Bolt Action - The Tale of Three Painters

Happy New Year, everyone! Something a little different this week, patrons of The BAR - Tim (TJSKI from the forum) and his crew have a challenge going on in their corner of The BAR (Arizona). He's here to tell you about it, and there's no reason you and your crews can't do the same! He's included some pictures of his group's previous works, so I hope you enjoy, and I hope it inspires you and your group! - Judson 

Welcome to a tale of three average gamers in Phoenix Arizona who are going to each build a new 1000 point army for Bolt Action in a four month paint challenge. Here are the details of our little challenge and you can follow our progress on our respective Blogs.

TJSKI's vehicle submission from the painting contest.

We will be building up to 1000 points in about four months with 250 points each month. The challenge is to only do 250 points each month. You can do less than that but no more than 250 points each month. Now if you come up short points for each month, you can carry over the points to the next month. Example is you build 235 points this month, the following month you can add the extra 15 points to that month. So here is the schedule that each one of us will be following:

 Start Date: January 1st
 1st Installment Due: February 1st, 250pts
 2nd Installment Due: March 1st, 500pts
3rd Installment Due: April 1st, 750pts
 4th Installment Due: May 1st, 1000

Our “Prize” for winning the challenge is twofold, first up we each get a new 1000 point army painted up for the game! Secondly we will celebrate by having a BBQ with a few adult beverages and throw down a game or two, a perfect prize for this challenge. (Awesome prizes! - Judson)

Below is a brief introduction from each of the participants in the challenge:

Jerry Autieri

I've been gaming since I was old enough to hold dice, but I am a relative newcomer to miniatures gaming. I have only been seriously involved with mini games for about the past decade. Historical war gaming is even newer to me, having only undertaken that in the last year.  You can see what I'm up to at my blog,  http://jerry-bigpicture.blogspot.com/

For this challenge I'm doing 1,000 points of Russians. I haven't settled on a list yet, but whatever I end up with it's likely to have a lot of infantry. I just don't think of Russian forces with small numbers of troops. I'll be using a mix of models from different companies: Crusader, West Wind, and probably some Warlord figures for harder to find models like a Russian medic. In any case, I'll probably begin with the basic requirements of the reinforced platoon and move out from there. I have all my infantry models already, but don't have any support units or vehicles. So beginning with the core is a logical choice. I'll be aiming to produce good quality paint jobs for the table top, which should help me keep pace with the challenge while creating a decent looking force. I'm planning to save the tanks and high points units for those months where I don't have a lot of time to paint.

Mike Wilster

 I am just your average gamer.  I have been actively table top gaming for the past decade and beyond.  I have seen games come and go and have grown old with fellow gamers.  I enjoy the hobby of gaming more then gaming itself.  Jump on over to my blog page to see my work; http://dagreenskins.blogspot.com/

For this year’s painting challenge I will be painting up 1000 points of Americans.  My goal is to start with something big (a tank) so I can spend extra time painting all the infantry I need for this army.  I still have to decide on the actual list and it will most likely change when I get the American army book.  As of right now, my goal will be to have a tank, transport, gun teams and infantry (regular and veterans).  This is going to be a great way to kick off 2013 and support a great game.

Tim Kulinski

 Like my two other challengers, I too have been a gamer for far too long. I have always been interested in World War Two gaming and have played many of the miniature rules sets that have been released (Battleground, Arc of Fire, Flames of War and many others). Needless to say, I have a large amount of 28mm WW2 figures and Vehicles. But many are not painted since I could never find the right set of rules.

But that changed with Warlord releasing Bolt Action, suddenly I had a reason to paint up some bare lead. So I decided that I would get my US Paratroopers painted up for this challenge. I have a large collection of Artizan Design figures that I bought from a friend a few years back and I have wanted to get these guys painted up for some time. So I will be building a 1000 points of US Airborne, I am thinking of basing the army around the Band of Brothers, US Army 101^stAirborne. Now it is time to get painting, you can follow my progress here at my blog: http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/

And there you have it, folks! Let us know about your groups' challenges or events. The community's excited to hear about it, and always talking about it on the forum.