Bolt... Action? Yep!

The faces on the models kind of look like that.
Wacky right?

Well hello there dear readers! Man I have been sick the last couple of days. Bad for work, but good for you! I got a solid start on some Bolt Action figures I picked up a dropzone games (a fabulous store you should try and get to if you're ever in the DC/Baltimore area).

But! You say "Bolt Action Throck? I thought this was a flames of war site!?" To which I heartily respond "Look to your right good sir! See that blog description? We are primarily Flames but other stuff too!"

Why Bolt Action? Because I like World War 2, the look of the uniforms, the scope of history, the amazing stories. And it's new and shiny. And who doesn't like that?

If you don't know what bolt action is, well, it's a 28mm World War 2 miniatures game. It's published jointly by Warlord Games (who'll make the mini's) and the venerable historical publishing house, Osprey Publishing. Intriguingly, there was a whole line of mini's from Warlord before there was ever even a rule set, in other words, we can buy all we want without the wait! Score!

For those of us chomping a bit more at the... crap... bit. Head on over to BoltAction.Net to check out the WWPD guys take on the game it is, as always, quality. Either way, I was inspired by what I had read and seen to start collecting a couple of small forces. In this case, I'm going to do US Rangers (I'm told they lead the way or... something) and Waffen SS (cause every good guy needs an excellently dressed bad guy to kill).



While my Rangers are on order, there was a shiny new Waffen SS Box Set at Dropzone, so it came home with me. Earlier, I had picked up the Engineer Blister, the SS Specialists Blister, and the Nebelwerfer Blister to start off my collection (with stuff I might not even need, thus the dangers of a new game to the wallet never fade).

When Throckmorton was in Egypt's Land...

Now, before I get on to the pics, a quick review of the models. I do more of this as I go along. First off, they are metal and for the most part relatively well done. However, there are certainly places where the mold has caused details to fuzz out, noticably so on the ends of rifle's and on some of the rear gear. However, when not fuzzed out the detail is quote crisp. My one gripe, especially from the Waffen SS Box Set, is the faces. They are either wildly over the top or poorly detailed and look weirdly like egyptian death masks if you take away the cool goatee and head dress. Just kind of blank, with thin lips and poor definition around the eye.

I like painting faces, so this is a deep bummer. But I also like painting other things, so I'll get over it.

For my SS I decided to go with the autumn oak leaf pattern. I found it tricky, especially because I haven't painted 28mm in a little while. But, overall, my first five models are going well.

I've clearly gone on long enough, so here they are, still in WIP form, most of the body work is done but the flesh still needs highlighting and detailed, some final extra high's on the body, and of course the bases as these are just white glued to SAAAAGA bases so I have something to paint them on.

All color schemes and gear colors taken from Agustin Saiz addictive book Deutsche Soldaten an amazing pictorial history of German gear of all types during World War 2. 

One of the "good" faces, a gnarled vet (face no where near done)

I think the wood grain turned out especially nice. 

On the left a "Mask" face, on the right an expressive one. I'm working on five models at a time for this set and sadly, right now, three of them look exactly like the guy on the left. Expressionless. 

NERD WARNING: Many people paint shoes a single tone, but most German Combat boots from the time, especially the higher quality ones the SS would get are multi tones with brown leather soles.