As we promised, the plastic German heavy weapons weren’t just a one-off, but the start of a new era for Bolt Action. Now on pre-order are the next set of kits, for both the US Army and the British & Commonwealth. Let’s look at what’s on the sprues!
The first thing you’ll notice is that the British 6-pounder and US 57mm M1 gun look suspiciously similar! That’s because in real life the US weapon was essentially a licence-built copy of the British gun. The reason there are two separate boxes is because of the crews; the gun frame in each is identical. On that frame you’ll find both barrel variants – with and without muzzle brake. There are also two different sets of wheels to represent the US and British versions, and even the folding airborne version of the carriage. As well as an ammo box, we’ve also included several shells and spent cases, which can be put in the hands of crewmen or used to decorate your bases.
The US heavy weapons frame includes two different tripods, and a total of three machine guns. There’s a .30 cal Browning for all your medium machine gun team needs, plus two .50 cal HMGs – the standard M2 heavy barrel and the AN/M2 ,which was an aircraft gun repurposed for use on the ground. The latter wasn’t used on tripods as standard, but was often fitted to vehicles – we’ve included it for the endless conversion potential, and as a little bit of variety!
There’s also an 81mm medium mortar with bipod and baseplate, and the box includes four 60mm bases, so with the 12 crew in total that means you can make a wide variety of different weapon combinations. Because the medium mortar and medium machine guns have three crew, and heavy machine guns four, how many weapons teams you can make depends on which types you choose. For example, if you go for two medium machine guns and two medium mortars you’ll have crew and bases for them all, plus you’ll have four spare heavy machine guns and two spare tripods.
If you assemble two heavy machine guns plus a mortar you’ll have one model left that you can use to make a Platoon Commander (three 25mm bases are also included), and have five heavy weapons left, including two MG tripods and a mortar bipod. All of these spare weapons are of course perfect fodder for conversions and kitbashes!
Whatever you decide, you will have at least four heavy weapons spare and enough mountings for three of them. Of course, the crew are completely compatible with the plastic infantry models, so none of those weapons need to go to waste. If you don’t have spare infantry in the bits box, you can order individual sprues from the webstore. That means that you can easily get up to six weapons teams from a single box, plus two extra HMGs to add to your vehicles.
The British heavy weapons sprue offers a similar range of options. The Vickers MMG has two barrel options; with or without the fabric cover, and also includes ammunition boxes and water cooling equipment. There’s a medium mortar, the trusty 3-inch, plus a heavy mortar as well. This 4.2” weapon threw an almost 20lb shell that in Bolt Action terms equates to a 3” template (and +3 PEN), making it deadly to even the toughest infantry, and even capable of destroying light armour.
Both crew frames have four soldiers in a variety of poses and with a range of arms designed specifically to interact perfectly with the weapons. The American crew has both kneeling and sitting legs, the latter to get under the small tripod, and both include a soldier holding his hands over his ears; a ‘must have’ for any mortar team.
As mentioned previously, the crew sprues are fully compatible with the existing range of plastic infantry. This includes the soldiers in different uniforms such as the 8th Army, US Army in winter uniforms, or the various airborne ranges. Eventually we’ll make plastic crew for these as well, but for now you can always convert them. At most you’ll need to chop a couple of hands off, which barely counts as converting, as all the infantry sprues include plenty of hands in different poses. We’ll share some conversion ideas in a future article, but suffice it to say that the possibilities are virtually endless!
Ready to give your American and British forces some heavy weaponry – now in plastic?
