gaming models there are some more painting techniques I would like to try on future models as well as some detail that can be added like insignia and unit patches.

 Once I get a few games in I can then decide how to better customize each army in terms of competitive advantage.  In the meantime I think we have a couple of decent historical lists that should provide some great father son games.