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8Jul/230

Bolt Action Tiger I Ausf. E

This is one comes from the vault and prepared for a while now, but somehow got sidetracked with the further completion.

The Tiger I Ausf. E is a plastic kit, produced by Italeri for Warlord Games in 28mm / 1:56. We've covered Tiger I and IIs on here before, among others by Warlord Games and Rubicon, in plastic and in resin.

Bolt Action - Tiger I Ausf. E

The Tiger I was a German heavy tank of world war II, with the official designation PzKpfw. VI (ordnance inventory Sd.Kfz. 181) and was produced by Henschel. A total number of 1,347 units were build between 1942 and 1944 and were in service on the Eastern Front, North Africa and Europe in the late war. The early variants were prone to track failures and breakdowns, and the tank in general was expensive to maintain and to produce (expensive materials and labour intensive production methods). One of the reasons why, even as it was an impressive "war machine", it was overengineered. There were prototypes, for example by Porsche on the Tiger I development, the VK 45.01 (P), the hull was later used for the Ferdinand.

10Jan/230

Bolt Action – Sd.Kfz. 222 / 223

Let's tackle the second new plastic kit from the A Gentleman's War box, the Sd.Kfz. 222 / 223. We've covered the Humber AC earlier this week.

Bolt Action - SdKfz 222 / 223

There are already a couple of the Sd.Kfz. 2xx vehicles available as multipart plastic kits by Warlord Games, the latest was the Sd.Kfz. 250 Alte combi kit, and others with a base kit like the Hanomag Sd.Kfz. 251 Ausf. D and its variants like the 251/7 Pionierwagen or 251/16 Flammpanzerwagen, which we already covered on this blog.

13Aug/210

Bolt Action – Jagdtiger

After covering multiple King Tigers on here, in resin and plastic, it is time to go for the heaviest beasts of the Tiger-Class tanks, the German tank destroyer Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdpanzer VI - also known as Jagdtiger.

This beast is available in 28mm by multiple companies as a resin kit, but now comes for the first time in plastic, by the joint production of Warlord Games and Italeri. The kit I got, was a pre-release provided by the Dutch wargaming shop Tabletopper.nl. As such it didn't come in a cardboard box, it was simply the sprues in a plastic bag. The final product of course comes with instructions, decals and so on.

Bolt Action - Jagdtiger Bolt Action - Jagdtiger

The Jagdpanzer VI was another tank destroyer, based upon the chassis of a regular tank. The Germans did this multiple times, as we've seen with the Jagdpanther, the Sturmgeschütz III, Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer or Marder III (both based upon the Panzer 38(t)). But in this case, building upon the already pretty heavy Tiger II tank, the Jagdtiger became with around 70t the heaviest tank produced in series in history.

8Oct/200

Bolt Action – Carro Armato M13/40 and M14/41

After a bit of a pause, a new plastic vehicle kit for Bolt Action. Not bound to a certain campaign book this time, and from the cooperation of Italeri and Warlord Games an italian medium tank multi-kit, the Carro Armato / Semovente.

Bolt Action - Carro Armato / Semovente Bolt Action - Carro Armato / Semovente

This is the first italian plastic tank kit for Bolt Action, so far they only had access to resin kits and among those primarely tankettes. With this kit, the player is able to field either a Carro Armato M13/40, M14/41 or Semovente da 75/18.

15Sep/180

Bolt Action 8,8 cm FlaK 37

Final part of this week's anti-tank gun series makes the 8.8cm FlaK 37 by Warlord Games / Italeri.

Bolt Action - 8,8cm FLAK 37 Bolt Action - 8,8cm FLAK 37

The 8,8 is one of the most famous guns of World War 2. Similar to PaK for Panzerabwehrkanone, FlaK is a contraction of Flugzeugabwehrkanone. Actually developed as an anti-air gun, but due to the ability to shoot horizontally, it was often used as an anti-tank gun. The 8,8, depending on where you are either called eight-eight or eighty-eight, was produced as prototypes early as 1928, later wide spread production started in the early 1930s and the gun was used in the Spanish Civil War and Sino-Japanese War as well. The here shown FlaK 37 is the latest of the first generation of 8,8s.

