Bolt Action - Modelling Jungle Tanks Tutorial

By Bryan,

Modelling tanks up for a jungle setting offers a lot of modelling and painting opportunities. Often these tanks have field modifications and unique stowage, and of course there is the extreme weathering due to the environment to play with. I've recently added a troop of Matilda II tanks to my Australian platoon in New Guinea, which I will use as an example. This guide is also great for British 14th Army vehicles in Burma and US vehicles across the Pacific. 

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Flames of War - Painting Japanese Army Infantry for the Pacific Theater

The Japanese used a variety of uniforms during World War II which varied in function and coloration (sometimes quite dramatically). In Rising Sun, Battlefront provided a painting guide for Japanese infantry and gunners based on the uniforms fielded in 1939. Unfortunately with the release of Banzai, the painting guide has not been updated to reflect the uniform colors common in the Pacific War. Of course, the figures themselves are the same as the ones released in support of Rising Sun, so there will be some variations between the miniatures and some of the fine details of the actual later war uniforms. However, updating the color palette will give your force a more Pacific War feel to it.


The Uniform

Any time I try to color-match paints to photographs or historical artifacts, I create a color swatch over the primer color I'm using for that batch of miniatures to ensure I match them as closely as possible. Below is the swatch I'm using for my Pacific Japanese - please bear in mind that for all images in this blog entry, the colors will vary somewhat from a true visual color because of the limitations of the scanning process.

At this point I'm still using all Vallejo colors as I have a large library of paints, and see no need to move over to the new Battlefront colors at this time. Battlefront recommended Khaki Grey (880) for Japanese Uniforms when Rising Sun was released. They now recommend the equivalent Comrade Khaki followed by Zhukov Shade with a highlight of Military Khaki. To my eye, these colors are too brown for the Pacific Theater. Japanese Pacific Uniforms tended to be greener than those paints would indicate.

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Bolt Action - German 'Stummel' Hetzer conversion

By Jakob Lotz

So a little while back I got my hands on a Rubicon Models Hetzer kit with the plan of doing a review. However since Bryan has already done a fantastic review on the kit (if you haven’t done so already I highly encourage you to have a look at it here) I felt like I wanted to do something different with this one. A wee search of the old internets later I had come across the seemingly extremely rare Aufklarungspanzer 38(t), Vollkettenaufklarer 38(t) or Jagdpanzer 38(t) mit 7,5 cm KwK-37 L/23.

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The Economics of Wargaming

On one level, game designers seem to have an ideal job; they get to spend every work day effectively doing what for the rest of us is a hobby. Of course, the operative word there is "seem." To be and remain successful in what has become a highly competitive business game companies need to have a steady revenue stream. This revenue stream pays the workers and designers, and if the latest product or version of an established game flops companies can quickly find themselves in very dire straights.

Buy a new car or buy a new army???

The key challenge that any company must overcome is that hobbies are expensive. There, I said it. It's the "uncomfortable truth." It's the elephant in the room. Hobbies require both disposable income and the time to actually pursue them, and therefore as long as there have been miniatures and games, people have been looking for more economical ways to procure and enjoy them. In wargaming various money-saving techniques include patronizing deep discount retailers, using alternate miniature sources, casting one's own miniatures, and even turning to new technologies like 3D printing. 

So how expensive are wargaming and miniatures hobbies in general? The answer is "it depends greatly." On a one for one basis, miniatures in the smaller scales (15mm, 12mm, 10mm and 6mm) are going to be progressively cheaper than larger ones (28mm, 54mm, etc). The number of models and miniatures required to play a typical game is also going to factor heavily into its overall cost with skirmish-style games generally requiring fewer miniatures than platoon or company level games. The media used to actually produce the miniatures is another variable. Miniature wargaming started out with "lead figures" - which has evolved into white metal (a pewter which may or may not be lead free), resin, and even injection molded plastic. Then there is the cost of the rule books themselves, though the miniature cost often outweighs the rules cost, sometimes by a fairly hefty multiplier.

