Painting Windshields On (Field)cars And Trucks

Howdy gang,

Old Man Morin here with a quick tutorial on how I paint the windshields and windows on vehicles for Bolt Action. Yes, I know it is bright and cartoony but that is the point. I like that vehicles that I paint are bright and "pop" on the tabletop. As a few people on our FB page asked if I could do a walk through of my process. I thought I would share.

I start by base coating and washing the vehicle. I do this so I get the dirty, messy work out of the way that might otherwise bleed onto my nice clean windows (I am unlikely to put a finger on the windowpane once I am done the window process so I should be safe when detailing the vehicle later). Painting windows is the first step in my detail and highlight painting of the kit.

I paint the windows flat black. This is the canvas that I work from.

I typically use Vallejo Black and White and a bright blue (I vary it depending on what I have around). Today I am using Regal Blue but any bright blue will do.

I then blend some of my blue and black to create a dark blue. Leaving a black border around the edge I paint a dark blue rectangle within the window frame.

 Leaving a dark section showing at the top. I then add white to my blue mix and paint a brighter and smaller rectangle onto the pane. Slowly over time (leaving drying time between coats) I add progressively smaller and brighter rectangles down the window.

At the bottom where I add a very bright blue line. This makes the whole window illusion work as it creates an artificial horizon. At this point I also reline the black border around my line work to make sure my edges are neat and clean between layers.

 You may think that this layered effect looks choppy up close but from a distance (if you have enough layers) your eye will blend the colours for you and give you a pleasing smooth, blended effect on your vehicles.

I hope you have found this tutorial helpful. If you would like any of the Boltaction.net crew to explain any of our painting methods, please let us know on our Facebook page or on our forums and we will endeavour to assist you any way that we can.

Til next time...

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Intensify Forward Firepower Episode III: Hungry TIEs

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In Intensify Forward Firepower: Episode 3, Easy, Steve, Judson and Dano being the rules crunch like an orbital bombardment! Things start off with a quick review of what the commanders have been up to with their fleets recently before hurtling headlong into a breakdown on rules interpretations. Dano and Judson talk about their huge weekend of pure Armada gaming, where in their excitement they occasionally leave an opening for Easy and Steve to add an insight. Things wrap-up with a quick session on Steve's upcoming 180-point tournament where they talk about playing 180 and the possible pitfalls found in low point games.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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AAR: Soviet Hero Tankovy vs. German Panzerkampfgruppe from DM

By "Dirty" Jon Baber

Andy was nice enough to come over and help me test my list I put together for the WWPD4Vets event - I really try not to take a list I have never played to an event! I created something fairly silly, but maybe effective if I catch the correct list.

Andy brought Russians - which I won't face in the tournament - but I thought I had a pretty good chance. This list will should do well against lots of tanks. We rolled randomly and got Fighting Withdrawal and I was deemed the Defender, as Andy's list Always Attacks.


The Lists:

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Bolt Action - AAR: US vs Germans Heartbreak Ridge

The crew and I got together for another exciting night of Bolt Action.  We have been teaching some new guys to play recently and getting fairly consistence games in.  Over the last several weeks we payed through all of Old Man Morin's new Missions he's been publishing to the download section of Boltaction.net.  We loved Heartbreak Ridge so much we decided to play it again, this time with Americans and Germans somewhere near Bastonge.

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Star Wars Armada - Battle Report: Precision Strike (300 points)

Sean and I got in another 300 point game. We're still new enough to Armada that we're just randomly
pulling objectives (note: this article was Written 3 weeks ago!) - while we've enjoyed fleet building, we haven't started picking and choosing objectives yet. This time, the objective was "Precision Strike"- a mission that favored dealing face up damage. Dodonna was pleased.

The Rebel Fleet (296) Nebulon B Escort Frigate (57) + General Dodonna (20) Nebulon B Escort Frigate (57) CR90 B (39) + Dodonna's Pride (6) CR90 B (39) X-Wing Squadron x 6 (78)

The Imperial Fleet (297) Victory II Star Destroyer (85) + Grand Moff Tarkin (35) + Dominator (12) Victory II Star Destroyer (85) Howl Runner (16) TIE Fighter Squadron x 8 (64)

The fleets line up. The Rebels keep their ships together by class.

The bulk of the X-Wings deploy with the Nebulon Bs, except for some token fighter support for the Corvettes.

Turn one mostly sees everyone move forward. Pictures start on turn two as Dodonna's Pride comes screaming across the bow of the Star Destroyers!

Both Nebulon Bs and Dodonna's Pride issue squadron orders, so the X-Wings accelerate to attack speed and attack the TIEs. Abysmal rolls see the damage mostly mitigated. Thankfully, Dodonna's Pride moved to this location after that Star Destroyer had activated!

Two Nebulon Bs and the Corvette all bear down on the Star Destroyer "Indomitable". They do everything they can to stay at long range to the "Dominator".

Dodonna's Pride pours fire into the Star Destroyer before zipping out of its front arc. The Star Destroyer unleashes fury on Dodonna's Flaghip, and the vessels find themselves nose-to-nose!

