Are We Spoiled?

As you know I have decided to jump into Bolt Action, I spent most of one afternoon sourcing paints and have now also took delivery of my basing materials, tufts, flowers, bushes and late summer grass. It was bad enough making the decision as to who's Dunkelgelb to buy for the vehicles I now have to make my mind up at what point during the year my troops will be fighting, spring, summer, autumn or winter grass, late or early season, flowering or non-flowering bushes, loose leaves or clumps. Just like the Wehrmacht if I don't get it right I suspect my troops will stick out like a sore thumb and provide perfect targets.

Vehicles and scale are the next hurdle, 1/56 or 1/48 and of course manufacturers of vehicles do exactly what figure manufacturers do, they do not keep to a constant scale, so if their Sherman is perfect you find their jeeps were made for pygmies (can we still say pygmies?). Whatever happens I believe it is best to pick one and stick with it. Which maker do you go with once you have worried yourself silly over what scale, do you get plastic kits, metal kits or resin, you Google it of course looking for the perfect answer, which you will not get. Keith loves B, Brian swears by B, Fred warns you off B, Colin gets B but uses C parts, Smithy buys B but by the time he is finished with it he should have bought D.

The same thing happens with the figures, the same problems with scale, I know 28mm is not a scale but for the purposes of this piece it is, 25mm, 28mm, 30mm or 32mm, which figures can you mix and which will not suit. Do you want early war, mid or late, do you want summer dress, smocks or greatcoats, do you want bog standard platoons or deadly Gurkha's, Paratroops or the dreaded Waffen-SS. Do you want something exotic, the Far East theatre for instance or the gallant Finns fighting off the Soviet hordes, US Marines getting payback for Pearl Harbour.

We have the same 'problem' when it comes to terrain, no longer a couple of books under a piece of cloth or polystyrene stepped lime green hills, no sir. Bombed out factories, terraced streets, French cottages, Belgian farms, Russian churches surrounded by bocage, hedges, fields, cobbled roads and ponds which could easily be used on a film set, you can even own your own château, complete with gardens and statues.

All of this before you throw a die, are we spoiled, yes we are, isn't it great.