So let's look at a few real world examples. For all of these I will use quoted retail prices in U.S. dollars. In cases where currency conversions must be made, they will be accurate as of the writing of this article (October 2016).

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Bolt Action - Review: Knights of Dice 28mm MDF Church

By Patch,
At a recent event I attended I was lucky enough to win the new Knights of Dice  (KoD) Church and I was greatly pleased after having picked up some of their desert buildings earlier this year. The church is part of a new range titled 'Letters Home' of unpainted pre cut MDF flat pack buildings. I will now take you through my impressions on assembly, painting and finally play-ability on the table for the Church.

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On the Road: Iron Maiden Roll-Out Tournament

With pictures from Kato Lee

After all the hype over Iron Maiden, I was looking forward to the release of the models and new book that will certainly be a hit for all of us who love Team-Yankee. The folks from Battlefront always like to make a big splash when it comes to a release, and the one on 8 October lived up to the excitement I had for the weeks prior. Battlefront used a series of world wide tournaments to introduce the public to the new line, and I was lucky to have an event near me, at my not so local gaming store Games and Stuff in Glenn Burnie Maryland.

Besides the release I had other reasons to be excited, as Battlefront was holding an 80-point TY tournament with the winner getting an 80 point British army and this event was going to be the test bed for our first "On the Road" podcast that Sean Sarah and I will be putting together for the WWPD community. So Sean and I headed up to Games and Stuff with Ben Gobel and Scott MacLemore in tow, both competing with loaner armies we were able to scrap together for them. Ben used my Soviet army, since I wanted to play with my West German force.  Scott and Sean followed suit and both also fielded 80-point German lists. The 3 West German forces we traveled with with were all based on having 5 Leopard-2 tanks and 4 Gepards.  I had Marders, Luchs, and Jaguars backing up this force while Sean had Leopard-1s from the new Panzertruppen list while Scott used a combo of Jaguar, Luchs and attack helicopters supporting his MBTs. Ben took and interesting force of 2 T-72 platoons of 4 and 5 tanks each, a medium sized BMP company, Shilkas, Carnations, and of-course Hinds to make up his force. Perhaps the best units he picked were the two scout platoons which cause me so much grief.

Around 14 players showed up for the tournament and it was a good mix of all three of the nations represented in the game so far. The event run by Battlefront's John-Paul Brisigotti and Brian Sayman started off with a "build a Chieftain" contest. The goal was to build a Chieftain from a sprue and the winner was to get an Iron Maiden book.  What made it difficult was the fact that we had no instructions, so I felt I had an edge from doing so many articles on the Chieftain last month.  I finished my tank in less than 5 minutes and was bested by Sean who was accidentally declared the winner on a tank that did not have any machine guns. I plan to give Throck a hard time about this as much as I can.

Right after this, the first games began and because of the large turn out, Scott and I had to play on a table set up with terrain from another game. It was cool to play on a real city table.

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Bolt Action - Anf's Japanese go to MOAB

MOAB. What a weekend. I recently attended my 4th MOAB in Sydney the other week for my final Bolt Action V1 event. I marked my 21st Bolt Action event since I started 4 years ago and in keeping with previous events, it was a lot of fun. I got a game in against the amazing Uber Gruber, aka. David Hunter of the Down Order podcast and got to run a new army that I'd only tested out once in the Japanese. My army for the 1250 point, 5 game event, was quite unique and very different to the norm that I've seen in my time playing Bolt Action, but this is how I enjoy playing wargames. I love to find something different and then go crazy with it. So I am about to dive into my list, how it performed and how I go about making my lists in Bolt Action.

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 29

Download the episode here

We’re kinda back on a regular schedule now! Awesome news huh?! And despite having our numbers culled by 25%, we’re still into it!
Act I sees use going over a heap of N00bNews from all over the gaming world. The latest and greatest in new shinys for all gamers!
Act II looks at whats been happening in and around our gaming club and all the craziness we’ve been getting involved in.
And Act III talks a little about our processes and thinkings when we start getting ready for a tournament, regardless of the genre.

