Italian 75/27 artillery from GHQ in 6mm

Finally done with the four 75mm Italian artillery-pieces we need for tomorrow’s el-Alamein game.

They’re from GHQ, as are the crew. Fantastic details, as you can see from the photos.

The men are painted as usual, as are the hard-ware.

6mm WWII Italian trucks

More 6mm vehicles for the glorious Italian army. These are Heroics & Ros and descent quality for a low price (40p a piece).

Lancia truck, Fiat 626 truck and Fiat 508 light truck

14 trucks, ready to meet their doom…

Leaders...well they're Italians...

Here are the last men needed for the game last weekend. The three officers (GHQ) are telling the forward observer (Heroics & Ros) what to do, resulting in the Italians not getting even a single artillery grenade on target. Or even close.

The FO handles the heat of battle rather well, i.e. he survived. The officers had a rather shorter half-life. But they probably got some rater nice medals.

They stand on pieces of balsa, where I have written name and rank.

Another batch of Italians

All these men come from Heroics & Ros, and they are rather awful. The detailing isn’t very good, to say the least.

Here’s a bunch of colonial troops, made up of H&R Italian Infantry and the odd man from their Italian Heavy Weapons set.

The Italian army used quite a lot of local troops as cannon-fodder. These men are from the 3:rd Libyan Infantry Regiment, as can be seen (if you have very good eyes) from their red sash, that is the red cloth around their waists. They have red fezes as head-gear, and the NCO:s have large red insignia on their upper arms. Very colourful troops….

Sash: GW Scab Red

Fez and insignia: GW Red Gore
Flesh: P3 Bootstrap Leather
Backpack: Vallejo 856 Ochre Brown
All other as infantry described earlier.

Here we have some 47mm anti-tank guns with crew. I’ve pinned the guns to the bases so they won’t drop of during play.

Machine guns and crew

I have numbered all troops, to be able to identify them on the battlefield. Roman numerical obviously.

Italian infantry, 6mm

What Italian armour I need in the foreseeable future is painted, now it’s time for infantry.
I bought a pack of Italian soldiers from GHQ, and they’ve got an impressive amount of detail for figures that tiny.
I copied the technique Laffe used for his British infantry, and I used Osprey Men-at-Arms nr 349 ’The Italian Army 1940-45 (2) Africa 1940-43’ as inspiration.
I started by cleaning the figures, and filing down the officers’ caps, that looked like French kepis initially.

The figures were based with two layers of Vallejo 847 Dark Sand and after that Devlan Mud.
After that Dark Sand as a painted high-light on arms and headgear.
Rifle stocks 843 Cork Brown
Bread-bags 819 Iraqui Sand
Water bottles 869 Basalt Grey (a bit too dark)
Faces and hands 955 Flat Flesh
Metal GW Chainmail
Shoes and other leather Humbrol 62 Leather

One really shouldn’t take close-ups like this, these guys are tiny!

I glued 8 men to a FoW-base. A bit crowded, but it will do. The result from the work of a couple of evenings were 7 squads and one nearly fininshed. That one has to wait for reinforcements.

Attack! It’s fun with hordes in 6mm.

More Italians

Two 75/27 artillery guns with SPA TL 37 prime mover from GHQ, and another Autoblinda from H&R. Now it’s time to paint figures.

Avanti!

More 6mm Italians.
Same as I described before, and a new-comer, a Fiat gun-tractor from H&R.
I’ve speeded up the 6mm painting, and soon there will be guns.
On the down-side, I’ve just got a couple of FOW-bases left.

Forza Italia!

The mighty Italian armoured forces are shaping up. They will be used (why do I get flashes of burning wrecks…) in East and North Africa, together will masses of tiny soldiers waiting to be painted.
Here we have the first batch of armour and vehicles.

M11/39 and lorry from GHQ

Semovente and CV3/35 from Heroics & Ros

M13/40 and Autoblinda, also from H&R.

Here’s the whole bunch, probably speeding back from the front-lines as fast as they can go.

It’s obvious that the GHQ-vehicles are far superior when it comes to detailing.

All vehicles are based on Flames of War (FoW) bases, the smallest model, painted with a mix of fine sand and beige paint (Flügger Egg Dream), followed by a wash of Devlan Mud. The models are pinned to the bases, and after that a dry-brush of Egg Dream (without the sand obviously) giving some shade beneath and around the vehicles.

I’m thinking about how to distinguish the vehicles from each other (Let’s see, Commander Pescatore sits in the right-hand M13/40, or does he? He did turn left two rounds ago, so it could be the front left one, or… Look out, British armour! Bam! Boom! Crash! Bummer, never mind, it doesn’t matter anymore…)

First 6mm ever

First 6mm ever
I got boxes of Italians from Heroics & Ros and GHQ this week.
As a suitable fist project I painted a M13/40 from H&R.
Base colour Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow, a wash of Devlan Mud and a dry brush of Vallejo 976 Buff.
Tracks and machineguns Vallejo Gamecolor Gunmetal washed with Devlan Mud.
The rubber on the wheels were painted with black, and the exhaust system Humbrol Rust.
The paining is good enough for a game.
The question is whether the tank is good enough if it meets one of Laffe’s Matildas…