Bolt Action: Light Your Fire!

Light Your Fire! Finding Inspiration for your Bolt Action Hobby.
By Kieran

“I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.” - George Burns

See now that may seem like a rather lofty quotation to start an article about Bolt Action, or even an article about wargaming in general, but while I was looking for a title for this article I put the foundation word about what I am going to write about and it popped up on the old google and I said to myself yes that maybe captures it.

What am I writing about for this article? Well following from the feedback I have received from my first article (Burnout, found HERE) I thought I would expand on it a little and maybe bring something forward that I didn’t really address, the topic of inspiration.

Now no matter what you do in any tier of your life the things that really make us happy and fill the time spent doing them with the most enjoyment are the things that we are truly engrossed in, that have the ability to speak to us on a different level, these are fundamentally things that inspire us.

How do we involve inspiration within the game of bolt action? Well it is maybe something that we have already done. It is having that underlying interest with the armies we put on the table that we put hours into listing, collecting, modelling, and painting. Because I feel, as I know many others do as well, that having that story gives us a hook that will keep us indebted towards any army over a longer period of time no matter how competitive or otherwise it is.

This is maybe why there is that imaginary line between those who produce forces that have a bigger influence from some source or another and those who build for a competitive listing. Now maybe your inspiration comes from that competitive standpoint but I am sure that the turnover of forces that player would play is a lot higher than the other.

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Bolt Action: Full scale model wars

Full scale model wars
Quite some time ago I participated in an event and I noticed that two of the players were using some tanks that seemed a little on the large side. Melbourne's favorite French sons Julian and Enzo had come out to play and they had bought some 1:48 scale tanks. Initially I had a kind of reservation about using a larger scale, after all 1:48 is a lot bigger than 1:56 and therefore harder to transport, easier for your enemy to shoot at and easier to break as 1:48 tends to be an actual model as opposed to a toy. But then I noticed the exquisite detail these models offer as well as the fact that your models actually look like they could fit inside the tank.

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Bolt Action: Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away!

What's up everyone!

Today I get the supreme pleasure of introducing to you the newest member of the Bolt Action Alliance team, the indomitable Kieran Byrne! Kieran's been a part of the UK Bolt Action for a while now, and many of you may remember him from the Combined Operations podcast which has sadly been deactivated. Kieran, never being one to shy away from a topic, comes out swinging at the bell to talk about something a lot of gamers deal with... the idea of hobby burn out. Apologies to those of you who thought we'd be talking about introducing Highlander characters into Bolt Action. Interspersed throughout the article are pics of Bryan's "Lead Mountain" as well as Kieran's armies.

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With the fact that it is becoming an all too prevalent phrase being presented by a lot of gamers, on a bigger scale than maybe what was previously seen, I am going to jump in with both feet and tackle one of the elephants in the room for my first article for the Bolt Action Alliance. The dreaded hobby burnout.

What is Burnout?

Now any internet search for the term ‘Burnout’ will bring up a plethora of information about how various stress factors that we place on ourselves daily can lead to our motivation being diminished, and lower us to certain levels of depression in a lot of cases. Through all those online suggestions for remedies a main one that stands out if you read it from our perspective is the ‘Get a hobby!’ cure, but what if our hobby is the thing that causing us the problem? Well hopefully below we may try and address some suggestions and points that can be of help.

I will preface these all with saying that this is from my own perspective. I have suffered with the complete lack of motivation to do anything constructive at all and while I hope the points I raise below will help I also am not naïve enough to say if you do this then it will sort you out. The effects and causes of the burnout is as individual to the person as the person themselves so what is right for one is not for others.

Now I do think that ‘burnout’ has become a bit of a catchphrase at the moment, but the first thing I think we need to ask is, is it really a complete burnout with the hobby? Or have we put things in our way that are causing us to unduly stress? Or are we just in fact a little bored? I think this is a main crux of the whole situation as whatever level we find ourselves then the solutions to it may be easier than others.

What Causes Burnout?

