Book review: Italian Army Elite Units & Special Forces 1940-43

Italian Army Elite Units & Special Forces 1940-43

Osprey Elite 99, 2011, Piero Crociani and Pier Paolo Battistelli, illustrations by Johnny Shumate, 64 pages.

This book is supposed to cover a lot, and the result is that it doesn’t cover much at all. There are chapters on armoured and motorized divisions, paratroopers, combat engineers, mountain troops, X Reggimento Arditi, foreign volunteers, blackshirt special units and a short segment on uniforms and personal equipment.

A lot of different units, and when I was finished reading the book I felt that I haven’t learned much at all. Describing so many units in one volume means that the coverage is rather shallow, unfortunately. No, I’m disappointed, and will only give this book a rating of 2 of 5. 

28mm Mummies from Otherworld

Two mummies from Otherworld. Really nice models, but unfortunately I’m not satisfied with how they turned out.

Colours used: Skin: Vallejo 862 Black Grey with a wash of Citadel Badab Black, cloth: Humborl 103 Cream on one, and 837 Pale Sand on the other. The usual coat of Army Painter Strong Coat and Vallejo Matte Varnish.

The skin don’t look all that great. I have seen ‘live’ mummies, in the flesh… or whatever. And they had very dark, almost black, skin, but it didn’t turn out well. Have to think about this until next time.

Book Review – Long Range Desert Group Patrolman

Long Range Desert Group Patrolman – The Western Desert 1940-43, Osprey Warrior no 148, Tim Moreman with illustrations by Raffaele Ruggeri.

I continue to read up on British special forces in general, and LRDG specifically. A book I’ve had a couple of years, and I reread it for the coming project.

So, it’s an Osprey, and it gives what it promises, a short (64 pages) and rather informative description of the unit, its roles, men, equipment, life in the field and descriptions on road watches and the raid on Barse.

The Barse raid was a large attack behind enemy lines on an Italian-held airfield and town in northern Cyrenaica. We plan to make a game of something similar, so this was of course interesting. Rather in-depth, 7 pages, about the raid.

Informative pictures, mainly of the cars and crews, and some not so interesting colour prints.

The usefulness of this book? It is a good primer for LRDG, just like an Osprey is intended to be. I rate it a 3 out of 5.

28mm Cultists from Artizan Designs

These evil cultists are from Artizan Designs, and their Thrilling Tales Range, Number PLP555. First time I painted any of their figs, and I like them. I will use them for my upcoming 7TV games.

Paints used: Robes: Citadel Scab Red, yellow circles on robes: based with Citadel Foundation Iyander Darksun and then two layers of Citadel Golden yellow, shoes: Vallejo 940 Saddle Brown. Trousers: 836 London Grey (the boss), 991 Dark Sea grey (sub machine gun) and 988 Khaki (revolver).

The usual coat of Army Painter Strong Coat and Vallejo Matte Varnish.

28mm wights from Otherworld

Two excellent wights from my favourite company, Otherworld. Otherworld produces all those AD&D classic monsters, and they are just fantastic.

I bought a bunch of Otherworld’s figures in November, and now the first are painted.

Colours used:

Skin: Vallejo 884 Stone Grey. Hair: Vallejo 988 khaki, nails: 991 Dark Sea Grey, Cloaks inside: 940 Saddle Brown, Cloak outside (pointing wight) 986 Deck Tan, the other:984 Pale Sand with a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud, loincloth (pointer): Formula P3 Traitor Green, the other: 873 US Field Drab.

The usual coat of Army Painter Strong Coat and Vallejo Matte Varnish.

Really satisfied with these, wouldn’t like to meet them in a dark alley.

Book review – The SAS in World War II

The SAS in World War II – An illustrated history by Gavin Mortimer, published by Osprey in 2011, is a 250 page hardcover book.

As we’re planning to stage a LRDG-attack on an Italian airfield as our convention game this year I’m reading up on British Special Forces.

The book gives a in depth history of the SAS; how they formed and detailed descriptions about the action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and North-West Europe. I found the very interesting and well written. Of special interest for me was description of the battles the SAS was involved in, and as these are very detailed there is a lot of wargaming potential here. Some of the jeep-borne action in NW Europe does really lend itself to gaming.

Other information is just very interesting, for example the way the men trained for parachuting in the early day. No plane? No problem, just jump from the back of a speeding truck. The downside was rather obvious, broken wrists etc.

Some is just reminds you how awful real war is, for example the description of the men led into the woods to be executed as saboteurs – a couple of them made a run for it, and a few survived.

The photos are first-rate, and are very informative if you’re to model one of their jeeps for example.

All in all a beautiful book and a good read. I give it a rating of 4.

Movie review – Tali Ihantala 1944

The Winter War and Continuation War are conflicts that interests me, and the gaming group play Winter War with IABSM.

There are quite a few interesting Finnish movies about these conflicts worthy of more widespread knowledge. They are often far more dark than the Hollywood war movies, something they have common with German films.

I have a few Finnish movies I’d like to share, and reviewing them gives me a good reason to see them again.

Tali Inhantala 1944 (from 2007) is a about one of the final battles to stop the Soviet advance into Finland, the battles to ensure that Finland was able to negotiate a peace that still had Finland as an independent state. This battle is the largest ever fought in the Nordic countries. 

The movie is based on real people and what happened to them. There are five stories going on, about several people, and that makes this film special.

I first saw this movie with my ‘video gang’, a couple of friends having seen ‘videos’ together a couple of times each year for ages. We usually blend movies, pizzas, beer, wine, GT, snacks and discussions into a rather enjoyable evening. We usually see a zombie movie and something else, and in this case the something else was Tali Ihantala. Two of us being something of WWII-nerds we commented gear, tanks, airplanes etc, and we had a rather good time, but after the movie our feeling was: “What was the movie all about?”.  And that is this movie’s problem, there are several parallel stories going on, and you have to concentrate on them. So it is not a beer and pretzel kind of movie.

I saw it again the other day, and it was a completely different experience. If you concentrate on the movie it is much more enjoyable, and will give you a feel of the war. You follow ordinary people, and as it is based on what really happened you never know who will survive, and who will not.

This is not a pretty movie, it is very realistic in places and if you’re interested in these conflicts there is a lot to look at. We will, among other things, see the Finnish Stug IIIG:s in action (see my book review on the Lagus assault guns. This was a treat as you will recognize a lot of the action and people from that book), a lot of small arms and uniforms, Soviet armour (and Finnish too, mostly the same as the Finns used a lot of scrounged soviet gear), German Focke-Wulfs, artillery pieces etc.

Also an interesting ‘Making of…’ as extra material.

All in all, a good movie that demands a bit more of the viewer. I give it a rating of 4.