Review - Warlord Games US Infantry

We all know Warlord Games as the makers of Bolt Action, and for their exhaustive range of plastic and metal miniatures. The US Infantry plastic set is a more recent release, and it is a replacement of an older set.

The box contains 5 sprues with 6 soldiers each. Gone are the days of separate arms and weapons, and I can in no way say I miss them!

Each sprue also comes with 9 different heads including one with glasses and one with a service cap.

A very welcome addition is the sheet of decals for the 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One):

There is also a little flyer that identifies all bits and shows some samples of assembled miniatures:

The quality of the parts is excellent, with crisp details and mostly well-placed runners:

The weapon options cover almost everything one can wish for: M1 Garand and Springfield rifles, M1 Carbines, Thompson and M3 SMGs, BARs, Combat shotguns and even Bazookas. In contrast to the paratroopers, there is no .30 cal MG in this set, and no rifle with optics for a sniper.

Beside thee weapons there are several other arm options, including throwing grenades, holding binoculars or carrying equipment.

The sprues also contain  two different kinds of backpacks, the M1928 and M1943 variants. Some research might be due if one wants to build authentic soldiers for a specific time and theatre.

The assembly is very easy. There is a small amount of 'witness marks" that needs to be removed with a sharp blade, but that is minimal. Everything fits together without problem, and the variety of poses is good. Here is a picture of the miniatures I have built for Operation Good Cause, sporting a good mix of rifles, SMGs, BARs and some heavy weapons:

The parts of this kit are completely interchangeable with the US Airborne set, and I used some bits to build a machine gun team. I also built a sniper team by adding a scope from the old weapon sprue to a rifle:

Now I'll "just" have to paint them all!
The uniforms seem to be HBT pattern, which means they have green trousers. I think that will work well and distinguishes them from the Rangers (which I intend to paint with the brown wool trousers).

G.I. Joe

Today, we will have a first look at a sponsor contribution!

Warlord Games is very well known for their great and extensive range of WW2 miniatures (beside others) and of course for Bolt Action. When we approached them with our idea, they were very interested and keen to help us out, and after exchanging a couple of messages we got this amazing  package from them:

What a generous contribution to our humble cause!
They gave us not just a full box of their new US infantry, but also a matching command team AND a Sherman tank!

With these additions, we are now at :

64 Airborne
33 Army
25 Rangers
1 57mm ATG
1 75mm pack howitzer
2 M3 Halftracks
1 M5 Stuart
1 M4A4 Sherman
1 M10 Wolverine
2 M8/M20 Armored Cars
1 Bolt Action 2nd Edition book

That's 122 infantry miniatures, 2 guns and 7 vehicles!

Over the next week or two we will post detailed reviews of the kits, so stay tuned!

Rangers Lead the Way with an Armored Fist!

Today we will have a look at the contribution of the Christchurch Wargaming Club.

The CWC is one of the largest clubs in New Zealand, and has a strong section of historical gamers. Many of us play Bolt Action and we have several torunaments each year, plus special events like an Operation Barbarossa multiplayer game or this year's D-Day event.

When I approached the club with the idea for Operation Good Cause they were immediately hooked and offered their support. After a bit of a discussion, we ended up with this package:

So our little give-away army just gained a Bolt Action rulebook, because let's face it, it is the most popular system for World War 2 at the moment (but I can tease you a bit by saying that it won't be the only rule set that will be included!). We also got a box of Rangers to add another platoon to the force. Beside that, one can never have too many transports, so we have 2 halftracks. And last, but not least, a 75mm pack howitzer and a 57mm anti-tank gun. We chose an Airborne and US Army version to make the crews interchangeable to offer maximum variation.

So together with what I already showed you, we now have:

64 Airborne
25 Rangers
1 57mm ATG
1 75mm pack howitzer
2 M3 Halftracks
1 M5 Stuart
1 M10 Wolverine
2 M8/M20 Armored Cars
1 Bolt Action 2nd Edition book

Next time, we will announce our first intermediate give-away, and then we will start reviewing the material we got from our sponsors. Stay tuned!

And we are live!

Hello everybody,
I have just added the contribution button to the right.

Please make sure you have read the disclaimer before sending money!

A Solid Foundation

Hello, most of you may know me as the guy who runs the Tabletop Fix newsblog (please go and have a look if you never heard of it :).

I started playing Bolt Action pretty much as soon as it was released. My main army is British in North Africa, but I also have early war Soviets, Finns and Hungarians, and used to have Italians (which I sold recently to a friend who is actually playing them).

When the the second edition for Bolt Action came out, I grabbed a Band of Brothers set mostly for the softback rule book, and suddenly I had a bunch of US Airborne and late war Germans. After playing around with the army list and getting my hand on more plastic sprues, I ordered some weapon teams and Pathfinders from Black Tree Design. That was all before the idea for Operation Good Cause came along, but I never got around to build them.

Now, I have some 50 paratroopers to add to the army, including a unit of Pathfinders and several Flamethrower, Bazooka and .30 cal weapon teams.

On top of that I took some tanks I had in my stockpiles, namely a Warlord Games  M10 Tank Destroyer and a Rubicon M5 Stuart.

I also scored two M8/M20 Scout Car sets during the Black Friday sale and am waiting for another small order of Black Tree Design miniatures.

The Warlord kit allows to build the models in a way to switch the turret for the MG ring, so I've built them that way. Had to compromise a bit because there is only one .50 cal, but you'll see that it works out fine.

Well, beside these miniatures I also turned out to be the guy who will build and paint most of the army and runs this blog. Over the next couple of months we will announce more units and models, and then reveal the finished army bit by bit.

Next time we will have a look at the contribution of the Christchurch Wargaming Club!