Fallschirmjäger 1000 point army for Bolt Action

I have a new project this year: make and paint a complete 1000 points list for Bolt Action. I’ve decided to make the one called Operation watch on the Rhine, with German paratroopers, the Fallschirmjägers.The first thing I did was search for the minis I like. Warlord (the brand behind Bolt Action game), has a really great range of Falls. Unfortunately, the brand that I like the most, Artizan, has fewer models, and doesn’t have flamethrowers, snipers, medics and gun crews.

So, I have to use the Artizan for the normal infantry and antitanks, and choose between using Warlord for the other models or continue using Artizan but not exactly with Fallschirmjäger miniatures (like SS or Heer ones). I bought some blisters from Artizan to start painting. I organized them in small bags:

That gives me two 9 men squads, one 10 men squad, 2 men HQ, and 3 teams: sniper, MMG and mortar. With these options, now I have 705 points out of the total of 1000:

• Veteran 2nd Lieutenant + 1 man: 78 points
• Veteran 1st Fallschirmjäger Squad with NCO + 8 assault rifles + panzerfaust: 167 points
• Veteran 2nd Fallschirmjäger Squad with NCO + 6 assault rifles + LMG + panzerfaust: 177 points
• Veteran 3rd Fallschirmjäger Squad with NCO + 9 rifles + panzerfaust: 138 points
• Regular Medium Machine Gun team: 50 points
• Regular Sniper team: 50 points
• Inexperienced Medium Mortar team + Spotter: 45 points

So, having cleared my mind in terms of list organization, I decided to start painting the rifle squad first (10 men in total).

Many of you will now that one of us here at ModelBrush is Rubén Torregrosa (Heresy). Well, Rubén published last year one of the greatest books regarding painting of German uniforms in 28mm: Painting War 1: German Army.

I can’t stop recommending this book. Not because Rubén is a great friend of mine, but because the book is worth every penny it costs. So, if you play or paint WW2 28mm wargames, go for it if you haven’t done it yet!

Of course, the painting of my paras will be based on the Fallschirmjäger painted by Rubén in Painting War. It’s clearly the best example I’ve found. I’m not, by far, as good painter as Rubén is, but I’ll try to do my best!!

I started by cleaning the mold lines and gluing the minis to some 24mm metal washers. That give the minis great support and adds a lot of weight (metal minis with metal bases… I like it!!! :)). After that, I applied Milliput Terracota to cover the metal base of the mini and to give the base a rounded finish. A coat of white glue to the base and little rocks and sand to finish the bases:

The only remaining step before the painting is to give the minis a nice coat of primer. In this case, I used the Vallejo black one, sprayed with an airbrush. It’s mandatory to leave the primer drying for at least 3-4 hours. Vallejo recommends waiting 24 hours. Once dried, the next day:

And by now, the time is over. I’ll post pics of the finished squad on the next few days, so stay tuned!!

UPDATE: You can see the painted unit clicking here.