The Dominator is still thankfully at long range. X-wings seem to be getting the upper hand on the TIEs.

Even at long range, the Dominator is deadly! Tearing into Dodonna's Flagship with a concentrate fire order on the Nebulon B's vulnerable side. Engineering crews race to get the shields back up, but even at full strength they can't resist firepower of that magnitude!

But continued firepower from the Nebulon Bs, unengaged X-Wings, and Dodonna's Pride tear into the Star Destroyer...

... until its hull buckles and the ship breaks apart. TIEs re-engage the X-Wings, but it's a losing battle for them now.

Dominator passes by Dodonna's Flagship as its side batteries just barely reach medium range. Concentrated firepower results in the complete destruction of the vessel. Dodonna presumably survives in an escape pod.

As the final turns approach, the rebel ships are head in points and so recall the fighters and prepare to jump away. It's these hit and run attacks- rather than protracted battles, that will see eventual victory!

The rebels keep all of their X-Wing squadrons alive, but lose a Nebulon B and Dodonna (77). The Empire also scores 2 victory points, bringing their total to 107. The rebels take out a Victory II (85), all of the TIEs (80), and score one victory point (15) for a grand total of 180.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Bolt Action - Unofficial Royal Hungarian Army Supplement

Hey guys, Anfernee and Bryan here with something a little different for today's article. We want to share with you a passion project from us that you may find useful and fun for your Bolt Action games as well. After a year of researching, painting and playing with our Hungarian armies, we have certainly noticed the many missing historically fielded units. Rather than complain, we thought we would get off our behinds and put our goulash where our mouth is and produce our own completely unofficial additional units PDF. Read on for our design notes and thoughts on the Royal Hungarian army in Bolt action. Did we mention this was unofficial?

The Boltion.net unoffical Armies of Hungary additional units PDF can be downloaded here.

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WWPD Conquest League - Round 1

Right now the WWPD LCG crew simply can't get enough of the Conquest LCG, so we decided to start our own mini-league. None of us are locked into any particular warlord or deck: we just want to smash some things in the 40k card game universe!

There are eight participants right now, including the 4 members of the Actions at One podcast: Steve, Andrew, Eric, and Parker. They're joined by Chris, Rob, Sonbae (Ed: his real name is Jeff, but literally none of us call him that), and Adam.

There are no prizes, only glory! Let's see how round one went for our group!



There was a bit of a civil war going on between Adam and Sonbae, as both of them brought everyone's favorite bloodthirsty marine to the fight: Ragnar Blackmane. In typical Ragnar fashion the two players battered each other's warlords, but a massive fight on Iridrial saw Adam's Ragnar bloody Sonbae's Ragnar.

After that, it was a short fight to get the warlord kill. A solid win to Adam!

Moving on through the Traxis Sector, Steve brought the pride of the Tau, Aun'Shi, against Chris's Zarathur. Gleeful Plague Beast is, well.... a beast! And nearly stole the game away from Aun'Shi! But after some early rockiness, Aun'Shi began to exert control. Once the Tau got two "Cloud Cities" on the board there was little Chris could do to stop a multitude of armorbane attacks. A win for Steve!

Eric and Robert had an exciting game of their own, with Eric running Ragnar and Robert bringing Eldar into the mix. Ragnar proved his strength once again, and some timely Crushing Blows effectively sealed the win for the Space Wolves, and, by extension, Eric.

Finally, I was bringing Eldar against Andrew's finely-honed Dark Eldar. I was able to make a game of it for a while, but Andrew has taken his DE through hell and back, and knows how to turn any situation to his favor. The length of the game worked to his advantage, as he was able to utilize the DE's choke capabilities while still building a sizable combat force with Kith. It wasn't too exciting, but it was a methodical, solid win for Andrew. A couple big mistakes on my part didn't help.

aikurisu.deviantart.com

Standings at the end of Round 1:

Adam 1-0
Andrew 1-0
Eric 1-0
Steve 1-0
Chris 0-1
Parker 0-1
Robert 0-1
Sonbae 0-1

Stay tuned for more AAR's as the league heats up!

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Beyond the Foxholes Episode 28

WWPD presents Episode 28 of Beyond the Foxholes!

Click here to download!

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 28, we join Adam, Fez and Ben. 

In act one we join the guys in Adam's car on the way to The Art of War EW tournament. The guys talk about there armies and what they hope to get out of the weekend.

In act two Ben and Adam interview all the .different player who are going to the ETC )European Team Tournament. These include New Zealand, USA, England, Scotland, France, Northern Ireland, Wales and Finland. They also chat to the Tim and Steve who ran the event and Rich the owner of the Sanctuary Gaming Centre

In act three the guys are back in Adam's car with a full AAR of their games, a run down of the event and a few other random bits and pieces.

