Saturday 22 October 2016

Home Guard for Bolt Action.

I have been trying to resist this set for most of this year, but with my BA stuff mostly painted and in the boxes I finally gave in and this morning ordered the Warlord 'Local Defence Volunteers' box set of 8 Dad's Army characters in uniform, the Vicar & Verger set (2 figures), plus the 500 point British starter army set. I don't intend to expand it beyond this, but I can envisage some fun scenarios, with the Home Guard fending off a small German invasion force, backed up by Regular infantry, Vickers MG section and Bren carrier. Watching the latest re run of Dad's Army last week I noted the reference to the 'Dymchurch Home Guard'  (disparaging as I recall), and this sparked the idea of playing some fun games based around small Kentish seaside villages. Personally, this is how I like to play BA now, small games up to 750 points, no artillery, tanks, anti aircraft or transports/ tows etc, just the basic infantry platoon based game with a few support teams. Whatever else I'm going to enjoy painting the Dad's Army characters once they arrive. Warlord are offering free postage at the moment, another thing that prompted me to order.

Here are a couple of 'borrowed' images of what's coming, from the warlord website. As usual they are quite expensive, the HG 8 figure metal set being £20.00, the vicar and verger £5.00 for the 2 castings, pushing the boundaries somewhat, but very collectable. The British starter set is £39.00 and contains plastic infantry sprues with metal additional figures, MG team and a resin/metal Bren carrier and crew.

Aside from the above I have added a 4 base German  MMG team plus command for Flames of war and painted the ME262. Didn't turn out too bad, the dappling was a challenge as it was with my larger Airfix version for Bolt Action, but looks OK on the flight stand.

ME262 ready for action.
Yet more Shermans (no more!), M20 scout cars and Bergepanther undercoated. Also two German half tracks. The plastic Shermans are bought as you see them quite cheaply and are by Plastic Soldier Company.  They seem to go together far better than the Battlefront 'Open Fire' plastic Shermans with no annoying gaps that need to be filled.

And I'm still working my way through the beers! 

Really enjoyed this one, light and refreshing.
Not so much to my taste, 5.5% abv quite a bitter aftertaste, a darker ale, but interesting label and name.

6 comments:

  1. Glad to see you've finally seen sense Lee.

    They don't like it up 'em!

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  2. The Dymchurch Home Guard - who do you think you are kidding?

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  3. Good to see you haven't given up on 28mm! Having said that the berg panther and sherman's look great and the smaller scale does make more sense if you want lots of tanks . Me 262 looks grand too.
    Best Iain

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  4. Great stuff - I'm a bit alarmed to think how the Warmington boys will fare against Hitler's finest, mind you...

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  5. A small Operation Sealion game on the horizon then? Sounds very fun!

    Have you played Chain of Command? The rules play out very pleasingly for the platoon-level (+support) type game and rarely include tanks, etc.

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  6. Thank you chaps, I'm looking forward to painting the Home Guard.

    Dai, I understand there is an Operation Sealion book in the pipeline from Warlord/Osprey, with 'what if' scenarios. Probably means I'll have to invest in a fallschirmjäger force in the future too!

    Don't Panic!

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