MV – Warlord HQ has been a hive of Bolt Action activity in the last few months, and everyone seems to have a project on the go – with so many models on our desks, it’s a wonder we manage to get anything else done! Jim (Head of Direct Sales) has many projects on the go at once, whipping up this fantastic Afrika Korps force in the dusk of 2024 . Spill the beans, Jim!
JB – I painted my first Bolt Action army in late 2023, a small British and Indian 8th Army force, inspired by my grandfather’s exploits in North Africa. Having assembled mostly fantasy and sci-fi armies for the last 30 years, two things really struck me. Firstly, the range of options on the Bolt Action infantry kits is just astonishing, and they’re so characterful and evocative. I know some people prefer single piece models to get armies built quickly, but I found the process of choosing weapons and equipment, posing the models and creating variety in each unit utterly compelling; every model tells a story. It really helped that sense of connection with the models and what they represent – by the end I was feeling the sun on my neck and batting away imaginary flies!
Secondly, I quickly realised that the level of detail is perfect for my painting approach – basecoat and wash then a quick highlight with the basecoat colour. It’s a great way to get decent sized armies ready that look great on the tabletop, and you can always spend a bit more time on key characters. I found Army Painter washes like Soft Tone very helpful for bringing out the detail quickly – you can paint it over several different basecoats and it lets the colour shine through while pulling everything together. With an 8th Army force completed, the obvious next step was some Afrika Korps, especially as my son expressed an interest in playing some games when he was back from uni!
I’d intended to do another Operation Crusader themed army, until I realised that my son, in his eagerness, had assembled a Panzer IV as a long-barrelled variant, so that meant it would need be a later campaign force. This also meant that I could try out some simple camouflage schemes, so I wasn’t unhappy! My approach to armies is usually to start painting a few models I want to have a go at, then develop an army list as I go. I put the tank to one side and started on a Rifle Platoon, since that would form the core of the force.
The Afrika Korps infantry platoon box is jam-packed with weapons, equipment and other cool components. In particular it includes plenty of things like binoculars and maps to model Platoon Commanders and spotters, and has two support weapons – light 5cm mortars and anti-tank rifles. I made up two light mortar teams, as the AT rifles became rare towards the end of the North African battles – once your enemy is coming at you in Lees, Grants, and Shermans, they aren’t much use! I settled on two mortars supporting three 8-man squads, each with an MG 34 LMG team and an NCO with a submachine gun, led by a Platoon Commander.
I painted the tunics green, the helmets with Army Painter Boney Spikes and the trousers a 50:50 mix of the two, followed by a Soft Tone wash over the lot. This gave a nice contrast, though in retrospect I wish I’d added more variation, to represent the different rates of fading – when you wash your clothes in petroleum then leave them in the desert sun all day, they quickly change colour! The red and white decals on the helmets give a nice counterpoint to the muted tones, they are definitely worth a bit of patience to get them in place. The bases are simply Rocky Sand with a tuft on each – I wanted to represent the hilly Tunisian terrain where the Axis fought their last stand in North Africa, rather than the desert seas that were the stage for Rommel’s great victories of the previous two years.
I didn’t really set out to do an all-plastic army, but after adding a Panzer III and a 250/9 with a light autocannon to my Panzer IV Ausf. G I realised I had a pretty balanced force and hadn’t strayed away from plastic at all! A bit light on indirect fire HE perhaps, but with plenty of those German light machine guns to keep the enemy pinned!
This was also the first time that I tried out the Army Painter Speedpaints, and I used Sand Golem on my halftrack. I was pretty pleased with the results – all my armoured vehicles are simply a coat of Sand Golem over a light grey undercoat, then a drybrush of a light buff colour – Boney Spikes in this case. The Panzer IV has some simple green camo as well, I used two thin coats so that the highlighting still shows through. Because the vehicles have so much detail, the Speedpaint does a great job of highlighting that detail without pooling. Again, the primary colours of the decals contrast nicely with the muted tones.
A happy co-incidence is that the Panzer IV Ausf. G will be able to have the Panzer Ace special rule if I take it as Veteran (when Armies of Germany comes out!), so that sounded like a no-brainer – everything else is Regular. The infantry platoon and armoured platoon got me to just under 1,000 points, then I struck lucky – I managed to get hold of some of the new German Veterans, so went to work combining them with the Afrika Korps heads to make and Engineer Platoon of Sturmpioniere.
I decided to use the sun helmets to make them distinct from the regular infantry, painting them a slightly different shade and adding a little variation in the colour of the trousers to show that these are grizzled veterans who have been fighting a desperate defence against the overwhelming Allied forces. I just had enough models to make an Engineer Platoon Commander and two 5-man squads, one with long-range support weapons (including the cool GrB-39 grenade launcher that only Sturmpioniere have access to) and one to escort the flamethrower teams than Engineer platoons allow you to include.
I’m really happy with how the army turned out, and at some point I’m planning to go back and add an Artillery Platoon – no DAK army is complete without an 88 or two!
MV – We can’t wait to see where Jim goes next – at this rate we’ll have to release some new Armies of… books just to keep up with him; luckily the schedule is pretty packed on that front! If he’s inspired you to start an Afrika Korps force of your own, now’s the perfect time to begin!
