Bolt Action - A New Army: Nick

Bolt Action was never really on the cards as a game I was likely to play with Carl, let alone a project like this... however some recent playtesting of 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' (Rick Priestley's latest Sci-fi game based on Bolt Action mechanics), led to some discussion and Carl starting to paint his US infantry.

I'm not an avid WWII gamer, but on the occasions when I do I always side with Mother Russia.  I already have more than enough Soviets that have needed painting for years, so I really didn't need anything new for the lead mountain!
Not a fan of blue on blue action though, something had to be done.  Then I remembered my soft spot for the Japanese army (probably the fault of some Airfix kits in my youth), and the excellent Japanese Infantry plastic box set by Warlord Games which I had already managed to resist buying when it was released last year!

A quick play with Army Builder revealed I could easily construct a full 500pts army from the contents of a single box of 30 miniatures, what's not to like about that?

Next thing was to order the 'Armies of Imperial Japan' supplement from Amazon (to go with the main rulebook that I've had for nearly a year now), and while I was there I picked up the United States one as well for completeness:-

Then a quick order from the friendly guys at Caliver Books and this is my starter army for our 'Pacific Theatre' Bolt Action project/challenge:-

I already have plans to expand this lot into a full 1000pts in the future, but we both have plenty to get on with before that and I won't need to buy anymore for a while.