From BruceR, WW2 Italians why not? 28mm Empress (50 pts)

I finished what I had for my BEF and looked around and found some desert Italians. I have a rather large set of DAK and Free French. The French have a number of indigenous troops and I figured I would expand into Italians. 

These are Empress miniatures and are likely actually for the interwar years. I’ll likely use them to battle my French.  Hard to resist the pith style helmet. The Empress figures are excellent, some flash on faces, which can be hard to deal with and not maim the figure in the process.  Basic riflemen and an NCO in a hand signal pose.  Some have googles with one rifleman trying to kneel and fire while wearing them .

Pretty basic paint work.  Uniform, helmet,webbing, rifle, and boots. Washed, highlighted and based  

The group

The loaders machine gunner is in the next batch. 

NCO giving hand signals to the section. 

Fun figures to paint and play with.   I hope to have a few more different models done and the other 10 of these Italians  

Points. 

10 28mm @ 5. =  50 points. 

Race to the finish. 

Bruce

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Nice 'eye-ties' Bruce. I quite like the colonial/early war Italians too. Classy chaps with a refined palette and appreciation of fine art. Not like those brutish black shirted chaps who are best kept at arms length.

You've done a great job on these lovely sculpts despite the limited colours (yet not complained about it like some we know eh Millsy?) - simple or not its very effective.  Best of luck squeaking a few more before the Challenge closes!

- Paul

From Millsy: Western Desert Italian Infantry & Weapons Teams (155 points)

G'day All,

I didn't think I'd get any of the Italian infantry finished before the end of the Challenge but it turns out there was less work to do than I thought. These stalled at the base coat(ish) stage but when I picked them up again they progressed quicker than expected. I think I was more fatigued by the detail than anything when I left them off. There's another 35 infantry to finish but this is a good start...

HQ + Blackshirt Squad (70 points)

This represents a couple of officers and offsiders, plus a ten-man squad of Blackshirt (aka fanatic) infantry squad. It's unlikely they wore their funky nightcaps into combat but I wanted a few in there for character and so I can distinguish individual squads on the table.

Weapons Teams (85 points)

The Bolt Action Italian starter army from Warlord Games contains a good selection of weapons teams but it's not all possible options and the missing elements are available in other packs e.g. sniper team. If you are careful though, you can find what you want in the starter army (like a prone rifleman pinched from the mortar team of all places) and make your own teams to fill the gap. It also means you can mix more types of headgear in by replacing some metal weapons team crew with plastics from the infantry sprue.

There's still plenty of infantry left but they will have to be completed ex-Challenge unfortunately. Still, I've managed to knock off a full Aussie 1000 point army, plus about 600 points of Italians amongst everything else time round so I'm pretty pleased with the progress.

Cheers,

Millsy

Succeeding in painting 600 points worth of Italian on top of everything else is quite an achievement, Millsy, especially when they are painted so well as these. I really like the Blackshirts in their "nightcaps", but I am equally impressed with your creativity in assembling your weapons teams. Also, I think your bases look very good indeed. All in all a great addition to your force. Having left this poor minion to find out the exact composition of the entry for himself, I do think your calculations are right so another 155 points for you. Well done!

Martijn

From Millsy: Bolt Action Italian vehicles for the Western Desert (125 points)

G'day All,

Having knocked off my Aussies for the Western Desert I have started work on the Italian opposition. I decided to mix things up this time and paint all the vehicles first and really enjoyed working on these, especially the weathering and battle damage.

M13/40 Tank(ette) x 2 (40 points)

Technically classed as a medium tank these mobile pie tins were loaded with MGs and most effective against infantry and soft skins. These are both the Warlord Games plastic kit (licensed from Italeri), one for me and one for a mate.

AB41 x 3 (60 points)

One of my favourite WWII vehicles is the ABx range of Italian armoured cars. There's just something about the lines and the huge sand tires that really appeals to me. I've got one each of the twin MGs and 20mm autocannon by accident. Perry Miniatures mistakenly sent me the wrong one twice(!) so I ended up converting the turret on one of them to the autocannon rather than ask for yet another one. Green stuff to fill the holes intended for the MGs, plus wire and paper to craft the gun does a pretty convincing job I think. These are Blitzkrieg Miniatures models, all in resin and with a nice weight to them.

The third version one is the Warlord Games version painted for a mate. It's quite different from the Blitzkrieg Miniatures version and appears to be closer to the real thing, especially the wheels.

One of these ACs is not like the others...

Fiat AS 37 Sahariano Truck/Transport x 1 (25 points)

This will be a transport vehicle for my engineer section once painted. It's also Blitzkrieg Miniatures via Perry Miniatures and a nice looking vehicle overall, although the cab assembly needed a lot of work to make it fit and still has plenty of flaws which I am treating as battle damage. The cab is resin and paper thin in places which caused a few hairy moments when cutting to fit. It had to be painted separately and glued on at the end so I could reach the driver but the alternative was painting him through the windows and that was never going to work.

