Jim Butler’s Konflikt ‘47 British Commonwealth Army

He just won’t stop! Head of Marketing Jim Butler is back with another new army – this time, he’s painted up a British Commonwealth force for Konflikt ’47. Honestly, we don’t know where he finds the time, although we can conclusively say that the rumours that he was painting behind his laptop during meetings are untrue. (Not because he’s standing behind me with a cricket bat. We checked. Honest. -ed.) As is tradition at this point, we got him to take some photos, and asked him to tell us all about it!

I’ve played quite a few games with my Axis army now and was eyeing up my next one. I was tempted by both Soviet Bloc and the US, but I love the look of the Automated Infantry and the B for Bertie story really sums up what’s unique about K47 for me, so a British Commonwealth force had to be next up. Strangely then, the first models I painted were the two Guardian walkers. I’d played a few games against them and seen how they could punch (literally!) above their weight, being very deadly against heavy infantry and horrors like Ursus and Schreckwulfen in particular.

Like a lot of Konflikt ‘47 players, my biggest nightmare is getting overrun by bioengineered monsters with great big teeth and claws. The core of my Axis army is made up of Stahltruppen, and more than once I’ve seen them torn apart by Ursus, and even been on the wrong end of Paragons with Close Combat Weapons. Shooting with high PEN weapons is one option, but the light walkers also have the ability to overrun even heavy infantry, kicking and punching on their way past, and their high manoeuvrability allows them to turn to face their foes to unleash their firepower. British Commonwealth walkers don’t benefit from rerolling shots, but the Superior Codebreaking army special rule opens up the possibility of a double drive-by slapping (A highly technical rules term, you understand. -ed.), which is very tempting.

The only downside for me was that the kits are metal and resin. I have to admit, as an avowed ‘plastic crack’ addict, I was a little trepidatious (I’ll allow it… -ed.) about essaying these kits, but I was pleased to find that the contact points were generous, and in the end the assembly was not quite as purgatorial as I’d anticipated. The first two were put together and painted quickly, with very little sticking together of fingers, pets, or household ornaments. The paint scheme takes inspiration from WWII RAF fighters, as I see the walkers zooming around the battlefield.

My initial plan was to have an army that crammed in as many light walkers as possible. One Assault Platoon allows you to have an Armoured Platoon and an Armoured Walker platoon – so in theory I could have nine in my army! I planned to have MkI and MkII Automated Infantry making up the Assault Platoon and stuck together a box of the Warlord Resin models. While I loved the design of these, I did find them a bit fiddly to assemble – unlike with the Guardians, the contact points are small so positioning the arms can be tricky.

All these plans were defenestrated when the test shots of the new plastic MkI and MkII Automated Infantry arrived, alongside the MkIIC Automated Director and the fabulous B for Bertie model. I was lucky enough to grab some, and found the modelling experience to be a world away from the resin models. Even though the components are almost identical to the Warlord Resin versions, because they stick together using polystyrene cement you have plenty of time while the contact points are tacky to position arms and legs into dynamic poses.

I found the easiest way was to attach both arms first in roughly the pose I wanted, they dry-fit the weapon, moving the arms into place while the glue was still hardening. Once the position was right I left them for a few minutes to firm up, then glued on the weapon. Another advantage was that poly cement only sticks to plastic, not my great fat fingers! I also found the plastic legs and bodies easy to pose, and I made use of the MMG that can be shouldered and the HMG carried at ‘trail arms’.

I swiftly rewrote the army list around an Automated Platoon, even though at this point the rules were still being playtested. The big unit of MkIs with MMGs was originally only going to be five models, but when I learned the latest army list update added rules for the bayonets, I boosted that to ten, with two smaller units of MkIs with HMGs to provide support. The MkII units and the Director all have Light Tesla Cannons, so my army has plenty of Rift Dice. This is handy because it means I can use their Rift abilities and not lose their ability to remove First off the Line from my MkIs.

Painting the Automated Infantry was a doddle – I undercoated grey then drybrushed white to create a zenithal highlight. Once this was dry I used the AK Forest & Jungle QuickGen set – Leaf Green for the helmets and for the armour a simple combination of Forest Green and Wood. There’s no additional highlighting and I’m happy with how the models look on the tabletop. The Tesla weapons are Plasma Coil Glow over white.

With the core of the army done I added a Humber MkVII – to give me another fast unit with decent firepower. The final unit for the army (for now) was a kitbashed Churchill Meteor, as I had a spare Churchill and bought a Katyusha to cut up the launch rails to make the Meteor Launcher. I’ll use the truck in a future army so nothing will go to waste. I upgraded the hull MG to a flamethrower, using a spare from my Axis bits box. I also used the howitzer in the Churchill kit, so this is my support unit in the army – capable of firing two templates plus a flamer that does multiple hits. It can also cause a lot of pins!

I’ve put together a collection of close to 2,500 points, though mostly I play games at 1,500 or 1,750 points. This is to allow me to tailor the forces and swap units around for variety. My next step is to add a few Automated Platforms, plus I might get some Grenadiers in Bren Carriers to support the Armoured Platoon.