Monday, August 20, 2012

Guest Review of Bolt Action Miniatures by DaveOWar



Recently I have been getting more interested in historical games. After playing a hell of a lot of WHFB I have just been feeling the urge to start painting different types of models. To scratch these itches I've have been playing a bit of FOW, until about two weeks ago when I discovered bolt action. Bolt actions a 28mm WW2 game written by Alessio Calvatorie with the assistance of Rick Priestly made by Warlord games and Osprey Publishing set to come out in a few short weeks time. As someone who has always loved this history of ww2 and used to paint a lot of 1/35 models this was an opportune too good to miss. After reading up all I could find on the rules I decided to purchase British Commandos as my main force. 48 hours after ordering about 1000pts worth from War and Peace Games they were in my mail box (a free plug for a really amazing customer experience).
 The first thing I got is a section of commando characters including Lord Lovat, his piper and The Brig. I really love these figures as they encapsulate what I think of when I imagine British ww2 forces, the sense of gentlemanly style and the impractical use of a per in battle really tops it off. The detail on these is quite good compared to some of the other metals although the faces could be a bit sharper.

 I also got a machine gun and mortar as support options. While I do quite like some of these models i felt the overall detail could be improved and did not look as good as other models in the range. The poses that they have chosen for the models are particularly good and I really enjoy the guy blocking his ears. I ended up replacing one of the mortar crew with a plastic model and using here crew as a forward artillery observer.




 The bulk of my force is a box of 25 commandos and 25 British infantry with scots heads. I am really impressed with these models. The detail is great, the poses are energetic and well designed and the kit comes with huge amounts of extras for you to use. I have only started to play around with the kit and see what can be done but so far I think they compare well to most current GW kits. (I haven't assembled any of the normal British infantry but the kit is quite similar)
This is a model I assembled as the section snipper, hopefully he will be useful.
Finally a small number of commandos
Finally to support it all I got a Cromwell cruiser tank. This beast is a solid chunk of resin and British stiff upper lipishness, the detail is very crisp and the model goes together very quickly. Assembling a tank like this is a very different experience to GW kits of historical model companies like Tamaya where there a huge numbers of parts. There were only 4 large resin parts and a handful if resin accessories. All up the assembly took about 15 mins. The tank looks a tad small for the figures but it may just be that I misunderstood the size of Cromwells.
 Overall I am very happy with the models and am really looking forward to getting stuck into them and getting painting. I think for people looking get into historical games but have been put off by the rules systems or small scale should keep an eye out for Bolt Action. The previews of the rules seem to be easily understood by those who have played GW and 28mm scale is a comfortable place for many players.
Ratings out of 10
Value: 9 (the plastics are amazing while the resin and metal are still good value)
Quality: 8 (the plastics and resin are an easy 10 but the metals still do have room for improvement)
Style: 10 (though these models don't look as anatomically accurate as other companies outings, such as wargames factory, they have great style and really remind me of the 60s war movie heroes that I grew up on)
Ease of assembly: 7 (against the plastics and tank are great. But assembling small weapons out of complex metal parts is always a pain. This isn't really the fault of warlord it is just a result of the weapons size and type)
Overall: 9 (I have really enjoyed assembling these models so far and am pretty darn excited about the game)

DaveOwaR out!

2 comments:

  1. Right there with you mate!

    I have Brits, British Commandos and German Heer (from plastics plus support blisters from Warlord Games.

    I got my Pre-Order in early and am waiting for my rulebook to arrive. The plastics are surprisingly good. I wish the weapons were exaggerated a bit as they can be a little fiddly to deal with.
    The Separate Head System is good and I do like the poses in the support blisters.

    I got a few of the universal carriers from Warlord and the detail is very nice and the cast is extremely good.

    Happy Gaming,

    Allan

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  2. Thanks for the comment Allan, I found the same thing with the stens in particular. Many of the small stocks broke as I tried to get them off the spure or were already broken in the pack. I am glad to hear about the universals as I have been thinking about getting a few if they seem to work in the rules set.

    Cheers,

    DaveOwaR

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