So the actual playing, how can we break out of the rut of not being motivated to get out and play? A lot of the online posts you see surrounding this all seem to point to one suggestion. ‘Go and play something else!’ Now while I somewhat agree in part to what this suggests I also don’t think in some cases that it offers a reasonable solution and here is why. A lot of us have used a marked amount of our time, effort, and financial resource to creating the armies we play with to such an extent that now if we are to attempt to distance ourselves the whole cycle begins again which in turn will just cause a respite for the issue. It may also be the case  that you will go to play these other games and never return back to, for purposes of this article, Bolt Action. Also this suggestion does not take into account the financial or time constraint levels that people are at so maybe we don’t just have the ability to go and play something else. I will come back to this point in a while though.

One thing I think we need to ask ourselves is actually what is it about the game that’s causing the problem. This is from my own experience so this is my first bit of first hand advice. For a number of years I was a quite prolific tournament player and as such all the games I played were of a similar style, so to speak, and it just got to the point of not holding interest to go out and do it all again. So what did I do? Well to be honest I joined my local hobby club. The gameplay at a club vs gameplay at tournament can be of a marked difference and the whole baggage that sometimes comes along with being at a tournament is stripped away and you just relive the pleasure of playing the game again. Also you have a lot more freedom playing away from a tournament setting as we will touch on below.

The second of my points is are we challenging ourselves enough? What I mean by this is the fact that, say, a lot of tournament armies will follow a pretty set out criteria and this can have an effect of when you are playing against these armies, then the whole scope of finding something new is greatly reduced. It can be seen that a lot of the more experienced players have the experience already to counter most things on the table, so those players that do turn up with these forces expecting to do well are disheartened when it all goes pear shaped. So on the other hand are you a player that follows that criteria? Are whatever armies you have pretty much the same setup with just different clothing? Do you think that the challenge of running your armies without any armour, being solely infantry, or another composite of what is available will help you find a new challenge in the game and reinvigorate your taste for battle? I know it did in my case.

Another part of the whole hobby that seems to cause the most burnout is the actually painting and general hobby that surrounds the making up of your armies. This is the one that has probably caused me the greater problem of the two to be honest. Now I am not a person who has the availability in my house to have a dedicated hobby area where most things are laid out constantly and it can be easy to sit down for ten minutes or half an hour and do a little painting when you get chance. The whole actual sitting down can take in excess of half an hour itself to get everything sorted so that only adds to the whole stress factor.

How Do We Alleviate Burnout?

So what have I learnt? First off be realistic about your availability of time you can apply to your output. A lot of suggestions to conquering the hobby burnout are "Sign up for a tournament!" and "Join a hobby pledge!" Now while I understand the setting of deadlines will work for some I can’t see how adding another factor of stress in making that commitment can help.

Secondly never try and compare the stuff you produce to anyone else’s! The times I have got disheartened looking at what others talent can produce are countless, and it’s a fool’s errand to try. I mean even if you were to talk with some of the top names they would always say how in awe they are of others painting and how they wish they could be as good as them. That moment when I realised this is probably as good as I am ever going to do and being totally happy with it myself was a massive relief in my hobby life and at the end of the day you are always going to be your worst critic.

So is there anything else that has helped me to get through to the other side of this hobby burnout? Yes there was and a lot of this is so simple that it is often overlooked.

Tiredness is one of the biggest contributors to stress, it is as true in everyday life as it is in hobby, so maybe not staying up to early hours of the morning doing hobby, then say going to work, and then back to late night hobby sessions will be a good thing in the long run.

Take a break! As silly as it seems the old adage of a break is as good as a rest is still so apt. So if you feel yourself starting to get a little irate and stressed, walk away for even a few minutes. Get some fresh air or coffee, go play with your children, or whatever.

Clear your mind! As with above during a break completely disconnect yourself. I have often found the worst things is if I get that irritated feeling is to jump on social media with the intentions of maybe catching up with friends and then getting embroiled with a conversation can often only heighten your stress levels.

Lastly, and this is the most important point of all, as much as you feel they are the issues you have you are not the first nor will be the last person to go through them. Discussion and getting the problems talked through can be the most effective way to relieve them.

Thank you for your time to read through this article which I hope will be the first of many that I write with the Bolt Action Alliance. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing and in fact just doing this and sharing has in some way helped with my own burnout issue so thanks to you for that.

Till next time.

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There you have it! Hobby burnout is something I think a lot of us deal with to varying degrees, myself and some of the other lads included. Reading Kieran's truth-bombs, the causes seem pretty obvious and ironically the solutions even moreso! I'm definitely going to bookmark this article and give it a quick review for those times I just can't bring myself to pick up a brush. Tiredness is one of the ones I struggle with the most, for sure. The other one used to be comparing my work to that of others. I'm no Bryan, no Patchimus... but I'm happy with the results I'm getting and THAT is the key.

Hopefully this article will be of some help to you as it was for Kieran to write, and for me to read/edit. Remember that at the end of the day, this is a hobby and it's supposed to be fun!

- Seamus

Game on!

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Bolt Action: The Clear Choice for Basing

By Seamus,

When it comes to wargaming, it can be argued that you need some decent basing to really bring the whole thing together, to really make the model stand out. A superbly painted miniature inevitably loses something if the basing isn't also as skillfully done as the model itself. One thing I'm sure we can agree on is that basing is a skill that is rarely easy to come by, and indeed it is through practice that we see people achieving truly stunning results over time. Many of us like to have a theme for our armies, whether it be a specific unit or perhaps a particular theater or battle. I myself have a Gebirgsjager force with snowy bases, an Australian force with jungle bases, and an Italian force with Tunisian desert bases, as examples. These bases really help set the tone for the models and the army and, while my basing skills are not anything to brag about, they do help emote the them of the army. In preparation for this article, I've asked the lads to share with me some of the basing they're most proud of. Here are some tremendous examples of what you can achieve with basing, especially in concert with superbly painted models.

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Tighten Down Those Turrets!

By Tom Burgess

Nobody likes loose turrets!

I've recently embarked on a new project, a very large Soviet Tank Battalion for Team Yankee.  Fortunately for me, most of the over 50 vehicles I will be building are available from Battlefront Miniatures in plastic. Though I'm happy to work with plastics, my new T-72s and BMPs have a little problem that I have not had with other Battlefront Plastic Miniatures so far. That problem is loose turrets.

Unfortunately, the T-72 and BMP plastic boxed box sets do not come with magnets. They have the spaces  where you can insert magnets if you want to add them, but they only come with plastic "pegs" that you can glue in their place to attach the turret to the hull. This has not been a problem with previous plastic Battlefront tank models I have built. Normally the peg fits into the hull snugly and will hold the turret in place with enough friction while still allowing the turret to rotate when pushed.



My new plastic BMP and T-72s however have very lose turrets.  This is big problem with the T-72 whose'  very long barrel has enough weight to swing the turret on its own with normal game handling. We can't have that!

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2016 Holiday Gift Guide

Once again the holiday season is upon us. If you've been visiting the site for a while, you might have seen my holiday gift guide I did here two Christmas' ago. Here's a few new ideas and things to add to the list! Either for you or if you're looking for something for a member of your family, I'm sure you'll find something gaming or hobby related on this list that will make the gamer on your naughty nice list super happy during this time of year.

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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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It's All In The Details

By Matty

I've never claimed to be an excellent painter. I tend to take too many shortcuts and am not quite patient enough to win any painting awards. What I do enjoy, is basing. More specifically, the addition of colors, textures and 'props' to really make my units stand out. Let's have a look on how you can add some flair to your army.


There are a lot of options when it comes to basing material. Some people use sand, drywall (sheetrock) compound or more recently, modeled miniature bases. They come complete with texture and other details that you can then paint to make your Flames of War more detailed. Everything you are about to see is relatively cheap to buy and even easier to use and work with.

