Bolt Action

By Kreighton Long

As I work on improving my Bolt Action Italian army I found myself needing a little extra firepower and maneuverability by utilizing the Armored Car slot.  After looking through the options for the Italians I settled on an Autoblinda AB 41 and was lucky enough to stumble across one at a brick and mortar store I visit whenever possible.  While looking into different paint schemes for my new speedy-pew-pew I was inspired by photos of Italian armor painted in a three tone paint scheme with a base of tan with blotches of green and brown known as Continentale. 

The Continentale paint scheme was used on a few Italian vehicles predominantly in Italy as the Allies pushed the fighting from Africa to the Italian peninsula.   Gaps between the brown and green where the undercoat showed through created a unique looking vehicle camouflage pattern that I decided to reproduce.  After some trial and error I found a process that allowed me to reproduce the paint scheme I wanted in the least painful way possible.

By Troy Hill

Images courtesy of Warlord Games

Warlord is doing it again!

What are they doing?

Creating another game that expands into an underserved niche. If you feel the need to run some tank on tank combat in 28mm without all that pesky infantry bogging you down, Achtung Panzer! could be the game for you. 

But we have a ton of WW2 games now!

I hear you. Warlord’s flagship is Bolt Action, WW2 level Skirmish platoon level combat on the tabletop. There’s also Flames of War in 15mm at the Company level. Not to mention the Too Fat Lardies range of WWII games, and countless others available via sites such at Wargame Vault.

Warlord even has their Tank Wars variant rules for Bolt action.

But this is not Bolt Action rehashed.

By Kreighton Long

World War Two served as both the testing grounds and the high water mark for airborne operations.  All the major powers trained and equipped their own airborne corps with some getting more attention than others.  The Germans were the first to gain notoriety for their use of airborne forces during the early war period and the United States and Britain learning from Germany’s successes and improving upon them in their own airborne operations during the mid and late war periods.

By Kreighton Long

During the 1930s, the Soviet Union began developing a camouflage pattern for use by scouts, engineers, and snipers.  The amoeba camouflage pattern, officially known as makirovochnyi kamuflirovannyi kostium or MKK, was produced and utilized throughout World War Two.  The amoeba pattern was produced in summer/spring green and autumn/winter brown versions.  I decided to paint my Soviet Scouts in the green version to better match my current terrain collection.  The paints I used are Vallejo’s Russian Uniform (924), Black (950), Chocolate Brown (872), and Buff (976).

By Kreighton Long

On October 7 I had the opportunity to compete in the Bolt Action tournament at the Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, Virginia put together by veteran Tournament Organizer Kalissa Skibicki.  Eight players competed throughout the day in three rounds of games using the Heartbreak Ridge, No Man’s Land, and Key Positions scenarios.

As always, the tables were a true treat to play on, drawing in many passersby, and creating gorgeous photo opportunities.  The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. Kalissa’s tournament highlights echoed this remarking on the friendly and good nature of all players, an overall feeling of relaxation, and overhearing several suggestions between players giving opponents better cover advantages and better placement of objectives.

By Kreighton Long

Back in August Warlord Games announced their newest campaign book, Case Blue, and made it available for pre-order.  We here at No Dice No Glory were given the opportunity to preview the book and boy-howdie am I ecstatic to share with you what’s in it!

OVERVIEW: Case Blue is a 176 page supplement for Bolt Action written by Alexander Smith and Ryan Smith that covers the southern region of the Eastern Front from December 1941 to July 1943.  Within it’s pages are 19 historical scenarios, 33 new units for 5 different factions, 34 new theater selectors for 6 different factions, and a new army list for any players interested in building a Slovak army.

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.