Bolt Action: Recent Figure Purchases

(Cover art for the 2nd Ed rule book)

 I received my copy of the Bolt Action (BA) core rulebook last week.  I've been collecting unpainted figures for a couple years now.  However, I've been unable to paint them, or get them painted.  The reasons are:  

My hands shake to a varying degree, ever since I woke up from my lung transplant surgery, and everyone I know is busy with their own miniature projects.

So a few weeks ago I took to E-Bay and did some Shopping Therapy.

Just in time, too.

I got great deals on American and German infantry and vehicles, along with one Soviet vehicle.  (I got outbid on the Soviet infantry).

Below is a gallery of my recent acquisitions:

Americans:

For my US Army Infantry platoon, I organized it into 3 x 8-man rifle squads, and a command squad.

(My purchase of pre-painted US Army Infantry)

These finely painted figures are plastic and light weight.  Even though they're not tippy like a lot of my Warhammer 40K figures are, I like the weight of metal.  So I'll be doing two improvements:

1. Supergluing washers underneath the bases.

2. Painting the edges of the bases in various earth-tone colors to help identify each squad.

For American Armor support--I got this M-4A3EZ8:

I'm not too keen on adding anything larger than light-armored vehicles to what's suppose to be a small skirmish, or recon force.  I bought this big boy to "personify" my tank in my recently purchased game, American Tank Ace--Europe, 1944-1945

Switching over to the Eastern Front for a bit, I place bids on a Soviet infantry platoon, and a Lend-Leased M-3 Scout Car.  I lost the bid on the infantry, but won the scout car.

Oh, well. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

I ended up breaking off part of the droopy M2, forward machine gun.  I thought it was bendable metal.  Instead it was plastic.  I actually think it looks better this way.  I'll have to touch-up the muzzle.  I also had to glue down the right side 30 caliber machine gun.

Now for those fighting on both the Eastern and Western Fronts: 

For the German Panzer units, I now have a SdKfz 251 "Hanomag" with crew for a transport/machine gun support vehicle:

Tank support will be provided by a PzKpfw II (Panzer II):

This vehicle will require a bit more touching up.  The paint on the right-side top hull needs to be repainted.  I'm not too concerned about matching the colors perfectly.  "Close enough" for field work will upgrade the panzer to Table Top Quality.  I'll claim the crew repainted it with whatever color they managed to scrounge for.

Ground troops from the German Army ("Heer"), will be this 25-figure infantry platoon.

I organized them into 2 x squads of riflemen, and 1 x command squad; along with a squad of submachine gunners, each armed with a Soviet PPSh-41.  I imagine these guys could be used as scouts, assault troops, or just divvied up between the other squads.

For fire support I now have 3 x MG 42-armed machine gun teams.

There are two versions of each team.  One is in travel mode and the other is in deployed mode.

Oddly enough, the only figure armed with an MP 40 submachine gun is one of the MG-42 loaders.

Today, (Friday, 28 Oct), I placed bids on a few more American vehicles.  The bidding is supposed to close by this Sunday.

Wish me luck!

If I win anything I'll add another Bolt Action gallery post.

Return to Blogging and New Gaming Space

 

(New Gaming/Play Area/Project Workshop Area)

I'm back!  

Sort of.

It's been nearly a year since my last blog post.

My hiatus from the internet was not by my choice.  About now I'm coming up on my One Year "Lungaversary."  For instance, two days ago marked my first anniversary of the last time I worked or drove a vehicle.

From the summer of 2019 until December of 2021, I was battling Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), until my lungs collapsed.  In the first week of the Holiday Season, I was hospitalized and had a bi-lateral lung transplant.  Everything fell into place within a few days that needed to be, in order for me to have a transplant.

This was a miracle.  I now have a second lease on Life.

The downside is that I spent 4 months in the hospital, from late November 21 to mid March 22, most of it in the Intensive Care Unit.

I've been in Recovery Mode ever since, and will be for at least several more months.

This has left me with little time or energy to blog.  It took me until mid May to be able to climb stairs, and my daily walks are still limited to about 5 minutes/hour, at most.  My hands shake to a varying degree which makes counter-clipping hard and painting miniatures impossible.

However, my health has improved a bit, thanks to my wife being my 27/7/365 caregiver.  

In addition to taking care of my health needs, she's been working on the house, or coordinating contractors to add improvements and upgrades.

One of the most considerate things she did was clearing out a space in the garage, pictured above, to be used for:  Gaming, a play area for the grandkids, and a workshop area.  My step son hung up a Velcro pile tape along the garage entry, in order to set up a custom-made screen.

Two of my grandkids already tested out the area a couple months ago, playing with a large set of spongy blocks we have.

Since I can't be left alone, my friend Joe, has come over to sit with me, while my wife runs errands, or takes a well-deserved day off with family and friends.

We've utilized this time to binge-watch war documentaries, war movies, and play a long-running game of Admirals' War.

(Cover Art to Admirals' War)

It's a 10-turn game, with each turn representing several months of World War II naval operations.  We started playing in the last week of August.  Since we're new at this game, this session has been more of a learning experience.  Joe manages to visit 1-3 times a week and we squeeze in 1-2 turns each time.

We finished the Movement Phase of Turn 10, and are planning on engaging in the last sea battles of the war later this week.

I didn't take any pics of our game, but my next blog post will be some sort of After Action Review.

Thank you all for your support.