Review - Bolt Action Kriegsmarines

First impressions of the models when you open the box are very favourable. The moulds are clean with  little in the way of flash or seam lines. The poses are fixed, as you might expect with metal models but the heads are interchangeable so can be posed.

The section represents the period at the end of WWII when German naval personnel were thrown into battle as makeshift infantry, usually with minimal training.

The figures below were painted by me using a modified version of Warlord Games' Army Painter method so I think show what a wargamer of average ability could achieve with these models in a reasonable time.

First up is the squad leader. I painted him as a U-Boat Kapitän, hence the white hat. He is in British khaki battledress. I came across a reference to the Germans using British battledress captured at Dunkirk for their U-Boat crews. The red scarf reflects the devil-may care nature of the
Unterseeboot Seemann. I used the head with a cigar as befits a buccaneer.

I'm very pleased with this figure. He is full of character and would do well in any pulp fiction game set in the mid twentieth century - Lost World islands in the Antarctic and so on.

The Spandau machine gun team is painted in a mixture of Kriegsmarine uniforms on a Battle for Berlin - type metal base. They don't really know what they are doing so have the gun propped up rather precariously on some sandbags.

Another great figure, very dynamically posed in the act of chucking a stick grenade. I have given him a Heer helmet painted in summer camo colours to add to the ad hoc feel of the squad.

 Some ordinary bods with rifles.

Section second in command with SMG in naval greys.

The whole squad.

At £15, only £1.50 each, these metal figures are great value for money. The poses are terrific and atmospheric and they have a nice mix of weapons.

They are designed for Berlin '45 type games but I can see them featuring in all sorts of pulp fiction stuff. They just the blokes to get in Indiana Jones' way or fight dinosaurs - they have panzerfausts!

Highly recommended.