Bolt Action 1,000 Point Painting Challenge

I've griped a little in my last few posts about all the unpainted models I've accumulated. Well, what better way to fix this problem than with a painting challenge!

My friend, Tim, enjoys organizing challenges like these, and he floated the idea to several of us in December. I joined on, and am now part of the great Bolt Action painting challenge, The Tale of Three. You can follow that last link to Tim's post on the rules for the challenge. Basically, I've got to do 250pts of models for Bolt Action each month until we hit 1,000 points.

Sounds easy, right? But I chose Russians. Oops. Talk about setting myself a challenge.

Well, it's not really all that bad compared to the model counts of other games. The 1,000 points of Russians I'm planning centers around a core of infantry. Bolt Action really is focused on infantry, so this is unsurprising. But with a free 11 man squad, I'll have 44 "foot-sloggers" (or whatever the Russian equivalent term is for it) to paint.

I don't have all the models for my final list yet. I need all the support teams plus the one tank I plan to run (when I think Russians, I think tons of guys and tanks). About a year ago Crusader stopped selling their WW2 minis in the US. So I bought up as much as I could afford at the time.  Here's a picture of where I'm starting today:

I've got "two boxes" (the large bags) of infantry which actually provide the core force. I've got some SMG troops and a blister of leaders. There's plenty to start with while I gather the remainder of the force.

Here's how my total for this first month will break down. All my troops are regular quality.

•  2nd Lieutenant and one man @ 60pts
• Infantry squad of 11 men w/ LMG, SMG, and 8 ATG @ 149pts
• NCO & 3 riflemen of the second squad @ 40pts

I had to fudge the second squad a bit to keep under the points total for the month. I only have 17 models to paint, which should be fine. However, the following months will be harder without these more expensive units to fill up the total. I don't have anti-tank grenades on the other units, which puffs up the unit cost. So I'll be doing a lot more painting in February!