Italian Breda 37 machine gun and crew from Perry Miniatures

My final minis for our participation game at Gothcon, now I only have to finish some terrain pieces.

These guys from Perry Miniatures will help their German allies against the unprovoked aggression of the British forces.

I haven’t had time or reference books enough to get the colours the way I want them. I usually prefer to go from photos of the real thing and try to match that, but this time I based the paint job on Osprey Men-at-Arms 349 The Italian Army 1940-45 (2) Africa 1940-43. Good enough.

Paints used:

Uniform and headgear: Vallejo 977 Desert Yellow, a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink, heavy drybrush with 977, light drybrush of 819 Iraqui Sand.

Ammo pouches – 984 Flat Brown

Belts – 988 Khaki

Shoes and straps – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Puttees – 886 Green Grey

All above washed with AP Strong Tone ink

Collar insignia – 975 Military Green

Badge on helmet – Citadel Mechrite Red/White/975 Military Green/Bronze

Avanti!

Italian Autoblinda AB41 from Warlord

Another Italian AFV in 1/56 scale (or 28mm), this time the Autoblinda AB41 from Warlord.

A very nice metal and resin kit that goes together easily. I painted the wheels separately to reach every part of them and the car.

Paints used:

Body – Vallejo 912 Tan Yellow, a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink, a heavy drybrush with 977 Desert Yellow (I made a mistake here, in my mind I used 912, but the result was so good I will stay with this combo), a final light drybrush of 837 Pale Sand.

Wheels – Vallejo Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber washed with AP Dark Tone ink.

I haven’t brushed any pigments on this car yet as I have an idea of painting some signs on it, but that will be after Gothcon during the holidays. I don’t have time for that now.

AB41 and CV35

Another camera than my usual, this one is a Canon Ixus 140, a small compact that works surprisingly well. My old one died this weekend. Rest in peace.

Hey! You should really check out Con Man on Indiegogo. I’m just saying Firefly and Serenity. 

Italian CV-35 Tankette by Perry Miniatures

This Christmas I got two presents from my gaming pals Thomas and Laffe. I had my suspicions.. they were probably trying to snare me into another period with some cool figures. Been there, fallen for it, got the T-shirt (or at least a whole lot of stuff for my plastics/resin/tin-mountain)

I was right, the small boxes came from Perry Miniatures and contained a tankette and a machine gun with crew. Italians for the Western Desert and in 1/56 scale. Coincidentally the scale those two gentlemen are building British and German Desert War Chain of Command forces for.

Vrom! Vroom! Poor victim. No-one loves him.

I will not fall for the temptation! or something like that was heard from me.

Well, I will not buy a whole new force but we do need more units for our participation game at Gotcon.

Now this kit is quite nice. I have this soft spot for early war crappy AFV:s and this little tankette hits just the right buttons. Tiny, armed with twin machine guns (in the kit there is also an option for a 20mm gun and it also includes two crew-members), with paper-thin armour.  What’s not to like?

Anyway the metal kit assembles easily, it’s just a few pieces.

Paints used:

I undercoated it all with Vallejo Foundation White and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink.

Then a coat of Vallejo 912 Tan Yellow followed by a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink, a heavy drybrush of Tan Yellow followed by a lighter one of 837 Pale Sand.

Tracks were Vallejo Panzer Aces 304 Track Primer drybrushed with 863 Gunmetal Grey.

Rubber is Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber

Finally a dusting of AK Pigments AK-041 North Africa Dust.

Ready to take a beating J

Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79 in 1/72 from Airfix

I picked up this old Airfix set, Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79 Mk II, a while ago at Hobbybokhandeln. Another ‘target’ for the LRDG, so it’s supposed to stand still on a desert airfield. No crews on board and a minimum of extra fluff - I skipped the optional armament and the torpedoes.

It’s an easy build, even though some of the pieces don’t fit that well. Some green stuff and sanding was needed here and there to cover the worst gaps.

Anyway, I wasn’t interested in a museum piece, as it is supposed to become wreathed in flames during the scenario we plan to do.

Paints used (as usual Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Interior: 906 Pale Blue

Sand colour: ArmyPainter spray Desert Yellow

Underside: 989 Sky Grey

Brown Camo: 984 Flat Brown

Propeller hub: Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red

Propeller blades and wheels: black

Exhausts: Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust

I painted all areas to have decals with gloss varnish, and then I used Vallejo Decal Medium on all decals when I placed them on the model. When dry I painted on Vallejo Decal Fix.

Everything was then coated with matte varnish.

It fits exactly into my Ikea drawers. If only a couple of millimeters higher, and I would have had to re-position the cental propeller.

Ready to be shot to pieces.

CV-33 in 20mm by Frontline and a give-away at Wargaming Girl

A break in my French adventures - I’ve really had it with camo for a while. This time a suitable target for LRDG, an Italian CV-33 tankette.

I tried to weather it to look like a really run down piece of scrap metal.

The model is a resin 3-piece thing from Frontline Wargaming. Descent detailing, but a couple of bubbles here and there, so it needed some green-stuff.

Paints used

Overall Vallejo 916 Sand Yellow

Rubber rims on the wheels Vallejo Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber

Washed with Army Painter Quickshade Soft Tone ink and drybrushed Citadel Chainmail

Tracks Citadel Chainmail with a wash of AK enamel Track Wash (a new product I tried for the first time – I’m satisfied with the result, and will continue experimenting with it)

Applied some Vallejo Pigment 73108 Brown Iron Oxide and a generous dusting with AK Pigments AK-041 North Africa Dust.

