6th Airborne

I painted this army for Bolt Action back in June-July 2020, before I’d started this blog and I’ve been wanting to document it on the blog for a while now, but haven’t made time for it. Seeing other blogs post about WW2 models ( the tipping point was the latest post from John over at https://justneedsvarnish.wordpress.com/) has finally motivated me to get these models photographed and uploaded!

I’ve had a soft spot for the British airborne regiments and their operations in Normandy on and after D-Day for a while, so when some friends and I decided to break away from our usual fare of Fantasy and Sci-fi wargaming to try out historical games (Bolt Action in this case) these models caught my attention very quickly.

I didn’t aim for any particular operation when deciding what to include, rather focusing on including units that would make sense in the period following D-Day, when the 6th AARR started using Cromwells rather than the Tetrarch for example. The force is a 1000pt army made of a single reinforced platoon under Bolt Actions army selection rules.

This was my first foray into historical wargaming and I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in research material, learning about the actions of the troops the models represent and trying to get markings right! (Although I could never find a photo of the AARR Cromwells so I improvised the markings on those using pictures of Tetrarchs and Locusts)

I have 3 more cromwells to paint at some stage for when we want to play with the tank war rules, and a second Bolt Action army unbuilt, waiting for its day, so there will be more WW2 content in the future!