We asked for articles from you wonderful lot and articles with wonderful stuff in came back – check out Bryan Cook’s French M3 White Scout Car:
Bryan here, I am another Bolt Actioner with Patch down here in Australia www.WWPD.net – Warlord Games kindly sent this model out for a review article which I am doing up, but in the meantime I’d thought I would share the pictures of what I came up with.
The M3 White Scout Car was supplied to many of the United States allies, including the Soviet Union and the British Commonwealth. I decided to go with a topic that was a little more obscure and make mine part of the Free French forces fighting in the Italian campaign.
After the Americans entered the war and landed on the North African coast (Operation Torch in 1942), the former Vichy French colonial troops switched sides and joined the allied cause. The French army of Africa was re-organised and re-equipped with US weapons, uniforms and vehicles, albeit the older ones that were being replaced.
The French forces were made up of many exotic units from Morocco and Algeria as well as the Foreign Legion. These troops would go on to fight in the Italian campaign, most famously flanking the Gustav line with the mountain fighting Moroccan Goumiers, allowing the Allies to finally take Monte Cassino.
As well as the infantry there were also many colonial cavalry units that converted over from horses and obsolete armoured cars to American supplied vehicles; M3 Scout Cars, M3 Stuarts, M10 tank destroyers, and various soft skins. My Scout car here is crewed by the Moroccan Spahi cavalrymen.
The Spahi cavalry were not only recon troops but performed aggressive assaults against Axis forces, relying on daring and skill to make up for the light armour on their M3 Scout cars and Stuart tanks.
When you look into some of these alternative armies you’ll find plenty of inspiration to make a different looking force, I’ve made my M3 a Free French version, using all Warlord miniatures and the French decal sheet.
The three items I used were:
Simply grab yourself a pack of the French Tank crew to help you modify the existing crew miniatures you get with your M3. The existing US crew are fine except for the headgear and (making use of a few spare Belgian heads for the guys in Adrian helmets) it’s an easy swap with the Warlord Games ‘Figure Head System’.
You can see I have added the French officer drinking wine from the French tank crew set, this miniature adds a lot of character to the end result.
I have also used the French decals set to name and number my M3, further giving it a different look to a US or British vehicle.
The current Armies of France book does not cover the Free French from 1942-45 and so for now I will simply run my Free French using the United States book. This has its advantages, allowing me to take multiple M3 Scout Cars in the one platoon. So I have a whole squadron of three in the works.
Bryan
Some fantastic work by Bryan, we think you’ll agree… also, digging back through the Warlord archives, why not take a look at Warlord boss, John Stallard’s British White Scout Car as well!
Do you have an article within you? Are you itching to show your collection to the world of Bolt Action? Then drop us a line with a couple of pictures to info@warlordgames.com
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon