The French get serious

My Bolt Action French force grows a bit more - in numbers, if not particularly in points.

This is because I've painted an artillery piece - which I can use for free as one of the French national rules.

I enjoyed painting this model - the camo scheme is easy to do but more interesting than others I've painted before. Irritatingly it's only one of several schemes used on French guns and armour during the Battle of France, and it looks like for authenticity I ought to mix those within my force (armour was apparently painted at the factory and used different schemes depending on where it came from, so a mix within the same platoon was common). However, I really like this one, so there's a reasonable chance I'll just stick with it for everything. We'll see.

I tried to use magnets to have the two extra crew be removable, so I can use that for marking casualties. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have worked brilliantly, because I've just stuck magnets to the underside of each model rather than use separate bases. They stay in place well enough to be used on a table, but not to be transported in the box. I'll have to solve that problem somehow.

I've also done this spotter:

This picture went wrong - everything isn't this pink in real life.

He comes in the light artillery pack, but in Bolt Action the light artillery can't have a spotter. The mortar can, so I'll use him there, but for now he's going to be a forward artillery observer, so is worth 100 points on his own.

This has also failed. Too much pink!

Finally, a couple of random infantrymen that I picked up at the same time as getting the others ready to paint. These will be added to my existing squads for now.

2015 scores so far:
Painted - 32
Bought - 4

WW2 French Officer

Sometimes I can't think of a good post title.

Anyway, this should be a short one - I've painted an officer to go with the 16 French infantry I posted about recently.

Adding this guy makes this into a legal Bolt Action force, albeit a very small one that could really do with some support.

So, what's this done to the year's scores? I'm glad you asked. I'm now standing at:

Painted: 25
Bought: 4

Vive la France!

Another month, another post! Ok, it might be better if I posted more often than that, but then it might also be better if I won the lottery, and they're both about as likely at the moment.

Anyway, I've been painting! I had a couple of days off at the start of this week, and was able to make a decent dent in my new Bolt Action French force - 16 of these guys are now done...

Quick, men! Advance across this strangely flat and red battlefield!

I've conveniently selected models that can form two sensible squads (with an LMG team and a VB launcher in each) until I get more models painted. If I can get an officer done, then I'll have a legal Bolt Action force, admittedly one that only weighs in at 300 points.

Lined up for the team photo

I didn't intend it this way, but I ended up painting all of these models in one 16-model batch. I don't recommend that, it gets pretty dull, but it was an efficient way of getting a mass of models ready for the table, and I'm happy to have done it.

Close up number 1...

Having this many models to do at once did spur me to add some foliage to the bases, something I've never got around to for my Partisans, so that's nice!

...number 2...

Speaking of bases, these are also the first models to use the magnetic basing stuff that I bought at Vapnartak at the weekend. I've grown increasingly fed up with foam trays rubbing the paint off metal models in transit, so for new metals I'm now intending to use magnetic bases instead. A bit of testing (alright, playing) with this suggests that it would now be entirely possible to play a game across the door of the fridge, so that's one way to find space without having room for a table.

I was concerned that the extra height of the magnetic sheet would look really obvious, but that doesn't seem to be the case, thankfully.

...and number 3

I must confess, I did by some more models at Vapnartak, which means I've now definitely broken the rules of the Mountain Reduction Challenge, having used three jokers when I only had two. The models I bought were a pack of SWAT guys from The Assault Group - this was a case where seeing them in the flesh convinced me that they would do what I wanted, which didn't seem to be true when looking online, so that's nice.

Still, on my quest to paint more models than I buy in 2015, I'm doing well, as I now stand at:

Painted - 24
Bought - 4

Surely this will all go wrong at some point...