1Sep/180

Bolt Action Char B1 Bis

It might be a bit odd to present a French tank during the Operation Market Garden week, but the Char B1 Bis is in there for a reason. They were used for example by the Panzerkompanie 224 in the battle of Oosterbeek.

Bolt Action - Char B1 Bis Bolt Action - Char B1 Bis

The Char B1 was a French heavy battle tank that was designed in the 1920s and produced between 1935 and 1940. After an initial run of 34 Char B1, the pattern was improved and around 370 units of the heavier armoured and armed Char B1 Bis were build. It was one of the most powerful tanks at the time and proved to be very effective against German tanks during the Battle of France. But it was designed to be a break through vehicle and did not adapt very well to the modern, more fluid style of warfare, especially the rapid Blitzkrieg of the Germans.

22Jul/180

Bolt Action IS-2 Heavy Tank

The heaviest plastic tank kit Warlord Games offers for the soviet forces is the IS-2 heavy tank - a perfect match for the Bolt Action campaign supplement The Road to Berlin and worthy enemy for the King Tiger. Time to honour it with a review on its own.

Bolt Action - IS-2 Heavy Tank Bolt Action - IS-2 Heavy Tank

The IS-2 (Iosef Stalin, in Wnglisch often called JS-2 for Joseph Stalin) was the successor of the IS series heavy tank and counts as one of the most powerful tanks of World War 2. It was developed to withstand the German 8,8 cm guns and to counter Tiger and Panther tanks with the 122mm gun. It went into service in April 1944 and was used in the final offensive of the Red Army towards Berlin. Of the IS-2 were 3.850 units built between 1943 and 45, making it the most numerous tank of the IS series and triple the number of produced Tiger I. Besides being field by the Red Army / soviet forces, the IS-2 was part of the Polish and Czechoslovakian tank forces towards the end of the war. To the end of the war, the IS-3 was introduced as a derivative of the IS-2. IS-2s often would carry soviet soldiers into battle, offering valuable protection from enemy infantry. Warlord pays respect to this and adds a sprue of plastic infantry to this kit.

2Jul/180

Bolt Action Jagdpanzer 38(t), Flammpanzer 38(t) and 2cm Flak auf Hetzer

To finish on 38(t) week, I cover today the Hetzer kit by Warlord Games. As this kit covers quite the broad variants, I'll base the review around the Hetzer Zug kit, so I can build all three variants; the Hetzer, the Flammpanzer and 2cm FlaK 38 Hetzer reconnaissance anti-aircraft vehicle.

Bolt Action - Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Bolt Action - Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer

31May/180

Warlord Games Stone Bridge

Before the Coastal Defense by Warlord Games is released in the next month, I'd like to present the Stone Bridge in this review. It is part of the cooperation of Warlord Games and Italeri and added to the Bolt Action plastic terrain range.

Warlord Games - Stone Bridge Warlord Games - Stone Bridge

Warlord Games sets the price tag at 15 GBP / 16,95 EUR.

24Mar/180

Aviators, get your engines running!

I got my hands on a Airfix Dogfight Doubles set back in 2016, and build the Messerschmitt Bf109 and a Spitfire MkVb right away. Now I found some more 1:48 scale kits, that could be used as terrain. So I bought a Junkers Ju-88 by Revell and a Ju-87 by Italeri.

About the scale, that is a longer discussion. The proper scale would be 1:56, but there is currently only one kit availabe of a Stuka in that scale by Blitzkrieg Miniatures. And to be honest, 40 GBP ist in my opinion to much for a "stand-in". I got a Junkers Ju-88 A-4 by Revell for 30 Euros, quite a lot of plane for that money, as you can see from the pictures below. It works quite well scalewise as you can see from the comparison with the Fallschirmjäger.

Revell - Ju-88 A-4 Revell - Ju-88 A-4

The wingspan is amazing and overall it was an okay-ish fit. Some parts were rather annoying to assemble, like adding the engines to the wings. I'll paint the windows of the cockpit in a light blue and saved myself the trouble of building the interior. And some other parts were even more fun, like the 0,5mm thick struts that frame the bomb wings.

Revell - Ju-88 A-4 Revell - Ju-88 A-4 Revell - Ju-88 A-4