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 - Michigan GT Bolt Action Wrap-up

By Michael Ovsenik



A few weekends back, on October 1-2, gamers got together at the Michigan GT in Lansing, MI to play a ton of Bolt Action. We held two events – the Bolt Action Back to the Front! singles tournament and the Bolt Action Best Job I Ever Had! Tank War tournament.

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Why We Fight Ep. 7: Tanks, Tracks, Bang, Yeah with Peter Simunovich

        Have an extra pair of socks handy for this episode because they might be knocked off! In Act I, the guys give just a quick update on what has been going on. The episode really starts in Act II. We have super special guest Peter Simunovich of Battlefront here to give us all of the upcoming spoilers! In an emotional hangover Act III, the guys try to comprehend all the great information that they got from Pete. Be sure to head over to the forum to submit your questions to Pete. Now get ready for one of the most information-filled podcast yet!

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Market Garden Final Game

Our club up here "Ordo-ineptus" - Rolling low, rolling proud! , just wrapped up a Firestorm Market Garden Campaign.  The Campaign itself, while fun, was such a lopsided drubbing in favor of the Germans that I resigned formally as commander in cheif of allied forces forever.

We elected to end with a total war game.

The mission was a double sided breakthrough.

We wound up making a few tweaks to it in terms of size and layout.  We placed one objective on each end of the bridge.  In order for a team to win, they would need to break through the defenders and reach the other side of the bridge.

Defending companies could attack each other, or contest the objectives, but never control an objective.

Both Defending companies had 1500 pts, and deloyed on the board in a 2 ft bubble.

There would be 3 attacking companies, each with 1500 points, but they would be operating with half their platoons in reserve.  The idea being that what starts out as a tough fight for the defender, eventually becomes a massacre.

Some shots of the board.

(Club members from left to right, Wes (red shirt) Shane Lindey, and Kevin Dietz - German Commander)

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Team Yankee West Germans Tips & Tricks #4: Jaguar I & Jaguar II (TGBX04)

Now its time for he Jag-u-ar? ... Jag-war? ... Jag-GWU-are?  What ever you call it this time we get to talk about the nasty little missile launcher tank destroyer for the West Germans in Battlefront's Team Yankee!  The Jaguar I & II (TGBX04)

Another metal and resin kit that continues the trend of the West Germans sets...very nice! Battlefront continues to rock on these kits. This was another pre-release version I built and painted for the All Powerful Luke. In this set you have all the items necessary to build either the Jaguar I or the Jaguar II.

 The design of this set is such that you can build both versions with the judicious use of magnets and a little acceptance that the Smoke Dischargers will be "off" for one of the versions.

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Bolt Action: Japanese Army painting guide

By Bryan

Hi guys, welcome to a step-by-step painting tutorial for the Imperial Japanese Army of WW2. This guide and the techniques within are designed to get your Japanese army painted quickly, but also 'pop' on the tabletop. The two pronged attack of using a coloured spray primer and Army Painters Quickshade product will mean that you win that battle against your lead pile that all of us time poor hobbyists face.

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WWPD South Operation Market Garden Mega Game BatRep (Day 1)

Hey y'all!  SonBae here posting a Batrep done by WWPD South's very own Dane Tkacs covering a Mega Game we held here in Huntsville, Alabama at the Deep Comics and Games from 17-18 September 2016.

From Dane:

Part 1 - A Bridge Too Far - Mega-Game

The Huntsville Historical Gamers (HHG) gathered on SEP 17-18 to recreate Operation Market Flames of War ruleset.  The HHG Mega-Game stretched over 5 tables.  The Mega-Game pitted 10 Axis players against 7 Allied players.  Each side had approx. 11,500 points for a mega-Game total of 23,000 points. Lists were chosen from the forces in Market Garden for the Allies or Bridge by Bridge for the Germans.
Garden using the

Operation Market-Garden, Field Marshal Montgomery’s plan to attack over the Lower Rhine into the industrial Ruhr Valley and capture the V-1 and V-2 rocket launch sites that have been terrorizing Britain.

