We recently spied a wonderfully painted army of Winter Fallschirmjäger duking it out on the Bolt Action battlefield in the Warlord Games HQ Store. We just had to grab its commander, Scott Bellerby, to take some pictures and find out his techniques.
Scott: Like many others, my hobby journey originated in Airfix kits built during my youth, Warhammer Fantasy as a teen, and then dropped off as other interests and responsibilities reared their heads.
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However, coaxed along by my brother, and my never-really-waned interest in history and WWII in particular, I visited Warlord HQ in the Summer of 2018 and played a Bolt Action demo game with the ever-amiable Conor. I’ve been absolutely hooked since then.
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I used to be a commission painter, but eventually found that with all the time I was using to paint up other people’s figures and armies, I wasn’t painting any for myself! I was then passing my figures off to other commission painters – it all became a bit circular! There’s ultimately something a lot more satisfying about using miniatures you’ve painted yourself – you’re already invested in them.
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This Winter Fallschirmjäger force is perhaps the 11th Bolt Action force in my collection. As soon as I saw them previewed alongside 3rd Edition within the Battle of the Bulge starter set, I knew they’d be my next force. In fact I had already been planning to do some conversions to make some winter Fallschirmjäger – the announcement meant I didn’t have to! The new sculpts really impressed me, and the fact that I could build the majority from plastic and Warlord Resin models was doubly a bonus, and make transportation a breeze to boot!
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I paint my armies to what I call a “high tabletop standard”, not so detailed that I’ll never get a full army on the table but enough to look good – it’s the “faces and bases” principle, if you get those right it elevates the rest of the model. Over the years, I’ve absorbed myself in video tutorials from all manner of YouTubers, borrowing techniques from everywhere, rather than aping a particular style.
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For the Fallschirmjäger I didn’t have a rigid scheme, I had in mind to make them look a little ragtag, as if they’d been right in the thick of the fighting at the Ardennes. To this end, I made a concerted effort to not duplicate any pose, or exact colours within a unit – using a variety of whites, beiges, blues, and of course the camouflaged Fallschirmjäger smocks. This did make the whole process take a whole lot longer! Some of the combinations may not be strictly accurate from a historical standpoint – but I find that evoking a feeling (and the rule of cool!) is more important than rigidly adhering to history. I used the Army Painter’s new Warpaints Fanatics range for the most part – a huge improvement over their predecessors in my opinion.
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I’ve already invested in some of the new US Airborne to reinforce the Winter US I got in the Battle of the Bulge set, you can see some of them on my Insta (@panzerfistminiatures). Once I’m done with them maybe I’ll try and do something a little different. I tend towards Veteran armies with relatively low model counts. Perhaps a Soviet horde list? Then again, maybe I’ll go for the new German Veterans…
Our thanks to Scott for indulging us and showing off his army. Do you want to follow his example? Shop our new Winter Fallschirmjäger range today.