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Yoo-who, Uhu?!?!? (Review of Uhu Boxed Set GBX82)

By Jeff "SonBae" Flint

I'm baaaaAAAAaaaack....The recently released Nachtjager for Flames of War by Battlefront covering the battles in Northern Germany and the British crossing of the Rhine (March-May 1945) during Operation Varisty and Plunder added a new deadly combat multiplier to the Germans arsenal...Night Vision! I will be doing a series of reviews on these new toys and we start with the Uhu!

The Uhu (GBX82) was based on the versatile Sdkfz 251 Haftrack chassis where a big ole honkin' Infra Red Searchlight was added in the crew compartment. The IR Searchlight was used to illuminate a target with IR so other IR night vision equipped units could see it with their passive devices. Just like spotlighting deer....never mind, I didn't say that.

Now, this set uses the new plastic half track Sdkfz 251 with metal searchlight and drivers IR sights. This review will cover just the Uhu unique parts. There will be a forthcoming review of the Sdkfz 251 Transport Platoon plastic set (GBX85) and the Sdkfz 251 Night vision set (GSO206). As a disclaimer, I also wanted to add that these models were purchased by me and not furnished by any company for review.

Assembly:  Very straight forward and quite similar to the Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 251 Auf C plastic set which I have also built. Battlefront in their great wisdom (all praise be unto them) have a very nice on line assembly guide. The only real trick is to dry fit the search light compartment before you glue it down and assemble the rest of the half track. You will most likely have some trimming to do on the metal base to make it fit snugly and have it ride low. I learned the hard way... 

Without trimming and sits too high is on the left



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REVIEW: Colors of War

By Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah

I am a painting nerd. If you've followed my blog posts on here over time you'll notice they're mostly of a painting related ilk. It's my favorite part of the hobby so it's also the part I take most seriously. That... And I'm perpetually bad at rules, so might as well focus on what I know, ya know?

Thus, Battlefront's new Colors of War book had me SUPER JAZZED(tm). 

All the painting guides in one place so I don't have to look through a billion books just to find out how pea dot camo is painted? Yes please. 

And, at first look, this is a pretty great resource for both the beginning and advanced World War II hobbyist out there. 

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Pushing Panthers

By Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah

I loves me some German armor. They're sleek, futuristic looking, over engineered hunks of metal with a nasty rep. From the lowly Panzer II to the mighty Jagdtiger and King Tiger, I love to collect, paint and run German tanks of all shapes and sizes. Not only that, but their paint schemes are legitimately interesting and are a nice break from the drab green of the allies.

At the top of my list of favorite looking German armor things is the Panther. She may not be the most popular tank to take in our beloved hobby but man alive is she a sweet sweet ride. And, aside from the King Tiger, few other tanks have as much paintability and variety of look, especially in late war.

I love this tank so much it's literally what got me into the game. The first 15mm models I painted were Panthers. The first lists I ever built were based off Kursk for MidWar and KG Bake for Late War. So, needless to say I'm a fan.

Thus, when I got my sweet new Grex Airbrush rig I decided I should christen it with some new (and some repainted) Panthers!

The Last Legion, my late late war panthers.

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Franken-tankin': Two SU for the Price of One

by Donald Acker

When I first saw Battlefront's plastic Su-85/Su-100, I was a little surprised. With two hulls, many guns, and piles of additional pieces, the sprues really looked like they made two tanks. Close inspection revealed that this was not so: there was only one set of tracks, one lower hull, and one set of exhausts. I might have forgotten about this, but the same day, a new box of PSC T-34s arrived, and a bright little sticker caught my eye: Includes One Piece Track Option!

Now I always liked PSC's multi-part tracks with their detailed treads. But this seemed like the perfect coincidence: could one use the treads to make a whole new assault gun out of a Su-100's leftovers?

As it turns out, yes!

There are two major steps. First, we need to make the tracks and lower hull. Then the exhaust pipes and covers. I used spare parts for the Su-85, but you might want to do it the other way, see below.

For this conversion, we will absolutely need side cutters, a pin vise, plastic glue, and super glue. We will also use both the angular sprue from the PSC tracks and the round sprue from the Battlefront kit.

