MV: With the new edition of Bolt Action now a couple of months old (how time flies!), we’ve seen a wave of project photos and writeups land in our inboxes from our colleagues, both in Nottingham and around the world. Today, we’re looking at Jürgen Horn from our German Trade Sales Team’s new endeavour – Winter Fallschirmjäger! Over to you, Herr Horn!
JH: When I first saw the new winter Fallschirmjäger plastics, I was immediately enamoured. It was immediately clear to me that I had to make a new army out of them for Bolt Action: Third Edition, but it was also immediately clear to me that I definitely didn’t want to paint them in white! I did some research, looking for German paratroopers in cold but not snowy
weather. I then found a picture that was attributed to the fighting in East Prussia in the spring of 1945.
It allegedly shows either soldiers of the 9th Paratrooper Division in a barren hole in the ground in front of the ‘Küstrin Fortress’, or soldiers of the Waffen SS Paratrooper Battalion 600 on the Seelow Heights. As with many pictures from the time, opinions differ. The 3 paratroopers are well armed with STG 44, MG 42 and Panzerfaust and are wearing the dark side of their winter suit. Now I was on the right track, I descended further down the rabbit hole of uniform and equipment at the end of the war. There were actually countless variations of winter suits with all the colour and camouflage variants of the Wehrmacht. From police green, Luftwaffe blue, and field grey, to the splinter camouflage pattern with reversed colours, the choice was endless. This was ideal for me, as it gave me plenty of ‘room’ to really go to town with the colour scheme!
During further research on the 9th Paratrooper Division, I came across an interesting report by a young volunteer who was drafted into the newly formed unit. He describes his disappointment at not being given one of the typical paratroopers ‘Knochensäcke’ jump uniform when he was kitted out. Instead, he was given a winter suit, which he had to wear even though the weather had become quite warm again. This was probably so that the generally quite inexperienced soldiers looked more like the dreaded Fallschirmjäger. In fact, the 9th Paratrooper Division probably consisted mainly of units with little combat experience, which were only reinforced here and there by recovered front-line fighters. With that, I knew I had found the inspiration for the army project.
I decided to do a purely infantry army that would give a ‘thrown together’ impression. To do this, I wanted to mix the different colour variants to show that the equipment was gathered from all corners, and soldiers had to take what was still there.
From my first platoon box, I wanted to create a small, flexible army that I could use to react to all threats. The obligatory Rifle Platoon therefore consists of two Fallschirmjäger squads, which are very similarly equipped, having eight men with an MG 42 and a Panzerfaust each. Of course, there are also a few StG 44s and FG 42s scattered around! The Platoon Commander and his two bodyguards all have SMGs, and will serve as a small reserve force to plug gaps in my front line.
To be a bit better armed against tanks, I’ve also built up a Panzerschreck Team. The Germans sometimes used captured American Bazookas and even had their own name for them: Raketenpanzerbüchse 788 (amerikanisch) or for short R.PzB.788 (a). I made mine using Bazooka components from my bits box!
I decided to do a Heavy Weapons Platoon as my second formation. While I waited to get my hands on the awesome new teams, I did something I always do with my German armies – make up my own mortar tubes! To do this I use the upgrade sprue for the mortar-carrying half-track, which looks great and makes assembly an absolute breeze. Once the new crew models arrive I’ll pair them up with some more weapons, but for the moment other than the mortars themselves I made a spotter and the Platoon Commander and an assistant.
I’ve already got the core of my force sorted, and when I get another box of Winter Fallschirmjäger in I’ll fill out the rest of the Rifle Platoon with another squad, plus two light mortars and a sniper team. After that I’ll add an Artillery Platoon with a couple of light AT guns or Panzerbüchsen 41– both of these can easily be made out of more half-track upgrade sprues! From there… who knows?!
MV: Not only is Jürgen an absolutely amazing painter, you can see how much effort he’s put into every aspect of this force, from the research to the modelling and basing. If he’s got you inspired to start a winter Fallschirmjäger force of your own, get your orders in now and stock up!
