Note the horizontal NCO stripe on the helmet of the soldier in the foreground. Photo from https://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/29thinfantry/When playing Bolt Action I’ve run into the headache of trying to find an NCO who fell to a successful sniper or find an officer to see if he’s close enough to a unit to buff their order check. Taking an extra ten seconds or so to find the right model is a minor inconvenience at worst but there are means of expediting this step while adding fun historically accurate details to your painted toy soldiers.
The American GIs in World War Two painted a white stripe or bar on the back of their helmets so that soldiers they were leading, presumably from the front, could identify their leader and follow them into battle. American Officers donned a vertical bar while Noncommissioned Officers sported a horizontal stripe.
Below are the steps I took to hand-paint my platoon and squad leaders for my Bolt Action 29th Infantry Division army.
Paint your helmet with the desired base color.
For officers, paint a vertical white patch slightly larger than the intended bar. Don’t worry about the shape too much since we’ll clean it up to the desired look next.
Using the base color for the helmet, paint a box around the white patch to the desired size and shape. If you make a mistake it’s easy to add some white and once more clean up with the helmet base color.
Use the same process as above for your noncommissioned officers except rotate the white patch from vertical to horizontal
![[29th Infantry Division: Normandy landing]](https://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/29thinfantry/pics/29infdiv_pg6.jpg)