Garden:  To represent XXX Corps, the Allies had:

2,060 points Irish Guards
2,060 points XXX Corps

In Addition, the Allies also received:
- Either 3, or 5  (depending on fog) dedicated aircraft sorties (for Close Air Support or Air Resupply) each turn.
- 8x 25-pdr battery, plus,  8x 5.5” batteries of Off table Artillery (Guns across the Volga rule) able to  range targets on boards 1 (Joe’s Bridge) and 2 (Son / Veghel).

Market:  To represent First Allied Airborne Army, the Allies had:

1,525 points British 1st Airborne Division
1,540 points US 82nd Airborne Division
1,540 points US 101st Airborne Division
1,045 points Polish Airborne Brigade
1,500 points British 52nd Airlanding Division

Relocated into Holland after fierce fighting in France, Army Group B was placed under the command of Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt who had been recalled from retirement on  4 September.   To represent the scattered forces of Army Group B, the Germans had:

1,565 points  KG Walther (6th Fallschirmjager Division)
1,065 points  KG Graebner (9th SS Panzer Division Recon)
1,500 points  KG Spindler (9th SS Panzer Division)
1,500 points  KG von Tettau
1,500 points  59th Grenadier Division
1,500 points  107th Panzer Brigade
1,500 points  KG Becker (3rd Fallschirmjager Division)
1,000 points  406th Landesschützen Division
200 points Nijmegen Garrison
140 points Best Garrison

In Addition, Germans also received:
- 1 dedicated air mission sortie (either air interdiction or Close Air Support) each turn.
- 8x 150mm sFH18 howitzers Off table Artillery (Guns across the Volga rule) able to  range targets on boards 5 (Arnhem) and 4 (Elst / Driel).

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Team Yankee West German Tips & Tricks #3 - Rolands (TGBX08)

Roland, Roland, Roland...keeps those Rolands firing...ROLAND!

For those that recognize that terrible riff on the classic Rawhide theme song....you're old.  Like me  ;-)

This time we look at the Roland AA (GBX08) kit from Battlefront supporting the West German forces in Team Yankee.  These bad boys are a Brigade level support for all the lists and you can get up to 1 Batterie of up to 6 launchers of these guys. Look out Soviet Airpower!

Battlefront continues to rock on these kits. The kits I have for prepared are pre-release versions. This is another old-school resin hull and turret with metal bits. Lots of detail everywhere. I know these are from newer molds/castings, but that only accounts from the cleanness of the models.  There appears to be more little "grubbins" molded into the resin and metal than I have seen in older resin kits...this is a common theme so far in the West German kits. It makes be very happy for the future releases.

Build:

- Very simple build.  Glue the tracks to the hull and the missile launchers and radar to the turret.  When you glue the missile launchers make sure the missile pods hang under the launcher.

- You have an option with the side skirts. You can leave them off as in the cover art (and like I did) or you can put them on.  You have the POWER!!!!!!

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Bolt Action - AAR: Campaign Road to Victory, Game 3

Finally got game three of our Bolt Action campaign in. Play testing continues to go well with very few changes to the core rules. Last time, Colby added a Tiger and a Flak 88 to his list, which is a bit scary to be honest. Both of us have really enjoyed the random unit generator and the unique tactical changes they present. Right now the Soviets have a edge on mobility and infantry, while the Germans are flush with anti-tank and big guns. Games have been really bloody with the body count on both sides nearing 100% in our first games.

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Team Yankee Battle Report: West Germans Vs Soviets: No Retreat

With Ben Gobel

I didn't have to wait long after I painted up my West Germans from Leopard to use them on a table. In fact,  I flocked my infantry teams the morning of the game and the paint was still wet and we were ready to play.  Playing with me was Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah and the Brothers Gobel, Ben and Chris.  All of these guys are veteran Flames of War players and have never played Team Yankee before. Throck only played once, which was the demo game at Historicon. Throck and I made our list from two formations - the panzer and aufklarungs battalions. Team BroGo took Soviet tanks. Since my Gepards, and Rolands have not arrived, we did not allow the Soviets to have any Hinds. On the West German side, we used Marders to proxy for my Fuchs, which also have not arrived yet.

