Bolt Action: Soviet Union 'Anti-tank Rifle Team'

The paint finally hit the brush and last night I was able to start on my Soviet Union army for Bolt Action.  I have 1000 points I need to paint before the weekend of February 22nd-23rd and the 'green flag' has dropped.

I wanted to 'test' my paint scheme for the infantry before I got too invested in it, so I decided to start on a 2 man 'Anti-tank Rifle Team'.  This was going to give me an idea on how I liked the colors for the uniforms.  I based my color selection from the 'Soviet Army Paint Set' from Vallejo.

I was actually really impressed on how this team turned out and I like the color selection.  I am trying to speed paint this army for the tournament, but at the same time have a nice looking army.  I think I accomplished that.

Soviet Union: Anti-tank Rifle Team

Soviet Union: Anti-tank Rifle Team

Tonight I will be starting on my 81mm Medium Mortar Team and hopefully have them completed later in the evening, then the weekend will be spent working on the infantry units.

Painting Points: 2

Bolt Action: Scenario "Bunker Assault"

SCENARIO: BUNKER ASSAULT

Warlord Games released a new scenario for Bolt Action today. You can find the scenario HERE.

This scenario represents a frontal assault against a section of an enemy fortified line, and works perfectly with our Atlantik Wall bunkers set!This could represent troops storming the Atlantik Wall on D-Day, or the German Panzer Grenadiers attacking the dug-in defenders in the initial phases of the battle of Kursk, or the western allies’ assault against the Westwall/Siegfried Line, or the Soviets overwhelming the Seelow Heights defences… as well as ‘what if’ assaults against the Maginot line and so on – have fun!

Daily Chronicle: 1/29/2014

With my absence from gaming the last 2 years, I had lost my .com "www.theoldwestchronicle.com" to someone in China and had to revert back to the default Blogger address "theoldwestchronicle.blogspot.com".  Today I decided to get my old address back but with .net.  So this site can be reached via blogspot or the new www.theoldwestchronicle.net  Any items that I still work on that are Games Workshop related can still be found at www.adeptusarizona.com

An update on my Soviet army: My remaining bases have arrived and I was able to base the models that I do have (I am waiting for a few single infantry to arrive to complete my 'free rifle selection').  Today I will start to prime some of the infantry models and hopefully tomorrow night actually start applying some paint to the models.  After this weekend I will have a better understanding if I think I can complete the army in time for Gathering in the Desert.  I really do want to get them done in time, but I also do not want to really rush them and be unhappy with the finished product.  So we shall see.

Bolt Action: 1,000PT Soviet Union 'Starter Army'

Last week I was introduced to a fairly new game called 'Bolt Action' from Warlord Games. "From Blitzkreig to North Africa, from the Russian Front to the D-Day Landings, Bolt Action puts YOU in command of the most brutal and famous battles of the Second World War."

I have always been interested in WWII gaming and started on a few Flames of War armies, but the scale and the complexity of the rules for Flames of War have kept me away from the game. With Bolt Action, the scale is 28mm (standard for most of the games I play) and the rules are very scaled back. The authors of the rule book are former Games Workshop employees and the rules are very similar to the games they wrote for them (but much easier).

The weekend of February 22nd, a friend of mine is running a Bolt Action 2 day tournament called 'Gathering in the Desert' (used to be a 2 day LotR tournament a few years ago), so I decided to pick up a Soviet Union 1000 point starter army with the hopes to play in this tournament. I have not yet committed to the tournament, since it all depends if I can get the models built and painted by that weekend, but I am going to give it my best shot.

I have been out of town the last few days so not much was completed this past week, but when I got home late Saturday night I started to assemble my army. I noticed a I was short a few round bases for my infantry men, so I had to quickly place an order and those should arrive in a few days so I can finish assembly.

Soviet Infantry: assembled

Soviet Officers: assembled

Tonight I will start preparing the bases that I do have and hopefully by this weekend all the models will be primed and ready for painting.

The 'Starter Army' box comes out to 999 points and was originally designed based on the army lists from the main rule book. With the release of the army book "Armies of the Soviet Union" a few months ago, I had to make a few small changes to my list to be compliant with the new rules.

This is the list I am going to be starting out with:


1000 Pts - Reinforced Platoon Selector List - Soviet 1000 Starter


Reinforced Platoon

1 Senior Lieutenant (SMG) 2 Soldier (SMG x2)

11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))
11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))


1 Medic Team (Pistol)


11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))

11 Guards Squad (LMG x1; SMG x3; Rifle x6; 1 NCO (Rifle))

12 Free Rifle Squad (Rifle x11; 1 NCO (Rifle))


2 Anti-Tank Rifle Team (Anti-Tank Rifle)


3 Medium Mortar Team (Medium Mortar)


1 T-34/85 Medium Tank (Coax MMG; Forward Facing Hull MMG; Heavy AT Gun)


Total List Cost: 996

Daily Chronicle: 1/21/2014 'Pardon Our Dust'

Please 'PARDON OUR DUST' while I revamp "The Old West Chronicle" with some current information and layout changes.

I also recently picked up the game 'Bolt Action' a WWII miniature game from Warlords Games that I will be concentrating on in 2014.

So stay tuned for more information to come.