Operation Küss mein Arsch

...Achtung! Action stations!

So far, I have been taking my time - to say the least - but now I am going to try a drastic change of pace. My brother wants us to try out a practice game of Bolt Action...NEXT WEEK!

I'm visiting him in Scotland next Wednesday so I have 'til then to put together a basic 500 point Bolt Action 'army' to match one he is building. This sounds incredibly daunting, but 500 points isn't actually that much - though on my modelling track record it will be a big challenge!

I have drawn the short straw - as my brother has the home advantage - and I will have to command a German force against his American units. Having done a bit of research I know that that could mean my assembling a force similar to the following:

Description		Value
Leutnant & Two extra Riflemen		70
Wermacht Squad (10) NCO MP40, Light Machine Gun team		123
Wermacht Squad (10) NCO MP40, Light Machine Gun team		123
Hanomag		84
81mm Medium Mortar Team		50
MG42 Medium Machine Gun Team		50
Total		500

I will likely tweak this set-up as we want to include some armour, which will take us over the 500 point goal, but as long as we are roughly balanced in the forces we field that should be OK. So, for example, I have been watching the Bolt Action demo game which was put together by 'Beasts of War'...

...Possible? Well, that's the challenge!

Realistically to do this it will mean I have to compromise big time. No pernickity obsessing about miniscule detail, no relentless trawling through WW2 history forums and no fancy nancy paint jobs!

In fact, there is a case for not painting our armies realistically at all. I could paint all my German units flat Field Grey and Ian (my brother) could paint all of his US units Olive Drab. All the niceties could come later when we've learned to play the game properly.

In this I am greatly influenced by Mr. Tim Gow. I've been following his Cold War Playtest posts on his Megabliz and More blog. He has condensed the opposing forces in his game down to generic 'Greenie' and 'Browny' armies.

So...Here's the good news!
Luckily for me, I am not exactly starting from scratch. In my eclectic and slightly erratic collecting of models and figures suitable for my Finnish army I have actually acquired several German army items as I thought they might be of some use (or be suitable for conversion).

Quite by chance, I happen to have a couple of boxes of 1/72 German infantry
in my stash, including this set of Revell late war Germans. Maybe not quite
right for Normandy in mid-1944. But...Meh!
Link: Plastic Soldier Review

I already have a Armourfast Stug III set, so there's my armour element. And I have a couple of boxes of German infantry which I had thought I could disguise as Finns but then changed my mind and cast aside...Basically, I already have all the models I need - albeit models and figures of questionable historical accuracy given our imagined period of interest and theatre of operations (Normandy, 1944).

My Armourfast Stug is their earlier IIIF model, while their new IIIG would
have been better I did manage to find a suitable colour scheme for a Stug
used by the Germans in France in 1944.

Still...As Mr. Gow would say 'accuracy, smackuracy'...Or something similar...Maybe! :)

I have just under a week. Naturally, all other projects will be suspended for that time...

Game on!