Hoorah! First rifle section, both commanders, the Forward Artillery Observer, and a couple of spare chappies finished.

Firstly the FAO with his trusty radioman with (Airfix's version of) the No18 Set. The radioman is remarkable in possessing a version of the general service cap two years before it was issued. Yes, I could have done some converting to an earlier version of the cap, but life may be too short to bother!

Next we have the first platoon's commander, First Lieutenant Harrington and the Company Sergeant-Major, CSM 'Capone' Grimshaw. CSM Grimshaw is lucky to have one of the rare Thompson SMGs issued in France 1940. Sadly, in the game he will have to use it as a rifle as the France 1940 list doesn't allow for SMGs.

The original Thompson had the straight magazine so I replaced it with the 50-round drum using plasticard.

Leading the second platoon is Second Lieutenant Cholmondley-Warner, with his stoical batman, Private Harry Glover.

Next is the first rifle section. Number 1 section of 1 Platoon, led by the redoubtable Sergeant Dawson.

 

 

 

 With the first section is the Bren group, Private Patterson and Lance-Corporal Rutter. L/Cpl Rutter is burdened with extra ammunition and tools for the Bren.

 

The additional two men are currently spares who might lend a hand in the second platoon.

 

Having reached the point where I need to apply the division insignia, I had to actually decide which division the chaps would be part of. I live in Rugby so decided to use the 48th (South Midland) Division, making the soldiers part of the 8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 143rd Infantry Brigade. This was a Territorial Army brigade.

With that established, my Vickers Mark VI and recce Universal Carrier will belong to 1st Lothian and Border Horse, a yeomanry regiment, the 25mm Hotchkiss ATG will be 53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment RA, and the artillery support (and therefore the Forward Artillery Observer) will be courtesy of the 68th (South Midland) Field Regiment RA.

It doesn't really matter which exact units they all belong to, of course, but it is nice to be able to put them within a hierarchical context.

Damn and blast!

I realised that my force was 'illegal' for Bolt Action due to the additional Lieutenant. Each reinforced platoon can take a Lieutenant or Second Lieutenant as platoon leader, but the additional HQ choices jump to Captain or Major. There is no provision for an extra spotty subaltern to accompany the platoon leader.

I also see that I can't have the CSM with an SMG if he is accompanying the platoon leader - they are only for section sergeants.... Given that the France 1940 Theatre List doesn't allow SMGs anyway (they were very rare at that point, a few hundred only having been sent across for evaluation after the experience of Norway), I shall just class the Thompson-armed CSM as a rifleman and be done with it. Not buying the 3-point SMG also saves me just enough points to sneak in at exactly 1000 points after the reorganisation.

Nothing for it but to reorganise the force as two platoons, each with their own leader. My 2-pounder (which I rate as a Medium AT) sadly got wheeled away, to be replaced by the French 25mm Hotchkiss. This actually fits the force better as the Hotchkiss ATGs were issued to Royal Artillery Anti-Tank companies attached to infantry brigades, as opposed to being held at higher level. The Medic had to go, as did almost all of the transport, but I did manage to give one of the platoons a Recce Universal Carrier with Boys anti-tank rifle and pintle Bren. A nice little mobile gun platform to support the foot-sloggers.

1st Platoon
HQ
Lieutenant (First Lieutenant) + one additional man (CSM)
Artillery FO + assistant
- transported in Universal Carrier

Infantry
Two 10-man sections including LMG
One Boys AT Rifle team
One Vickers MMG

Armour - armoured car
Recce Universal Carrier with Boys ATR and pintle LMG

2nd Platoon
HQ
Second Lieutenant + one-man staff (batman)

Infantry
Two 10-man sections including LMG
One 2" Light Mortar team

Artillery
Hotchkiss 25mm Light AT gun

Armour - tank
Vickers MkIVb Light Tank

Undercoated at last.

I have replaced the radio antenna with a thinner wire to replicate the rigid aerial used on the man portable wireless sets in 1940. The wire is obviously still too thick, but I didn't want to creep into flexible 'walkie-talkie' territory by using broom bristle. I don't think it looks too bad at this scale.

I also added an NCO with Thompson, obviously one of very few soldiers in the BEF who actually received the SMG. I think he may become the Lieutenant's companion and therefore the CSM, which explains how he managed to get one of the rare Thompsons. The previous CSM candidate (the upright figure carrying the bag) will go with the crouching Second Lieutenant as his batman. I was originally dubious about putting a crouching figure and standing figure together as a grouping, but then realised that it nicely contrasts the inexperienced Subaltern taking cover at every gunshot against his more battle-hardened and blasé batman.

