Category Archives: Bolt Action

Bolt Action! 28mm British Valentine Tank Platoon (Season of Scenery Challenge)

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Bolt Action! 28mm British Valentine Tank Platoon

Wow. It’s really been almost seven years since I painted my T-34 tank platoon for Bolt Action, and… nothing since. Damn, time is flying by and unfortunately not in a way that there’s no end in sight! Anyway, the point of this post is not to dwell on the depressing impending end of individual existence – it’s to celebrate the fact that Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery Challenge has finally motivated me to complete this trio of tanks that I bought during Warlord Games’ Valentine’s Day sale.

In 2016.

Don’t worry! I bought a ton of other stuff at the same time, none of which has been opened, let alone painted. Yay me!

Bolt Action! 28mm British Valentine Tank Platoon

The main reason these three took so long to be completed is actually because of the unit markings – I really wanted to get them “right”, which required more very specific knowledge than I have, or have been able to glean from the internet. In the end, it was indeed this month’s painting challenge that motivated me to just say “Screw it!” and get them painted in a “good enough for wargames” manner, so while the specific markings may equate to nonsense in specific terms, they look the part to the layperson like myself. I mean, it’s not like multimillion-dollar movies worry all that much about this sort of thing, so I think I just need to get over it in these terms and skip the analysis paralysis in future.

Originally, I wanted to go with the plain, “sandstone” colour on these, as depicted in the box art, since I think it looks bloody nice. However, the model does not come with decals for some reason. So that required sourcing some third-party ones from both Warlord and Rubicon, though with the unit marking issue noted above, they all sat in boxes while the tanks sat in a tub, all spray basecoated. Even so, the decals I had weren’t enough to use to fully mark a trio of tanks, and so the unit circles on them came from a Space Marine decal sheet (which is why they’re so thin) with the numbers freehanded in. Not the greatest, and it does annoy me still, but I guess they’re passable.

Bolt Action! 28mm British Valentine Tank Platoon

So in the end when I set to paint and finish these three – and in the interests of gameplay – I decided to go with the camo scheme in the end because I figure these models will mostly end up playing in games where I supply both sides – which means the main OpFor will tend to be DAK (Deutsches Afrikakorps, or Afrika Korps) – and those tanks will also be in a plain desert yellow/dunkelgelb. So to keep things more easily identifiable for anyone who might play – and might not know the difference betyween a PZIII and Valentine by sight (the heathens!) I went with the camo scheme for the British armour.

I’m not entirely happy with the finish on the desert yellow on these. It looks a little flat to me, so I may go back and “dab” some patchy lighter yellow on the panels to make it a bit less flat and uniform.

DUST Bunkers (February Terrain ’19)

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DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat 6x4

My final February pieces today – a set of four Bunkers from the DUST games. They’re basically the Dust Axis Heavy Laser Bunker and the Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, as I picked up wo of each when they were on clearance. I initially sprayed them grey in December, or January? …and then they just sat there for a period of time until one day in February I decided to just get the huge fucking things done and off my scenery painting table, so I went all out on them for the rest of the day, and then a little finishing the next morning, then done.

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker

The base coat is a darkish dirty grey, followed by several layers of drybrushing using (horrible to use) craft paints to lighten them up a little. Next was a round of varnish, followed by painting on some of that Vallejo Model Wash and then wiping it off. One more later of varnish, a little more drybrushing, more varnish, and then a heavy coat of Testors’ Dullcote in an attempt to dull them down.

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker

The doors were sprayed a darker grey, drybrushed a slightly lighter grey, and then a metallic with a subtle bit of rust, and then done. Grates in the middle of each done in a similar way. There are also a (large) number of artillery pieces that go with these (2 each, so 8 arty pieces), but I’ll paint those sometime down the line.

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat 6x4

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat 6x4

As you can see from the tabletop photos, I had a particular idea of how they can all be used – though they’re pretty versatile and could be used in pretty much any biome – from ice/snow to desert to temperate without a problem. I wanted to team them up with my Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat, which I’d planned to do a review of after buying it but haven’t gotten around to doing yet.

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat 6x4

DUST Axis Heavy Laser Bunker, Allies Heavy Phaser Bunker, Deep Cut Studios Beach Mat 6x4

So I just rooted around a little in some of my scenery tubs to get some suitable bits and pieces out to make up a beach invasion table, obviously inspired by Normandy/the Atlantic Wall. I couldn’t find my little trees, and there are of course a whole lot of other small bits and pieces like additional crates, hedgehogs and such that I either couldn’t find or are still WIP, but still, this quick and easy table looks pretty good, if a tad one-sided. It’d certainly be good for a scenario game with infiltrators, sentries and a bit of espionage!