MV – Jim Butler, our Head of Direct Sales, has been an unstoppable hobby machine of late, and he recently turned up in the studio to show us another project that he’s had on the go. What’ve you got, Jim?

JB – It was the hats that got me interested – the French Army Infantry box includes an incredible range of headgear, and some wonderfully characterful faces. With all the winter themed hobby going on around the launch of Third Edition, I decided I wanted to paint some Chasseurs d’Alpins with their fabulous berets, and while looking for painting inspiration came across some pre-WWII blue colour schemes that I thought would look great with snowy bases. I grabbed a box and started assembling, and as I was working, the idea developed that this army would be fighting in the Ardennes in late 1940, if the Germans hadn’t succeeded in Case Red and the war had bogged down into an attritional fight. This was more in line with what the Allies had expected to happen, and is a great example of how you can use Bolt Action to explore really cool historical ‘what-ifs’!
I tend to start armies by painting some models that grab my attention, then developing an army list once I’ve gotten started. I built and painted a platoon commander and two full sized squads of Chasseurs, the first with two FM24/29 light machine guns to provide fire support and the second kitted out for more close-range work, with one LMG, a VB launcher and three submachine guns. While I love the MAS-38 I wanted some variety, so I pinched a Thompson and an MP-40 out of my bits box. Once painted the British Commando and Afrika Korps arms aren’t really noticeable! Sometimes when I’m kitbashing I’ll do hand-swaps to ensure that the uniform looks right, but in this case a straight arm-swap worked just fine.
While rummaging about I also spotted a British 2” mortar and decided that my Chasseurs could have ‘borrowed’ one from their British allies, and I snipped the scope off an FG 42/ZF4 to build my sniper team.
At about this point in the project I realised that I needed some regular infantry to bulk out the army. I decided to add some Tirailleurs so that I could make use of the colonial heads, as they have some of the best sculpted faces in the Bolt Action range, not to mention awesome hats! I figured they would be Tunisians, well used to the hilly terrain, which fit the wider theme of my force nicely. I painted a first unit in the more conventional green/brown uniform, which contrasts nicely with the blue of the Chasseurs.
I was then lucky enough to get my hands on a frame of the new German Veterans. These are so packed with equipment options that even after you’ve assembled your models, you still have a ton of stuff left. I purloined an anti-tank rifle and one of the MG34s – German light machine guns were the envy of the Allies and were sometimes looted. I also used the plastic piece of ruined brick wall included on the sprue! This gave me a large Rifle Platoon with three support teams. I’m really happy with how these came out as they were very quick to do with a nice simple scheme!
As I was rummaging around in the bits box, I spotted a spare field telephone arm from a US frame and with some tank bits made a Forward Observer – not terribly historically accurate I know but by this stage it was more the look and feel I was going for. It should probably have been a writing desk and a chap on a horse, but I’m assuming that in my alternate timeline the French discovered the value of radio in war! This model is the only one in the army wearing an Adrian Helmet, and his is wrapped in a snow cover! Maybe I’ll have to go back and do some engineers in helmets…
I’d originally planned to get some artillery and support weapons to round out my force, but it suddenly occurred to me that the wonderfully bonkers Char B1 Bis has both a light anti-tank gun and a light howitzer! With a couple of those I could have an all-plastic army! That seemed too tempting to ignore, so the final additions to the army were two of these monsters. The paint schemes are adapted from classic colour schemes, just swapping out the base colour to white, to fit with the winter theme.
I haven’t played any games with this force yet, and I’m aware that I might struggle against heavy armour, but my Frenchmen and Tunisians will fight with dash and élan whatever the result. Allez les Bleus!
MV – Want to emulate Jim’s exploits and get a French force of your own? Get started today!