Warlord Games Plastic US Marine Corp set for Bolt Action - Review

Lets take a look at Warlord Games US Marine Corp plastic box set for Bolt Action. Warlord keeps producing great figures and armor for Bolt Action. If modelling and World War II are a passion for you, check out the many offerings provided on their site. This squad was made from one of the sprues in the USMC plastic box set.

Here is an overview of the sprue with listings for all the items provided. In the box set, there are 5 of these sprues and a weapons sprue. The sprues were clean with very little flashing and seem lines.

This is the weapons sprue contents.

Back to the infantry sprue, here is a detail of the bodies 2 standing, 2 kneeling, 1 running and 1 prone. There are paired arms with weapons and many single arms with weapons.

Arms giving hand signals, positioned to fire weapons, holding binoculars and throwing grenades are included. You'll find many extras like backpacks, water bottles, knives and a machete.

Ten heads are included for additional variety and additional ammo bandoleers, bottles and paraphernalia. These five heads are all wearing helmets but there are others with caps and one with a bandaged eye.

We positioned our prone marine with the BAR on tripod, an ammo bandoleer with knife and water bottle too.

One of the kneeling figures we positioned firing and the other has his weapon arm slung and binoculars in hand.

On the back of the first Marine we attached a full pack, knife, bottle and ammo belt. The other soldier has a holstered pistol and extra water bottles.

Our two standing have a shotgun wielding marine and the second firing his Thompson.

The backs contain a small pack with trenching tool, ammo bandoleers, a combat knife, and water bottles.

Lastly the running marine is signalling and brandishing his Thompson. He has the Thompson ammunition pouch too.

He sports the US Navy Corpman's bag and a belt pouch with grenade. So as you can see, with everything provided, your force can have many individualized Marines.

Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow

The Joy of Bits

Well I thought there would be time in July to continue the flurry of miniature modelling fun. Life events and work projects keep interfering with modelling. We had started this band of Space Marines to go with the Dreadnoughts from the last couple posts but have not had time to get back to them. I don't think things will let up much until late in October but I am determined to keep everybody updated on anything that gets done.

Anyway, on to modelling mayhem.

The Joy of Bits. As you have probably seen from posts here on Battleground Hobbies, we love to recycle and use bits n pieces of anything and everything. Old computers and printers provide a never ending array of phenomenal pieces parts. Model bits are no exception to this rule. Recent acquisitions for the current projects have brought a plethora of Warhammer 40k bits into our hands!

A local shop in the Pittsburgh area allows hobbyists to unload old armies and bits for store credit and then resells them in their Bits Bin.

You can find single figures, parts, whole squads and even armored vehicles! In the batch we picked up, there are Necron, Space Marine, Tau and Imperial Guard bits.
(Have I mentioned how I hate when Blogger rotates my photos?)

These will all be put to good use as we continue to build our battle weary "Lost Legion" units. These are the first Space Marines to begin the process and some of those grand bits.

So how do you store your bits? Leave them on the sprue? Or do you categorize them in boxes? This is one of the several organizers filled with bits and pieces, mostly recycled parts.

Yes there are bits in organizers too. And if you doubt, we have plenty of sprues in boxes too.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Warhammer 40k Dreadnought Conversion - Part 2

OK the first Warhammer Dreadnought conversion went well so onto Part 2! As mentioned previously, the two dreadnoughts were picked up from eBay and cost less than one new one. So cutting them up wasn't a problem. In our scenario of the lost legion, these guys are stranded and have to repair and replace things with whatever they can. This guy had a duel Lascannon for it's right arm and we cut it up to look like it took a direct hit or exploded from overuse.

We had a random spare gun in our parts bin and a piece of plastic tubing to beef up the barrel. The existing barrel was trimmed and shaved to receive the new one. For theme sake we figured it was a local area turret mounted cannon that was scavenged and made to fit the Dreadnought.

It was attached to the outside of the arm in a manner to look integrated on the fly. A spare computer part was added as a gravity feed ammo clip.

Extra armor plating was added and was intentionally rough cut to go with our theme. Some traditional stowage and more futuristic looking parts were placed on the top between the shoulders.

This was the circuit board from a network switch and we felt the indicator lights looked like missile pods. Four of the pairs were cut off the board and glued together. A second part will be added as the "mounting" bracket

Additional components were added as communication equipment, a rear mounted cooling system was attached...

and the assembly was mounted on the left arm.

Here you can see the "cooling system" and the lower part is a mounting-reloading arm attachment we created from additional spare computer parts.

Extra armor plates were attached to the left torso and right lower leg and we primed him with the same Italian Olive as the first Dreadnought.

Now he's ready for painting too!

Here's a great view of the rear mounting of the missile pod.

And there you have it, next we'll get to some troops and possibly a transport or two.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Warhammer 40k Dreadnought Conversion

After a really rough June which included a high school graduate, a college graduate and a wedding I finally have a minute to breath! Sorry for the lack of posts but hopefully you understand to some degree, Now on to modelling.

Had picked up a few Warhammer Dreadnoughts on eBay with plans on doing some conversions and finally got the project underway. To start all the upper markings and skulls were shaved off and the arms removed. Battle damage was added over the entire model. The goal was to make this guy look like he's been out on his own for a while. So repairs had to be made with whatever was scavenged from the battlefield and parts would need to be taken along in case something was damaged.

The Power Fist had the same battle scarring treatment and removed markings

For the other arm we went for the Assault Cannon with modifications. Originally we were going to add a larger barrel but decided on another route.

Going through the recycled parts bins I found a few items to use on this conversion. The silver gun looking part on the left is what was used to modify the autocanon.

Also picked up a "Stowage" pack from Warlord Games to be used on a few different projects.

OK the first addition were extra armored plates that resembled Tau parts that may have been taken from a deceased battlesuit.

Planning on stowage, we extended the exhaust pipes. We removed the markings from the rear too.

Here he is with the first parts added. A piece was attached to the hip joint to appear as a repair from non-conventional parts.

Next came the stowage. After playing around with a couple variations we settled on this configuration.

We wanted futuristic stowage too. Here is the first non-traditional stowage container. To hold it on it would need tied down somehow. We applied some superglue gel and placed two pieces of string onto the top of the dreadnought. Then we stuck the part on top of it.

Once it dried, we pulled the two pieces over and tucked them under the shoulder. We secured them with additional gel

Next we found some gear like parts and ran thread through them. We glued the parts together before attaching them.

Before gluing the gears on we added two additional pieces of thread. These will go over the last two pieces of futuristic stowage containers.
As before, once it dried we pulled the thread over and tucked it under the shoulder armor.

A quick coat of Italian Olive primer and this guy is ready for painting. But before that, off to Dreadnought number two. Stay tuned for more!

Here's a few parting shots of the finished Dreadnought conversion!

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow