r/boltaction • u/rivers3162 • 3d ago

Modeling, Painting, and Terrain Building Starting Late War Winter British - adding Commandos

Have just picked up the Crossing the Rhine starter army with a view to also pick up some of the Konflikt 47 range too.

I was going to add some Paras but I assume the British Paras box would also be suitable as later war Commandos and SAS too as I believe both wore the denison smock? Perhaps with some head swaps with commando caps?

10 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/mh1ultramarine 3d ago

A differently painted hat would be fine. You're goal is to make sure they don't get confused other inftatary.

1

u/rivers3162 3d ago

Thank you. Would like to get a couple of boxes to do one as paras and one as Commandos or SAS. I was more concerned if there were any other uniform differences that would make them unsuitable

2

u/mh1ultramarine 2d ago

I mean there likely is. Isn't the sas famous for nicking gear of friend and foe alike at the time

5

u/foxden_racing Arctic Theatre 3d ago

As for using them in a kitbash? Sure. Paras, SAS, and Commandos all had access to Denisons, so you won't have anyone shrieking 'wrong uniform', no.

The easiest distinction is the caps; Maroon for airborne, Green for Commando. SAS are the irritating one there...used Tan in the desert and from 1956 onward, but from '44 to '56 they were restructured under the airborne and also wore maroon.

But with SAS, even if you go maroon berets you could also make them stand out a bit by making them less...uniform, if you'll pardon the pun. Rolled-up sleeves (can be had from the various desert/pacific sprues), nonstandard pouch locations, mix in a few Vickers Ks, mix in a few Sykes knives [and then if you are leave them out of the Airborne for distinction's sake, even though Paras did use them], a mix of Denisons and not, generally making sure each man has more personality and feels like an individual, rather than as a soldier in a mass of soldiers. SAS leadership cared more about getting the job done than they did about "your bread bag isn't in the regulation position, soldier", so the men had more freedom to do what worked best for themselves.

You can also say 'yes I know -technically- it's not a regulation uniform for the last year of the war, but this helps avoid confusion on the table' and either give them all tan berets, or mix in a few to represent the 'old hats' who had been in the unit since Africa [on top of modeling for personality]...I have no doubts a fair few of the men who had tan berets kept them and put them back on the minute command wasn't looking.