We set up the table and made up the German list first because they were lacking a few of the assets mentioned above.  We thought we settled on an 83 point list, and told the BroGos to make a list to that point total.  When Ben asked me how much the HQ tank was I said “5 points” and he assumed that each T-72 was the same cost, so he made a list that we found out afterwards was only 78 points. Hhe could have had one other T-72! It also turned out we added a two tank Leopard 1 platoon and forgot to add the points, so Team Brogo could have had a few other items as well, 11 points is a huge difference in this game.

Below is what our lists looked like.

Soviet Red Banner Tank Division
T-72 Tank Battalion HQ - 1x T-72 (5 pts)
T-72 Tank Company – 5 x T-72 (22 pts)
T-72 Tank Company- 5 x T-72 (22 pts)
T-72 Tank Company- 4 x T-72 (17 pts)
BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - 4x AK-74 with RPG-18, 3x RPG-7, 4x BMP-1 (6 pts)
BMP-1 Recon Platoon- 2x BMP-1 (2 pts)
Carnation Platoon, 3 2S1 Carnations (5 Points)
78 Points

West German 1st Panzer Division
Formation1: Panzer Company
HQ-1x Leo2 (11 Points)
Panzer Plt  3 x Leo2 (33 Points)
Panzergrenadiers 3x Marders, 2x Milan, 3 x G3 Teams (7 Points)
Jaguar 1 (3x Jag) 6
Formation 2: Aufklarungs Company
HQ x 1 Leo1 (3 Points)
Luchs Plt 2x Luchs (1 Point)
Luchs Plt 2x Luchs (1 Point)
Panzer Plt 3x Leo1 (9 Points)
Panzer Plt 2x Leo1 (6 Points)
Fuchs Pzgrs 2 x Fuchs w 1 Milan, 3 x G3 teams (4 Points)
Attack Helicopter 2x BoH-105 (8 Points)
89 Points

We rolled up a mission and it came out to be “No Retreat”, which is a bit different that the Flames of War Version of the same name.  First of all, it starts out at night and the defender gets to place 3 minefields on the table prior to start. 

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Firestorm Bastogne - Turn One Recap

The first turn of the WWPD Firestorm Bastogne Campaign is complete! There were three battles in turn one, Marnarch, Hosingen, and Café Schinker that were fought out by players in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Italy. It was a pleasure to see how players took the scenario suggestion and played out these games as very realistic depictions of the battles' historical counterparts from December 16th, 1944.

Initial German Assaults in the Firestorm Bastogne Campaign

In all the first turn battles, the primary defenders were Perimeter Outpost Platoons from the US 28th Infantry Division list (Page 68 in the Battle of the Bulge Book). These were limited to 1250pts force without Tank Teams or air support to replicate the dangerously spread out and initially unsupported aspect of the US front line on December 16th, 1944.

Volksgrenadier of the 26th Volksgrenadier Division try to flank the Hosingen position

The Germans, likewise had no vehicle support due to engineer bridges not being emplace on the Our River yet. But as they were massed for the attack, they had 1500 points and were supported by Firestorm Troop bonus units. The meant that the attacking Germans often could have as much as 1900 or maybe even 200pts total in their force. Because the German forces in these games had to leave their artillery behind the east banks of the Our River, we had to resurrect the old Version 2 "Guns Across the Volga Rule." But here we called it "Rockets Across the Our."

One would think the 1250 to 1900 point difference  would make the mission used in turn one a "walk in the park" for the attacking Germans. However it was not. The Germans ended up only winning 66% of the games played in turn one.  This was enough to secure a win in all three areas, but because the wins were so marginal in Hosingen and Café Schinker four Firestorm Troop units were at risk for loss. Fate favored the Germans here and none were eliminated from the game yet, but the US players created that possibility due to their performance in these battles.

