Bolt Action: Free French – Part 5 – Hysnaps Politics, Gaming, Music and Mental Health

So on with my Bolt action adventure of building a late war Free French force.

As discussed in Bolt Action: Free French – Part 1 – I am putting together a smorgasbord of troops, for my Late War force., in Bolt Action: Free French – Part 2 I shared my Support forces and Recce Vehicle, in Bolt Action: Free French – Part 3 the Free French SAS arrived supported by a Sniper team, in Bolt Action: Free French – Part 4 I added some Colonial Support through a unit of Tirailleurs.

Now a big step forward with some poorly equipped squads and some squads in the process of being re-equipped with American Gear, some support vehicles and a display of a few 3D printed elements – I use a Robox FDM 3D printer which produces better vehicles than infantry. I will include images of the previous elements as well –

The squads shown here are small squads as I initially plan and build forces as these to maximise potential – I can always drop the extra Heavy weapons to create larger squads at the end. Also to support this I have implemented a decreasing scale of NCO ranks from Highest to lowest with fewer of the highest and more of the lowest.

First up Squad 1 – This squad has a mix of Original French and American Equipment, including the new BAR instead of LMG, and also are a mix race squad to represent the Free French.

Now Squad 2 – These guys are predominately equipped with early war French Equipment and a small amount of American Gear – including a Thompson Machine Gun, but it is evident they have chosen to hold onto the old style French LMG instead of the new American BAR.

Squad 3 – Again predominately Early war French equipment, with squad LMG with a small amount of American for the new troops, also some of the guys equipped in old gear have newer American accessories such as Water bottles and Trenching gear.

Squad 4 – A predominately colonial squad with older equipment including an early war French LMG, which historically French troop preferred – alas the US imposed their policies of Segregation on the Free French and encourage De Gaulle to move non white troops out of the public eye – as such these were also the troops to receive American equipment last.

Squad 5 – A squad with a BAR and NCO in newer gear – still mixed race but predominately white.

Squad 6 -(Wrongly named squad 7 on instagram) is the reappearance of the Group Franc or SAS squad which I showed early.

And Squad 7 (err. labelled 8) is the Tirailleurs that I previously shared – here led by a white NCO and using the dependable French LMG.

Next up are 2 MMG Squads – the first I have shared before and the second is the first of the 3D printed miniatures I’ve include – this close up it is evident which is which – but at the 3ft rule it is harded.

Now 2 Officers and adjutants – both of these we have seen before..

And now the Support units – including Medic, Bazooka Team , Sniper Team and Artillery Observer – there is one 3d printed unit in this – no prizes for guessing..

Next up are the various Transports and support vehicles – all of these are 3d printed, again the layering is less obvious from a distance and I look forward to sharing photos of these in action.

Now a mix of Painted and unpainted 3d printed – this is my Heavy Artillery a 155mm gun and crew- so far I have only printed 2 of the crew and these are present here.

And lastly some unpainted 3d prints of early War Tow, Tank Killer and extra infantry to enable part of these forces to also be used for Early War French.

I have a few more re-armed American and British forces to build and paint – and I have started the printing of a Sherman and possibly will print off an early war French Tank.

The majority of the 3D prints are from Eskice I have to say they print well and I wish I had a better 3d printer – on average the vehicles cost me £1.50 in material and less than £1 in electricity.. but as I got the printer for free I am not going to argue :-)