I finally gave into temptation and purchased a box of Warlord Games WWII Bolt Action US Infantry. As I am selling them on the website I thought I had better have a look and see what the products were actually like. A get to know your products type project if you like. I suppose this is a review but its not an official one, and as a first timer with Bolt Action products I guess this is aimed at other rookies to the subject. The following might also be considered biased as I am selling these boxes of figures on the website - after all I am not going to openly admit that I am stocking a load of crap. (They aren't crap by the way).
The box set contains enough parts to make 25 figures, quality looks very good. This is important. Looking at the pictures of the weapons on websites makes it look as if the weapons are thin and could easily snap when cut from the sprue. However this is not the case. They are good solid castings. All good quality and very detailed. |Round plastic bases are provided in the box.
Next I had to work out how to make 25 figures into useable table top units. I settled on the following, using the Bolt Action US Armies list book:
1 officer, with two attached infantry (I made these two infantry men a sniper and his assistant). The officer was given a Thompson SMG.
1 Bazooka team (2 men)
2 Infantry squads of 10 men each with an NCO (Thompson SMG), BAR man and 8 riflemen (with M1 Garands)
Starting construction was at first daunting. I suppose its not rocket science though. Left arm, right arm etc we all know where they go, with a head on top. As the figures cover the whole WWII period so you also have to get the right equipment if say you are doing later period infantry. The illustrations help with this though, its eventually easy to follow. Like with all these type of things I started with one figure to 'see how things go'. It was a slow process. I wanted him to be in a firing pose, so its a question of finding the right bits (arms). After the initial few figures I soon got into a system and construction was much quicker when I knew where all the bits went. And there are tons of bits to add on. The grenades were hard to put on though and I wonder if it would have been better to have them cast onto the main torsos (whatever the technical term for this is).
Painting - I know what I'm doing here so this was the easy bit. They are easy to paint with good clear detail. I used the Vellejo paints recommended by Warlord Games. I was going to paint them as the 1st Division, 'The Big Red One' but then changed my mind and went for the 29th, because they were rookies at Omaha Beach. The results are pictured here.
Overall these figures look very good. Good poses, plenty of options in terms of arms and heads. I will definitely be starting a collection of my own and the Bolt Action rules seem ok - nice and simple which is what I need these days.
Above: One of the Infantry squads
The officer being followed by the sniper team
The other Infantry squad
Bazooka team
HQ and sniper team
BAR man smoking a cigar while killing Germans
One of the NCOs
