Bolt Action: The Making of the 12th Mechanized Infantry Platoon

After more list building, I figured out a 750 Bolt Action list that I think will be fun to play without being cheesy at all.  The core that drove the shape of this force is the story that I came up with.

The 12th mechanized platoon is one of the units involved in the push through occupied France in1943.  As they went deeper into enemy held territory, the unit came under fire and lost their transports but were able to capture German vehicles and continued to push forward.

Is this historically accurate in anyway?  No idea.  I did some cursory research for to figure out a time and location but the rest of it I made up on the fly.  I might flesh it out more as I build the unit, but for now this gives me a solid framework to hang my concept from.

I also started working on the new paint scheme and so far, I'm really pleased with it.

The base is Vallejo US Army olive drab primer which I then hit with Citadel Agrax Earthshade to give it some depth.  Once this was dried, I tried to pick out the raised areas with some P3 Traitor Green to give it a little more depth.

Rather than leaving the helmet the same color, I painted these with P3 Thornwood Green to make them slightly darker, and I also hit the handle of the shovel with the same color just to mix things up.  Next came the brown pants, in this case P3 Gun Corps Brown and the shoes which are P3 Bootstrap Leather.  Once these were both dried, I went over them both with a shade of Citadel Seraphim Sepia.

The last step (so far) was some Citadel Rhinox Hide for the weapons.  I'll probably go back and pick out some of the hardware on with Citadel Abaddon Black eventually, but for now the Rhinox Hide is so dark it might not even show.

Once this was all dried, I coated them with Vallejo Matt Varnish to give them a bit of protection.  Then it was time to finish dressing up the bases, which in this case just meant painting the edge with Abaddon Black to give it a more finished look.  Once this was sealed as well, I took a white ballpoint and wrote BAR on the appropriate soldier to make it easier for me to see who has what.  I'm going to do this with the NCO's as well.  The labeling is only on my side so it doesn't disrupt the visual of the mini too much when you are looking from the front

There is still more to do with the 12 Platoon but I like how they are starting out.  The details that I added are nothing major but I like how they break up the solid green uniform and make them a little more interesting to look at.

I'm also taking a different approach to how I am painting them by only doing them one at a time.  Typically I would try to do blocks of troops but I'm really liking this approach more for some reason.  I'm also trying to mix up the skin tones a bit as well, instead of the ghostly white that I'd originally used.

Next will be more of the troops for the 12th, plus the first of their captured vehicles should be arriving this week, a Warlord Games Opel Blitz.  And I've also started some work on a couple of old Vor the Maelstrom Neo-Soviet rad troopers that I've been thinking of using for Zona Alfa.  Lots of fun stuff in the works and hopefully I can get back into my hobby streak by working through them one at a time.  Until next time...