Warlord Games Sprue Sales
Warlord was running a sprue sale over the last few weeks, with multiple different items on strong discounts. Oddly enough, I just ordered 5 days before the sale started, so I had two orders on the run. And the second one overtook the first one. Well, stuff like that happens.
So what did I treat myself with? As I have a bit of cavalry to base and I ran out of my favorite cav bases, I bought quite a lot of the 25 by 50 mm rounded bases. 18 sprues in total so I am set for the next few projects, including the WotR/HYW mounted troops.
Bolt Action Campaign Battle of France
The supplement Campaign Battle of France goes more into detail into a part that was already covered by a previous supplement, but in a broader, more generalized way with Germany Strikes! back in 2015. This is nothing new, Warlord Games treated some of the other supplements with a more detailled coverage, like Western Desert did for Duel in the Sun, or Market Garden did for Battleground Europe.
Battle of France covers primarely Fall Gelb / the Manstein Plan (Case Yellow) and Fall Rot (Case Red), on 128 pages. That is upper centre-field in thickness. The price tag stands at the usual 19.99 GBP or 30 USD and as we are already used from the teasers by Osprey in their product catalogues, there is an early cover (right) with an early war German soldier and the final cover (left) with the French soldier. This happens quite often, to promote an upcoming book, before the final decision on the artwork is done.
Bolt Action A12 Matilda II Tank Troop
The latest plastic vehicle kit for Bolt Action is the Matilda II, shown here as the tank troop with 3 tanks. The Matilda II kit available either as a single vehicle boxed as A12 Matilda or as a three tank troop.
Of the Matilda Mk I only 140 units were build and the successor Mark II saw action in early in the war in France, but became more famous in the Desert Campaign against Italian tanks. The A12 / Mark II was produced between 1939 and August 1943, with a production run of around 3,000 units. Roughly a third of these were delivered to the Soviet Union under the Lend & Lease agreement. Captured Matilda II were used by the Germans under the nomination Infanterie Panzerkampfwagen Mk II 748 (e) or Pz.Kpfw. Mk II 748 (e). While the British replaced the "Queen of the Desert" beginning 1941 with Valentine tanks, the Australian army used their Matildas until the end of the war.
Salute-Weekend, Matildas and Knights
This weekend is Salute in London. I would have loved to be there, last year (Salute 2018 and the Operation Sealion!) was incredible fun and it would be great to see the folks again, but with all that Brexit stuff going on, I wasn't keen on booking a flight and then having a uncertain situation (or fresh new one) at the airport. Besides that, being a dad, just staying away for the weekend for leisure is something that you want to plan and use wisely (there are a couple of weddings this year, along with stag nights and such, so I might need one or two rain checks). Oh and then there is of course Crisis this year, that I wouldn't want to miss.
Well, but what's going on in the 'bunker? You've probably seen the reviews on the 2019 model of Abaddon the Despoiler and the Chaos Gate that isn't called a Chaos Gate. Browsing through the old Chaos Codex is very dangerous. Alluring project ideas, especially for my oldhammer faible, but I'm currently involved enough with my Imperial Guard (and Eldar, wait, did I just spill the beans? Forget what you read...) and a new / additional Chaos project would just make it hard(er) to focus.
Never the less, I saw an old Abaddon in proper condition for 5 EUR and had to have it...
Bolt Action Opel Blitz & Maultier
In late 2017 Warlord Games covered the Opel Blitz / Maultier combi plastic kit for Bolt Action.
The truck is one of the workhorses of the German army, transporting troops, supplies and ammunition were they were needed. The Opel Blitz is the most known of these trucks, other companies like Ford or Daimler supplied their own trucks, in some cases like the DB 701 by Daimler, it was simply the Opel Blitz without the markings built under license.
Where the Opel Blitz was build between 1937 and 1944 and made it to around 70,000 units, the half track variant of the Opel Maultier was released later in 1942/43 and around 20,000 units were built. As these trucks were the standard solution for logistics of all kind, there were multiple variants of them, converted and built for use as ambulance, communication, weapon carriage and even uparmoured ones.
Outlook 2019 – The hobbywhip for the boss
While Dennis summarized 2018 in his annual review quite smoothly, I‘ll take a look into the glass orb for 2019 and do what a true hobbyist can do best: make plans and try to do everythin possible that they turn out differently! Accordingly my main point on the list of good intentions for the new year is to stick to my plan!
First of all, there is a warband for Age of Sigmar: Skirmish, of which I have already finished two models and where the progress on the rest is nearing completion.
Afterwards I‘ll take on Dreadball for a while, as Mantic Games was so kind to provide us wit the second edition starter box, as well as two more new PVC teams. Hobbywise there will be more stuff in this department as well, because of course I want to have at least the teams of the starter box painted - and that from both editions, the first and the second.
Looking forward to the Holidays
Christmas is near, the holidays have begun and I will spend my two weeks off with the family as well as with the hobby.
I got a little christmas present from Radaddel. Thank you very much, always a satisfied customer and with this little bonus towards the end of the year more than ever. Some sweets, a small jar of model snow and a Citadel Painting Handle. Those are very useful and it is always practical to have one more to spare.
Bolt Action Campaign The Western Desert
I have already covered the plastic kits of the Afrika Korps and 8th Army Infantry that came along with this campaign supplement for Bolt Action - Campaign the Western Desert. Now it is time for the book itself.
The name already gives it away, this book covers the first chapter between 1940 and 1942 of the Afrikafeldzug or North African Campaign. With 168 pages a rather big book, actually currently the one with the highest page count, pushing The Road to Berlin from his former throne at 148 pages. Warlord Games keeps the price at 19,99 GBP or 30 USD and offers as usual a direct exclusive miniature, in this case the very fitting Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Next to the final cover, with Rommel himself, is the early cover with a British soldier carrying a Bren LMG. Nothing unusual, we already had different covers early among others for Duel in the Sun as well.
Bolt Action British 8th Army Commonwealth Infantry
As already mentioned with the review of the Afrika Korps box, the Western Desert supplement is supported by two new infantry kits, and here is the second one, the British 8th Army Commonwealth infantry kit.
As these were prepared at the same time, we had the chance to see the 3-Ups at this year's Salute in April 2018. The Africa campaign is something special to many wargamers, especially those with relatives, who fought in that battle. The duel between Montgomery and Rommel is often connected with some kind of chivalry, a mutual respect between both opponents. Surely glorified to some degree, as war is war, but still a somewhat special part of World War 2 and therefore of special interest for many people.
Similar to the Afrika Korps box, who was released 1973 (!) by Airfix, the 8th army plastic kit was even around earlier than this, in the 1960s, so for some of the veterans in our rows, these were among the first toy soldiers they to play battles on the living room floors or kitchen tables. Thus reminding many wargamers to their first memories of this hobby.
Bolt Action Deutsches Afrika Korps German Grenadiers
Warlord Games released for Bolt Action the latest campaign supplement, The Western Desert, and this time the book is accompanied by not just one but two new plastic kits. We're talking about the Afrika Korps Grenadiers we're going to review today and the 8th Army Commonwealth Infantry we'll see here as well.
We were shown the 3-Ups of these kits at our visit to the Warlord Games Studio and the day after at the Salute 2018 in London back in April. The wargaming crowd is eager to get their hands on both of these boxes. But why is that so? Well, back in the day, when the now veterans of our hobby started, long before there was this broad range of miniatures made from plastic, pewter or resin, the only commonly available resource for toy soldiers were 1:72 or 1:32/1:35 plastic kits from companies like Airfix (if you're British) or Revell (if you're German). And from what I've heard, for many people the conflict in North Africa was in particular interesting from the war stories that they heard from their parents or grandparents.
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