I now have two 'spare' figures to carry over to the second section or to use in weapons teams.

 

First rifle section plus Bren, Lieutenant and CSM, Forward Artillery Observer, Second Lieutenant and a 'spare' figure now ready for undercoating. The hardest part was cleaning up the joins between converted figures, something I have doubts that I'll be doing a lot more of for the other two sections. The K resin is evil stuff to saw and the moulded nature of the figures means that there is plenty of 'blocked off' detail, under arms and so on, that makes detailed chopping very difficult.

You'll notice that I have used Milliput to bring two Eighth Army figures to France 1940 dress. This was actually easier than I had anticipated although the undercoat will reveal just how 'natural' the built-up sleeves and legs look.

Some poses meant that the gasmask bags had to be secured on the hip. This was something that the soldiers themselves started to do when it was found just how painful it was to throw yourself forwards onto a gas mask bag. The lack of gas being used also meant that the chest 'ready' position was no longer such an important regulation.

Getting the Milliput to adhere to the shiny resin for straps was not fun. Lead foil for that in the future, I think.

I think I'll be using more 'stock' figures and 1/35 kits figures for the rest of the force. This converting and rebuilding of the K-Resin is a real pain in the posterior. The resin glues well (even the ends of rifles are secure when replaced), but the stuff is too intractable to cut accurately. I am ending up doing a lot of rebuilding where detail and components have been cut away. My original plan was to have each figure different, but that's unlikely to happen now!

My supplies of Milliput are on the wane as packs, belts and pouches are built up. I'm tearing my hair out building up the trousers and sleeves of the couple of Eighth Army figures I wanted to use 'as-is' but dressed more appropriately for France.

Straps. Yuck.

Having spent a few hours adding gasmask cases, I have reached the conclusion that the shiny surface of the figures really doesn't lend itself to adding Milliput straps. The Milliput struggles to adhere with such a small surface area in contact, leading to the straps dropping off when dry. A possible solution would be to glue the area first, or indeed to glue the dry strapping on, but if I am gluing then I feel lead foil straps are a better idea.

So, all I need is lead foil and I don't have any at present. I do, however, have a large bag of lead sheeting from the local scrap merchant. I shall, therefore, endeavour to batter and roll the sheet to within an inch of its life. Well, a few mm anyway.

First section under the saw and knife. Thank god for a mini-drill with a rotary saw attachment, that K-resin stuff is seriously tough. Sadly, the speed of the saw, even on slow speed settings, is enough to burn the resin, leaving you with great cancerous lumps of resin that needs to be trimmed off. I also found out that trying to line up ammo pouches was a non-starter and quickly realised that the reattached halves would need quite a bit of Milliput to cover the joins and rebuild pouches.

Another problem was that there were only so many combinations of top and bottom that looked realistic. The original packet of British Infantry have some poses firing whilst standing, but are so static and undynamic that they look like they are at a range. There are no poses kneeling and firing, and none lying down - rather a drawback on a C20th battlefield. Looking to redress this imbalance wasn't as easy as it could have been, because the lying and kneeling figures from the other sets were limited.

A final problem was that the British Support Group are cast in a slightly larger mould than the others. Maybe a nod to 1/35 for the later remoulds? Whatever the reason, the one conversion between British Infantry and British Support Group (firing pose from Infantry and legs from Support Groups bazooka man) was enough to put me off doing any more. The poor chap looks like his trousers are full of jelly. The second bazooka man (what the hell were Airfix thinking putting a damned bazooka in there?) has been surgically joined with the officer to create an FAO who might actually be able to hide behind a low wall.

A few of the Headquarters bodies done at the same time. The chap holding the mortar ammo case will be the CSM attached to the Lieutenant, and the ammo case will become a small pack to hold the company papers (and the Lieutenant's bottle of Scotch). The drunken Second Lieutenant (a Frankenstein's monster combo of two Commandos and an Eighth Army head donor) will be based to bring him back to the level and given a kneeling batman.

So, the future holds a great deal of Milliput and sharp knife work. Ammunition pouches, small packs, and front gasmask bags, plus a good number of bayonet sheaths and reconstructed belts and straps.

Money on the table time. I bought my first boxes of Airfix 1/32 for many, many years. British Infantry (of course), British Support Group, British Commandos, and the Eighth Army. The Commandos are there to provide additional bodies as they wear the same kit as the standard infantry, and only require helmets. The Eighth Army are there solely to provide additional heads/helmets and MkIII Lee Enfields with bayonets. I'm afraid they are not going to be very happy chaps as their fate is to meet the modelling knife and razor saw.