Next up all the infantry and support weapons. Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Millsy

 

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Fantastic work on all of these Millsy, what a treat to start the day here in North America. You have really nailed the colours and the weathering on all of these vehicles. I can feel the heat of the North Afrcian sun radiating from the hulls and engine blocks, and imagine the sand and wind wearing the paint and primer right down to the metal. Also some fine conversion work after the retail fiasco with the Perrys - I never would have noticed the difference unless you had mentioned it. 

 

Look forward to the poor foot sloggers to follow - great job!

From FrederickC - "Avanti Italia!" - Italian Army in North Africa (515 points)

 This week's submission is a force of the Regio Esercito or Royal Italian Army in North Africa consisting of a mix of Perry and Warlord Games miniatures, tanks and assault guns from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, an armoured car from Tamiya, and five 'toy soldier' trucks. While the North African campaign has always interested me, I didn't think I could justify painting up more Germans and Brits since I already had a sizeable force of each of those for Northwest Europe. Then fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscript, Dallas E, painted up some DAK and 8th Army, which was the tipping point. However, not wanting to just duplicate armies he had, I opted for Italians. I now have a force of a 43 man platoon of four sections and a platoon headquarters, a company headquarters, two machine gun teams, two mortar teams, an anti-tank gun, two tanks, two assault guns, an armoured car, and five trucks.

First up are the tanks and armoured cars. The armoured car is a 1/48 scale Tamiya kit, and the rest are from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. The M13/40 is a resin casting, while the rest of the tracked vehicles are 3D prints. The latter are much crisper in terms of the detail compared to the resin casting, but they had a lot of supports to clean away, especially around the road wheels. After all the vehicles had been assembled, they were primed with Army Painter Desert Yellow from a rattle can. They were then painted with various sand coloured acrylics and given a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia. Tracks were painted using Vallejo German Camo Black Brown, followed by a dry brush of Gun Metal. Finally everything got liberal washes of Vallejo Wash FX Desert Dust.

 

 

Built on the chassis developed for the L6/40, the Semovente 47/32 was an easy-to-produce tank hunter built as a stopgap measure to combat enemy armour. Mounting the excellent Elefantino anti-tank gun in an open-topped chassis gave the Italian forces some much-needed mobility in their anti-tank assets. The tank hunter initially fared well in the western desert, but lack of an armoured crew compartment became a glaring drawback in the system's design.

 

After witnessing the success of the German StuG in Europe, the Italians decided a tank of comparable design was needed. By 1942, the Semovente 75/18 was fighting for the Italians in North Africa, where it would distinguish itself as one of the nation's best tank designs. The 75/18 had a relatively modern gun, thicker armour than any of the M-series tanks, and it proved quite successful in service, capable of destroying all but the heaviest Allied armoured vehicles.

 

Italy's AB41 was the most-produced armoured car of the Italian armed forces. The Autoblindo 41 was produced by Fiat-Ansldo and saw service in several theatres, most notably in Africa. It was armed with a 20 mm Breda 35 autocannon and a coaxial 8 mm machine gun in a turret similar to the one fitted to the Fiat L6/40, and another hull mounted rear-facing 8 mm machine gun. It also featured two driving positions, allowing the vehicle to travel effectively in either direction.

 

The Carro Armato M13/40 was designed to replace the M11/39 in the Royal Italian Army at the start of the Second World War. It was the primary tank used by the Italians it their armoured divisions. The design was influenced by the British Vickers 6-Ton and was based on the modified chassis of the earlier M11/39. Its 47mm gun was superior to the British 2-pdr, but easily outmatched with the introduction of heavier tank guns such as the 6-pdr and US 75mm.

 

The L6/40 was a light tank used by the Italian army from 1940 through the Second World War. It was designed by Ansaldo as an export product, and was adopted by the Italian Army when officials learned of the design and expressed interest. It was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. L6/40s were also used in the North African campaign. Its main armament was the 20 mm Breda 35 autocannon.

 

Next up are five trucks to transport my troops through the desert. These were part of a joint purchase with Dallas E, who found a source of these 'cheap' plastic trucks on line. In the end, they didn't turn out to be as cheap as expected/hoped. I have since found a source for them at Walmart. They are generic 'army trucks' that have a bit of a 'Chevrolet 30cwt' vibe to them. I didn't paint any national markings on them as I thought they could be used for either side in North Africa. They were painted with the same method I used for the armoured vehicles.