PSC's tracks are slightly smaller than battlefront's: in total maybe 2mm shorter. But the difference will hardly be noticeable.

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The Economics of the Hobby

By Mitch Reed


For some time now I have wanted to write about the fiscal side of our hobby. In my article on the Forces of War and Flames of War Digital, I ended up touching on the subject so much I felt it was time to get off my rump and put some thoughts on paper.

Economics is a huge factor in this hobby. Once a player has gotten the bug for Flames of War they face two major limiting factors: money and time.  While time is better left to articles on motivation, the cost of this hobby is something we all face. I recommend that you do not read on if you are just thinking about getting into the hobby and please do not let your spouse read this.

Boys and Their Toys

While I never took an official poll or census, I have come to realize that the demographics of our hobby are easy to figure out.  In my years of playing I would say the average player is a middle aged, white male, gainfully employed, probably college educated, with a lot of disposable income.  I know, same demographics as serial killers.  It’s that last part, the disposable income we will explore further. 

I know you have heard this before: our hobby is not cheap.  I purposely tried to avoid thinking about how much I have spent over the last few years on Flames of War alone because the number is probably staggering.  Add to this other games we play (my new Napoleonic’s in 2015 for instance), and this number just grows.

Decisions Decisions... The world needed a Breaker Morant shirt, so the folks at redheadedtshirts made one for me

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Planning out 2015

By Mitch Reed

Now that we are a few weeks into the New Year, I am looking ahead into what 2015 will be like for me on the FoW front.  Last year it seemed like I was heading to a tournament at least once a month if not more, and by looking at my standings and counting the number of entries, it was a busy year for me.  I also, like most of us added to my current armies or started some new lists.  The one big addition was the introduction of the Great War period by Battlefront; I have written a lot on how great this period is to play and I will have more on this below.

So what does 2015 have in store for us?

New lists, old products
I always think there is something to finding your “list” in FoW.  It’s a list that give you all of the capabilities you feel you need to be competitive, I picked the word “feel” with purpose, since I do not think there is a great amount of science in list selection.  Many look over a list and say the same things; “..yep, yep, recce, template, this for smoke, yea it looks good”.  I think that a list should be more tuned to a player’s style rather than a checklist of capabilities.  Take recce forces for instance, everyone will state it is a must have on every list, yet I have seen few players use it well.  In fact I learned more on how to use recce when it was used against my Westphalian Infantry list from Remagen.  Finding out how some opponents used recce to push back my panzerfaust trap teams was a hard learned lesson in how to properly use these forces.

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2014 Holiday Gift Ideas

The holiday season is here, and it's likely the time where you are asked the following question. "What do you want for Christmas?", I get this question every year and always give the same response. "I don't need anything." Nice.....well, if this is the way you answer your significant other or family member, I'm here to guide you to a few answers! This will ensure you have at least one thing to unwrap under the tree this Christmas.

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Making Inexpensive Magnetic Bases for Flames of War

Homemade custom sized magnetic bases for FoW vehicles

By Tom Burgess

I base and magnetize all of my Flames of War models, including my tanks. I do this because it allows me to transfer my miniatures more safely in the metal storage boxes I use and using commonly themed bases helps to tie the infantry and gun teams with the vehicles that are also part of the same force. It also helps protect my vehicle models by giving me something to grip other than the model itself when moving the piece during game play.

This then causes me some problems as the three standard Flames of War base sizes don’t always fit what I need for a specific vehicle size and sometimes I need to make bases in standard sizes for non-Battlefront models which don’t come with bases. For the latter I could just buy Flames of War plastic bases and use Battlefront magnets, but that becomes rather pricy…and I’m finding the older bases without the holes hard to come by these days. So the ability to make low cost, custom bases has been very useful for me and I hope what I share here will be useful information for others who face the same challenges.

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What Motivates You?

Motivation, you either have it or you don't. There comes a time where you look at some of the stuff you have piling up around you and wonder where the time will come from to get it all assembled and painted!

 

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