By Kreighton Long
The German Eichenlaubmuster, also known as Oak Leaf, camouflage pattern began being issued in 1941 and was used by the Waffen SS until the end of the war. Below are the steps I take when I paint Oak Leaf camouflage. The paints I used are Vallejo’s German Cam. Pale Brown (825), German Cam. Black Brown (822), German Cam. Dark Green (979), and German Cam. Bright Green (833).
By Kreighton Long
In my previous article, I described my first foray into mold making. In this article, I’ll share how I took the cured casts and painted them to look like generic cobblestone sidewalks. I spent some time looking at different cobblestone sidewalks on Google Images to try to find out how to paint mine. In the end, I decided to go with a basic grey color as a safe neutral to fit most settings.
By Kreighton Long
Over the years I’ve slowly been building up my collection of urban terrain and as my tables experience urbanization I’ve come to realize that the next step is to include sidewalks. Adding sidewalks to my terrain collection will help to fill in some void space in my town, and will help the town become a more aesthetically pleasing, lived-in, setting.
At first, I looked for simpler options such as printing cobblestones onto card stock or buying mousepad cobblestone rolls and cutting to size but none of those gave me the modeler look I desired. Eventually, I rolled up my sleeves and declared, “Fine. I’ll do it myself”, with my best Thanos impression.
By Kreighton Long
What is a Bolt Action army project without some big guns? Even partisans have access to lighter howitzers and anti-tank guns. There’s probably at least one army that can’t take artillery options but I can’t think of one on my own. As fun and good-looking as the big guns can be it can be challenging to paint and base the finicky things. Speaking for myself, I struggled for a while on how best to turn these pieces of pewter, plastic, and resin into gaming pieces that were as aesthetically pleasing on the table as they were influential on the outcome of the game.
by Dennis ‘MATT VARNISH’ Campbell
The second Canadian Tabletop Championships (CTC) was held over the Mother’s Day Weekend here in Ottawa, ON, Canada, after a 4-year hiatus thanks to Covid 19. I attended the first CTC in 2019 where I was the ringer for Flames of War on Day One and wound up winning the Team Yankee event with my Syrians on Day Two. I would have participated in the two-day Bolt Action event this year were it not on Mother’s Day and my wife’s birthday weekend, but I am assured next year will be earlier in the month, the first weekend of May.
By Kreighton Long
The Italian Army, or Regio Esercito, was the first military in the world to mass-produce camouflage equipment for their soldiers. The M1929 telo mimetico was utilized by Italian soldiers and paratroopers as well as by Italy’s German ally during the course of World War Two.
For my Italian paratrooper army project I knew I needed to commit hard to the camouflage pattern and after a few trial runs incorporating feedback I reached a scheme that was close to accurate while still being doable.
By Mike Rafferty
I really like gaming. I mean I write for a gaming blog and I run historicals at AdeptiCon, which probably means I’m at least fond of gaming. As I walk around my house, I have gaming stuff just about everywhere. Some would say I have a problem and should cut down. I say that I should find an excuse to build a new army. Enter Andrew Verticchio.
For those who don’t know him, Andrew runs the Bolt Action events at Adepticon. 2022 was my first year working with him and he’s an all-around great guy. When I found out he was running a tournament near me, I knew I had to go. The only problem was that it was a Bolt Action Tank War tournament, and I didn’t really have a force. Sure, I had some random German tanks that I bought because they were fun to paint, but nothing cohesive. It’s important for me to support the people I work with in their tournaments, and it should be a lot of fun. Plus, it gives me an excuse to scratch that new army itch. There was only one answer, buy a new force based around one of my favorite tanks the Cromwell and paint it all by November.
By Kreighton Long
When it came time to purchase my Italians I decided to go with Warlord Games. Their plastics have been excellent over the last several years and I figured why not give these a go. I can honestly say I wasn’t disappointed. The kits are easy to assemble with enough variety to have minimal duplications in your platoon. The sculpts are clean with good lines and deep contours that make highlighting that much easier when painting. I picked up one box of plastic infantry and the support teams box to get the meatball rolling. When I get to it I’ll add some vehicles and heavier support to really flush out my Italians into a force ready to take to the table. But first, we need to put paint to plastic.
By Kreighton Long
Last Saturday, 8 October, I had the opportunity to attend the Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, VA and compete in the Bolt Action tournament. The tournament was organized by seven-year TO veteran Kalissa Skibicki. Twenty competitors checked in Saturday morning for a day of competitive gaming. The tournament progressed smoothly and after three different scenarios with three different opponents, the tournament came to a successful conclusion.
By Kreighton Long
With my Bolt Action Romanian army built and bloodied on the table, it’s time, once again, to look forward to a new project. Scrolling through my mental list of armies I aspire to paint and field I felt temporarily at a loss. While discussing my dilemma with a friend over a mid-war game of Bolt Action, he suggested I try something in the early-war period, so as to pair against his own early-war armies.
The suggestion was well received and we spent a good portion of the remainder of the game discussing my options. A combination of desiring to get the most mileage out of my next project and to build a less common army brought me to the stoop of the Italian Army.
The recent releases of Warlord’s Bolt Action: Campaign Italy: Soft Underbelly and plastic Italian Army opened the door and ushered me inside. As all my terrain is themed around European battlefields I decided to focus my research on the Italian participation in European campaigns and battles. Some quick online research into the campaigns fought by the Italian Army in Europe gave me some quality gaming options to consider including campaigns in Southern France, Greece, and Russia.