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Bolt Action - Indian Army Project - Part 1

The forces of the British Empire where compiled of men and women from all over the globe.  Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Indians, Ghurkas, and Sikhs, to name a few, all fought against the forces of Japan and Germany.  With more than 2.5 million men under arms, the Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in the history of humanity.  While most people remember the men who fought with Sikh and  Ghurka regiments, there is very little attention paid to the average India soldier who fought in places like Ethiopia, the Middle East, Burma, India, North Africa, Italy and Greece.  By wars end, more than 70,000 Indians were killed or wounded.  Indian troops served with honor, with 4,000 of them receiving awards for bravery, including 38 Victoria Crosses.  

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Grant's Unboxing of the Treason of Saruman!

Grant takes a look at the latest Saga Expansion for the Lord of the Rings LCG by Fantasy Flight Games!

Have the new set? What do you think of it?

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Battle Report: 29th Infantry Division Assault on the outskirts of Aldenhoven (FOW)

By Steven MacLauchlan

Dirty Jon wanted to test two lists he put together for Scott's awesome "Come as you Are" tournament. since it had been a bit since Jon and I got to face off on the table, I volunteered to test drive!


The lists were roughly: 29th Infantry Division w/ 2 platoons (both with extra bazookas), 4 Sherman M4A3s, 2 sherman 105s, a weapons platoon, and a 105mm battery. The German list was reluctant trained with 3 infantry (volks with Assault Rifles and MGs) platoons, 2 Jadgpanthers (CV), 8cm mortars, HMGs, and some AA.

The mission we decided most accurately represented the fighting the 29th was doing at the time was No Retreat, with the Germans naturally on the defensive.

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Bolt Action - Review: AK Interactive Paints, Weathering Products and the Rubicon Panzer IV!

AK Interactive Paints/Weathering products and the Rubicon Panzer IV!

Hello guys and girls, Tobu here. I recently ordered a set of AK Interactive paints and weathering products - namely the Dunkelgelb modulation set (details here) and the DAK weathering set (clicky), and I wanted to give you guys a rundown on how I got along with them. New paints were all the excuse I needed to purchase a new kit to test them out on and I was entranced by the Siren Song of the new(ish) Panzer IV kit from Rubicon Models (clicky). So this article will also contain a short review of that kit. Schnell!

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 6

Kia ora! The guys are back with another episode packed to the gills with exciting content and controversial discussions!. Listen as they try in vain to suppress their ‘swears’...

Download the episode here

In Act I, the we’ve got some n00b news, rumours, and bald-faced conjecture from the wide world of wargaming.

In Act II, the we talk about local goings-ons and briefly cover using paper terrain on the tabletop. 

In Act III, we pontificate on ‘that player’ and how we’ve all been there and are through with that.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Star Wars Armada - Battle Report: Clearing the Sector

"Lord Vader."

"Yes Captain Baxtorious?"

"Intelligence assets from the ISB report that a rebel task force made up of Nebulon B Frigate and Corvette with fighter escort is hiding in a near by star system..."

"I would like to take the Inquisitor and its complement of Tie Fighters to the system and engage the rebels."

"So be it Captain.  Leave no survivors.  We must teach the people of this system that it is pointless to join the rebellion."

"Yes Lord Vader."

"Deploy the Tie Fighters to screen the Rebels' X -Wing escort, I don't want then to get through.  We'll take care of the Frigate and Corvette."

"Tactical, engage their ships with a full spread of turbo laser fire."

"Sir, they're returning fire."

"Intensify our deflector shields in the direction of their attack.  Take power from the rear and port shields if necessary."

"Aye, aye Sir."

"Sir we scored a direct hit on the Corvette, their shields are down."

"Excellent"

"Sir, damage control reports we have hull breaches on decks 10 and 14."

"Send repair crews down right away."

"Sir, our Ties have eliminated several of their X-Wings with minimal loses."

"Keep up the good work gentlemen, Lord Vader will be pleased."

"The Corvette has disengaged Sir."

"Concentrate all fire on the Frigate.  Once we eliminate it we will take care of the Corvette."

"SIR, they have scored a direct hit, multiple hull breaches detected.  Repair crews have been dispatched!"

"Sir the medical bay reports significant casualties."

"Divert all auxiliary power to the weapons, lets finish them."

"Direct all batteries to concentrate fire on the Frigate's mid section."

"Sir, the Frigate has been take care of."

"Good, now lets take care of the Corvette.  How are the Tie's doing?"

"Sir, we have lost several squadrons, but it appears we have eliminated all of their fighters."

"Excellent work Lieutenant."

"Thank you Sir."

"Sir, the Corvette is coming about."

"Fire all weapons on my command... FIRE!"

"Scanners report several direct hits to the Corvette, they have multiple hull breaches and appear to be losing power."

"Gentlemen lets finish her off so we can tend to our wounded and celebrate this victory for the Empire."

"YES SIR!"

"Lord Vader, we have engaged the rebels and eliminated their capital ships and fighter escort.  We sustained damage in the process and lost several Ties.  Requesting permission to return to base for repairs and refit."

"Permission granted Captain Baxtorious. The Emperor will be most pleased with your performance."

"Thank you Lord Vader."

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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