Volkspioneers from the 26th Volksgrenadier Division use easily cross wire obstacle and then flamethrowers to eliminate an Perimeter Outpost Platoon.

So why play these seemingly unbalanced games with some pretty strict force composition requirements?  The answer is for the pure joy of recreating history! It was far from a forgone conclusion that the Germans would win all three battles. Though they did, the US really did about as well as they could forcing four Firestorm Troop loss rolls. This is not too far off how the actual battles went on December 16th, 1944. Two out of our three battles were close calls, but instead on barely favoring the US as they did in history, here the barely ended up favoring the Germans.

One club's take on the Café Schinker battlefield

So as we move into to turn two of the Campaign, we'll see more battles and they will be less restrictive on force compositions as the Panzer will have crossed the Our River and the US will have realized the threat and sent Armored units to try to stem the breakthrough. Players and clubs can jump in and play games whenever they want. There will be many more opportunities to participate and even if you only get in and report one game, you can still contribute to the outcome of the campaign! So look of the turn two battles to be posted soon and try out a historical scenario for a change!

Tom has been playing wargames since the late 70’s, and Flames of War since 2007. He maintains a gaming website www.battlevault.com for the BattleVault Gamers of Kentuckiana and posts and moderates WWPD as Iron-Tom.

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Bolt Action - Sitting Down with Die Waffenkammer

By Seamus

It’s a great time to be a wargamer. As Bolt Action players we have several different manufacturers to choose from when we’re looking for our tanks. Warlord has come into its own recently with better casting, Rubicon is picking up the pace in their offering, and places like Blitzkrieg Miniatures are selling through local distributors now. What about the “Little Guys” though? Followers of the Bolt Action Alliance should be more than familiar with Mad Bob Miniatures through the Hungarian and French armies we all know and love on these pages. Trenchworx, recently interviewed by our own Hauptmann Pittman, is beginning to pick up traction too. There is also Company B, Army Group North, and a few others.

Here, though, we are going to take a look at Die Waffenkammer, a one man operation based in Canada but with global reach. Jeff, of Die Waffenkammer, is busily slaving away to make some of the best resin kits on the market. I hit Jeff with a game of 20 questions, and thought I’d share the highlights so you could get to know him a little better. Interspersed among the questions are pics of some JTFM kits done by the community.


We’ll take for granted that you know about the wait time on delivery (which can really be worth it) and focus on the history and quality here instead. We’ll also take for granted that you’ve read Patch’s article about prepping and painting resin kits (found here, if you haven’t seen it).

Here we go!

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 28

Download the episode here

Those crazy BEL guys are back with another episode looking at whats happening around the gaming world.
In part 1, we cover off some Noob News as well as some news about the show.
Part 2 looks at whats been happening at TCOW as well as some news from the NZ tournament scene.
In the final part, we just go a little off script and talk about a mish-mash of different things.
We're kinda taking this one back to the old school. A Capella if you will!

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

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Iron Maiden: Winners of Wolfie's Truck

WWPD and  Battlefront ran a contest where we gave away a unique objective marker for those who send us a picture of their tanks. The response was overwhelming, and we were able to end the contest early. 

I was really impressed with some of the pictures and even more impressed of how many participants we have from around the world.

So here are the winners;

Hugo Carmona, Portugal
Carsten McLean, Canada
Robert Kelly, Canada
Mark Francis, USA
Andre Silva, Portugal
Alex Rainbow, UK
Mattiw Valenti, Italy
Igor Torgeson, USA
Ian Harrington, USA
Dane Tkacs, USA
Kevin Morris, USA
Daniel Lengauer, Germany
Stephen Lee, USA
Sebastien Clement, France
Florian Benzel, Germany
Adam Booker, Australia
Matthew Hartnett, USA
Antti Arajavi, Finland
Chris Potter, UK
Danny Masterovich, USA

... and here are some of the pictures we received:

 From Adam Booker, 'Panther on Wood"

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