Such a tiny little thing, here in front of a Panzer II

Soon some fantasy figures.

Wargaming Girl is a really nice site by one of the relatively few active females in the hobby. A very active painter, with mainly Ancients, ACW, 30YW and SF in 15 to 28mm.

Anyway, she has just reached 100 000 hits, and is celebrating big time with a give-away every day for five days.

Day one was a box of Warlord 28mm WWII British infantry

Day two saw two gift vouchers, one from Baccus the other from Ground Zero Games.

Day three: More Warlord plastics, this time a box of Pike & Shotte Royalist Infantry.

Day four – eight 28mm fantasy figures from Reapers’ Bones series.

Day five – today – we see another box from Warlord – Spartans this time.

I’m interested in the Reaper figures, and maybe the Spartans, hopefully I’m lucky. I really need a bigger plastics mountain…

So, go over to Wargaming Girl and check out the giveaway! There is still time to participate in all five competitions. And while you’re there, check out the rest of the site also. Well worth the time!

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.

More Italian air-field personnel

After finding a decent colour scheme for my Italian airfield personnel I completed most of the rest of my Airfix Luftwaffe figures.

Here we see them giving love and tender caring to the only Italian aeroplane finished. More to come, hopefully.

So, that was the Italian ground crew. Just a bomber and two more vehicles on my LRDG air-field attack to-do list.

Italian airfield personnel

The LRDG-attack on an Italian airfield does need targets. Aeroplanes are a given, also barracks, guard posts, guns, fuel dumps and vehicles. But what is an airfield without airfield personnel? Obviously not much, so personnel we had to find.

We're doing stuff!

I didn’t find any obvious models for this. But a box of Airfix WWII Luftwaffe Personnel had to do as ersatz Italians. Who’s to complain, there is no Osprey on these guys, as far as I know.

You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen...

This is the initial trial run, with a mix of figures and the pilots. The results are good enough, so I’ll paint the rest of the figs in the same way.

I do not approve!

Colours used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted):

Personnel

Uniform: 847 Dark Sand

Shoes, belts: Humbrol 62 Leather

Equipment: 977 Desert Yellow

Skin: 955 Flat Flesh

Hair: 872 Chocolat Brown

Everything washed with Army Painter Quickshade Ink Soft Tone, and boots washed with Citadel Devlan Mud (RIP)

Pilots

Uniform: 874 Tan Earth

Skin: 955 Flat Flesh

Washed with Citadel Devlan Mud (RIP)

Macchi c.202 “Folgore” in 1/72 from Matchbox

The next project for the gaming group is a participation game with a LRDG attack on an Italian airfield, as I have mentioned before.

I’ve made a couple of LRDG vehicles, and had a couple of more on my to-do list, together with a two Italian planes, ground-crew and assorted buildings.

It was with some hesitation I started with the first of the planes, a vintage kit I picked up at Hobbybokhandeln (a good place to find both good books and the odd models). I haven’t built an airplane since… well probably 35 years ago…

Anyway, this is an easy kit to put together, the only thing that gave me problems was the canopy. The piece didn't fit, and I had to fill in the gap with green stuff. Extra irritating as I had at that time already finished painting everything. Stupid, I should know enough to dry-fit everything…

Paints used (as usual Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Interior: 906 Pale Blue

Sand colour: ArmyPainter spray Desert Yellow

Underside: 989 Sky Grey

Green Camo: 823 Luftwaffe Camouflage Green

Propeller hub and band on body: 883 Silver Grey

Propeller blades and wheels: black

Propeller tips: Citadel Golden Yellow

Exhausts: Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust

I painted all areas to have decals with gloss varnish, and then I used Vallejo Decal Medium under and on all decals when I placed them on the model. When dry I painted Vallejo Decal Fix on all decals.

Everything was then coated with matte varnish.

Soot was simulated with MIG Black Smoke pigment, and the whole aeroplane was given a light dusting of AK North Africa Dust pigment and Vallejo Dark and Light Yellow Ochre pigments.

I don’t have to be embarrassed to place this on the landing strip during the games this autumn. It wasn’t so bad to build and paint a plane actually, I’m rather looking forward to the Airfix Savoia Marchetti S.M. 79 Mk II kit.  

Italian attack-bike

The LRDG needs some sort of opposition when they’ll attack airfields later this year. When I saw this 20mm model, “20/123 Motortricycle with troops”, from Skytrex, I knew I had worthy opponents.

Compare this tricycle with what the Space Marines drive around with in 40K... Those guys got power armour, and big-ass guns.

These guys got an unarmoured tricycle with a crummy machine gun. They do have steel helmets, and they must have balls of steel. After painting this and thinking about the guts you need to stand there shooting, not to mention sitting idly by and wait to load the MG (if you're in luck...), well, I will not make any more jokes about the Italian Army. At least not today…

I painted this in the same way I paint my 6mm Italians. It looks okay in the flesh, but a bit crude in close-up. Anyway, it will be nice to have in place when we start playing.

All paints Vallejo unless stated otherwise.

Crew

Uniform – 847 Dark Sand, wash of Citadel Devlan Mud and a wet drybrush of Dark Sand over it.

Bags – 819 iraqui Sand

Water bottle – 836 London Grey

Skin – 955 Flat Flesh

Metal – Citadel Chainmail

Shoes, belt – Humbro 62 Leather

Tricycle

916 Sand Yellow, Citadel Devlan Mud, drybrush with 976 Buff

Tyres 862 Black Grey

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…