Soviet conscript continue to fill the ranks of my Bolt Action army. Armed with infantry support weapons, these new recruits are ready to support the main body of my force. These recruits come from Black Tree Designs and come equipped with medium machine guns, mortars, anti tank rifles and flame throwers.
Black Tree Designs has one of the most comprehensive 28mm ranges for Soviet infantry support weapons. Each weapon and figure is finely detailed, but it's important to note that the figures do not come with bases. I opted to base my two-man teams on their own round bases, and three-man teams together.
Black Tree Designs has three medium machine guns sets. The one I bought comes with two crew firing the gun. I had to take an infantry figure from another order to make the three man crew. One of the other medium machine gun sets come with crew dragging the gun, while the third does not have a picture, so I have no idea what it looks like. I based the three man crew and their machine gun on a large round base I bought at Michael's for $0.49. In addition to regular army machine guns, Black Tree offers NKVD medium machine guns (three options) and Soviet Naval medium machine guns (one option, but three crew). I have plans to pick up both in the future.
ike the medium machine gun, the medium mortar team came with two crew, so I had to grab another crew member from another pack. I based the crew and gun on a large round base. This is the only variation of medium mortar offered by Black Tree. Black Tree also has a 120mm mortar that comes with three crew figures, but you will need a forth crew member for Bolt Action.
The anti tank rifle is a two-man team, which I based on Flames of War bases. The pack comes with two anti tank rifles and two assistants. Black Tree offers an alternate pack of soldier carrying the anti tank rifles instead of firing them. I really like how the firing anti-tank rifle looks, and am not as impressed by the figures carrying the guns.
The flamethrower pack comes with two soldiers armed with flamethrowers, but no assistants. You will need to pull infantry figures from other packs to complete the team. Again, I have based these figures separately since they are two-man crews.
I really like how the Black Tree infantry support weapons look. I was worried based on the photos on their website, (which are not good) but bought them due to their 50% off sale. Overall, I am very happy with how they look, and would gladly buy from them again. They match up well with my Warlord Soviets, and I already have plans to buy more.
If you own Black Tree Designs infantry support weapons or infantry support weapons from other companies feel free to talk about it on the WWPD forums.
“Craig Baxter is the Director of the WWPD Northern Research center in Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
