A few months ago I found an old Bolt Action Demo Set from the very first edition of the game in our offices. Since it was taking up space I took it home with me, where it has been sitting since. Three days ago while cleaning up it stared back just a little too hard and I guess one thing led to another. Now I am currently assembling the 20 American GIs from the set. Why? I have not a clue if I am being honest. As of two weeks ago I have officially moved my hobby space into our attic and since I have been trying to get situated and comfortable. At the moment I cannot say it is working super well and I still feel like I am painting on a temporary paint set up. I hover around, paint a bit here and there, but cannot seem to get situated. Assembling miniatures just felt like an easy way to feel myself into this space.
The idea with this, I guess, is to properly start playing Bolt Action. While I have painted plenty of models the past four years, I’ve only ever really played a single game of 2nd edition. My assumption is that assembling this demo box and painting it to a tabletop standard might help me play this game more. I also think it works decently well as a springboard to also play Konflikt 47 at home. The two forces are small enough to quickly field and allow me to expand them further with single units I already own. Speaking of the forces, what is in the box? You get 2 sprues of German Grenadiers, 1 Sd.Kfz.251, 4 sprues of American GIs and a set of ruins to serve as terrain.
To call this a project feels too much like a commitment for me right now. I have made plenty of project commitments and just find myself fizzling out or being distracted by something else. You might have noticed it on this blog itself. And failing at my commitments is discomforting, so I am not going to put any pressure on myself with this one. I am going to assemble the figures, play, paint however I feel like. If I force myself into this mould I am setting myself up for disappointment.
Here are the finished Americans. For some reason blogger is currently having issues with my photos, so the quality is slightly garbled. They were interesting to assemble since they are the old sprue from 2012. The ones where all the arms were empty and you had a sprue of weapons to slot into the arms. This led to some complications, but with patience all things are possible! The Demo has four scenarios, with the fourth using everything from the box. As such I have assembled the models as stated in the scenario to scale up as I go through the scenarios. This comes out to:
- 1 Lieutenant with attendant
- 7 GIs(NCO, BAR and 5 rifles)
- 7 GIs(NCO, BAR and 5 rifles)
- 1 Sniper and spotter
- 1 Bazooka and loader
I originally wanted to build this set just as is out of the box, but when starting the second squad I recalled I still had a box of Buffalo soldiers. I bought it almost ten years ago at a flea market and it is essentially just a plastic sprue with metal heads and some arms. After a bit of humming and haing I made the call and pulled out the bitz from my drawers. Of course working with metal as well added a day extra to the assembly. Regardless of the extra effort, I had fun and even get to do some light kitbashing with the Buffalo Soldiers Sergeant.
I am considering to start by playing first edition and moving through to third. Following the scenarios presented in the box and adapting it over the editions. There is no reason beyond just vibes for it. I already checked the points costs in 3rd edition, and I will have to add at least an officer and attendant to the German side, since they are oddly absent from the demo scenarios, even though there are enough models on sprue to build a team.
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