Finally we come to the troops. These are primarily Perry Miniatures Italians with sun helmets, plus a Italian Support Group boxed set consisting of a headquarters, machine gun team, and mortar team from Warlord Games. When I ordered the Perry Miniatures I was having some trouble with their website when I wanted to order multiples of the same figure pack. It kept increasing the number of packs of the previous choice. I thought I have corrected everything, but when the shipment arrived, instead of three packs of riflemen and one command pack, I got the reverse. (D'0h!). In addition, the Warlords support group all had steel helmets on, and I wanted all my troops in sun helmets. Dallas E had some left over helmets from his Perry DAK figures, and I had extra arms, pouches, and rifles left over from my Warlord Soviets and Blitzkrieg Germans. A bit of slicing, dicing, and gluing converted extra officers and NCOs to riflemen, and all but three officers to sun helmets. For painting I followed Sonic Sledgehammer's method for desert Italians, with some variation here and there on the order of painting, and the choice of colours. I used a lot of Citadel Seraphim Sepia wash on this project.

Warlord HQ group of two officers, a medic and a radioman

Support Weapons

Perry 47/32 Elefantino anti-tank gun

Perry and Warlords Breda 5C 6.5mm medium machine guns

Perry and Warlords 81/14 Model 35 medium mortars

 Last up is a 43 man platoon consisting of a 3-man headquarters, and four 10-man sections each with a section commander equipped with a Beretta 9mm submachine gun, a two-man team with a Breda 30 6.5mm light machine gun, and seven riflemen with either a Carcano M1891/28 or Carcano M1938 carbine. Some of the riflemen that were converted from officer figures are carrying either Moisin-Nagant carbines or Mauser rifles that were left over from my boxes of Warlord Games Soviet Winter Infantry or German Blitzkrieg Infantry. (See if you can pick out all the conversions in the rifle sections.)

Italian infantry platoon of four sections and a headquarters

Platoon HQ. The man on the right originally had a Beretta SMG

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

No. 4 Section

The points being claimed are as follows

 

57 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 285 points

 

10 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 200 points

 

3 x 28mm artillery pieces @ 10 points each = 30 points

 

Sylvain: Another point bomb this week. You just throw them at us and we love them! Again, your description is A+, as well as your miniatures. The army you are presenting this week is so neat and includes all the important equipment for that theater. Another great achievement for you!

From BruceR; Italian heavy weapons to the front; Challenge Studios Casting Couch (95 pts)

As can happen I missed last week due to life and work.  Maybe retire?  The War Department doesn't know what I would do, I say bid 3000 pts in the AHPC of course.  Boom, problem solved.  And spend more time with the CSM.  

Gratuitous Mutt photo (CSM Loki)

Or more time on the ranch with son and mutts.

Well, this week I'm still running around the Challenge Studio looking for the ultimate challenge.  So, I saunter down the boulevard and before me is the casting couch.  Am I the only one, who at my age, still sees miniatures and will buy them with absolutely no idea what I will use them for?  Here is my submission for the Casting Couch studio.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Zulu, so when I'm looking at the Trenchworx table at ACon last year this figure from Victoria Miniatures along with my previous Grog Ard-Nogg submission is space Michael Cain waiting to be cast in some bug hunt movie of the future.  Without the challenge he would probably sit on the shelf of opportunity, but here he is, hope he doesn't flub his lines.  

Again, used some contrast and standard paints.  He is armed with his laspistol and close in saber.  Ready to stem the tide of bugs "Ol' Boy".

Packaging eye candy to entice.  Worked on me.

White background attempt

Black

Back on the grind and after two squads of foot sloggers for the frozen east I pulled out some "heavy weapons" at least in Italian eyes.  Again, Great Escape Games figures regular Eastern Front Italians.  I noted from some recent research my green winter caps were likely grey/green like the rest of the uniform, but the same color would make Mairo a dull boy.  So, this Platoon must have gotten into some Soviet style clothing from a previous raid and one thing the Soviets know is how to dress for success in winter.  

Italian Heavy Weapons, mama mia it's all we got:

Machine gun team:

Luigi, T34/76 heading for trench!  Bring up the AT rifle!!!!

Artillery away, give em the pasta.   

Mortar team:

If they gain the trench melt the snow with your trusty Mario melter.

Flame Thrower team:

Action table shot.

Points:

Casting Couch                                                                    20 pts

Captain Cain                                                                         5 pts

10 28mm Italians                                                                50 pts

Weapons (chart says crew served 10pts) 3 crew served     30 pts?

I'll let Miles decide.  Hmm what to play this weekend?

RAVENFEAST?  

                                                                                             105 pts

Minion MilesR: Well what have we hear - a wonderful dog picture PLUS a gratuitous mention of Ravensfeast in an attempt to curry the favor of a minion.  Well Sir, I must sadly inform you that I am exactly the kind of minion who is swayed by such vulgar inducements.  Might I also suggest you consider some of the other Little Wars TV rules like Age of Hannibal, Altar of Freedom or even Live Free or Die.....Yet your weapons are on the smaller side (as opposed to big guns which were the original intention of the scoring matrix) so I'll need to discount those and give you half credit for 15 points.  The dog picture gets you 5 bonus point so lets go with a cool 95 points