I must say that I was very impressed by Airfix/Humbrol's turnaround time. I ordered the figures online just before lunch on Wednesday and they arrived before 8am Thursday. Free postage as well!

One happy and unexpected discovery was that the British Infantry have the MkIII Lee Enfield rifle when I was expecting them to be moulded with the later MkIV (which wasn't generally issued until 1941). The Commandos have the MkIV, and so do the Support Group, but the infantry which will form the bulk of the force won't need to be converted.

Following feedback from the Warlord Games forum, I revised my list. The Captain was demoted to Second Lieutenant and both officers lose one of their staff. One of the infantry sections lost its transport (which makes it more likely I'll buy the expensive Bedford OY kit now) and a third section was added.

Here's the revised force. It's surprising how many soldiers you can trade in for a demoted Captain...

HQ
Lieutenant (First Lieutenant) + one-man staff (batman)
- transported in Utility Vehicle [Humber staff car]
Second Lieutenant + one-man staff (batman)
- transported in Utility Vehicle [Humber Tilley]
Medic + one orderly
Artillery FO + assistant
- transported in Universal Carrier

Infantry
Three 10-man sections including LMG
One Boys AT Rifle team
One 2" Light Mortar team
- one section and heavy weapon transported in single 3-ton Lorry [Bedford QLTs masquerading as Bedford OY]
One Vickers MMG
- transported in 15cwt Truck [CMP 15cwt masquerading as Bedford MW 13cwt]

Artillery
2-pounder QF AT gun
- towed by 15cwt Truck [CMP 15cwt masquerading as Bedford MW 13cwt]

Armour - tank
Vickers MkIVb Light Tank


Essentially the same as the first draft, except that only one of the infantry sections can now ride around in a lorry. Probably not the end of the world, especially as the lorry can always do 'shuttle-runs' if necessary.

That extra infantry section will really add to my firepower, especially if I take the Rapid Fire national characteristic, and the HQ sections will hopefully have slightly better survivability. I'll have to ensure that any German snipers have an up-close and personal meeting with the mortar or Vickers MkVIb early on.

My first Bolt Action force will be 1000 points of 1/35 British Expeditionary Force (BEF). I am using 1/35 partly for the visual impact, partly for the modelling potential and partly because it is an excuse to revisit the Airfix 'big soldiers' of my childhood.

The force was initially to be built to the following list:

All Regular (including transport and mortar - I know, I know, but I prefer that to dismissing them as Inexperienced simply to save a few points).

HQ
Captain + two-man staff
- transported in Utility Vehicle [Humber staff car]
Lieutenant (First Lieutenant) + two-man staff
- transported in Utility Vehicle [Humber Tilley]
Medic + two orderlies
Artillery FO + assistant
- transported in Universal Carrier

Infantry
Two 10-man sections including LMG
One Boys AT Rifle team
One 2" Light Mortar team
- transported in two 3-ton Lorries [maybe Bedford QLTs masquerading as Bedford OY]
One Vickers MMG
- transported in 15cwt Truck [maybe CMP 15cwt masquerading as Bedford MW 13cwt]

Artillery
2-pounder QF AT gun
- towed by 15cwt Truck [maybe CMP 15cwt masquerading as Bedford MW 13cwt]

Armour - tank
Vickers MkIVb Light Tank

A very mobile force which reflects the high level of mechanisation enjoyed by the BEF. AT team and 2-pounder to deal with any German armour, MMG to dominate open ground and Light Mortar to winkle out opposition heavy weapons. Light Tank to shoot up enemy transport (hopefully when they are still full) and to act as a highly mobile fire-brigade.

The trucks are in fancy dress because of the limited availability of 1/35 British lorries. The CMP 15cwt and Bedford QLT were both later than the Battle of France but are available as plastic kits. Whilst you can get the earlier trucks, they are resin and white metal and cost three times as much as the plastic. We'll have to see whether I can afford to betray my principles and use an 'incorrect' vehicle.

This Blog was started to chronicle the building of my new 1/32 Bolt Action forces. If you were expecting something about GURPS Saduria (my GURPS RPG website) then I'm afraid this is currently not the place, although I might well add in my thoughts about that at a later stage.

    Although initially set to be the home of the 1/32 force, I expect that my many other projects will get a look-in and eventually take over.