Hi All,
My latest entry is from the Warlord Games Cruel Seas stable and represents the Regia Marina / Italian fleet. It's composed of the boxed starter set plus an additional F-Lighter and a blister of MT Marchino Explosive Motorboats.
Having spent quite a lot of time of late painting a seemingly innumerable number of shades of brown on my 15mm barbarians, I thought I would change things up by painting a seemingly innumerable number of shades of grey. What fun! Not. You'll notice I hand-painted all the distinctive "candy stripe" markings, or as I like to call them "vino and fetta" markings. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Anyway, here's some pics of the fleet all table ready... Those who believe in one or both of the tropes that a) Italians were generally useless in WWII and b) newly painted forces always get out sound thrashing on first game will be pleased to know the latter is true at least.
Gabbiano-class Corvette
Fiddly to assemble and paint, with crap armament and a flimsy mast the Gabbiano-class Corvette is the [ahem] "pride" of the fleet. Or perhaps more accurately an early example of a Mediterranean playboy's luxury yacht.
Marinefahrprahm F-Lighters
Slicker, cheaper points-wise, better armed than a Gabbiano-class Corvette and pretty much torpedo-proof with due to the shallow draft, the F-Lighter is a better choice in every respect.
MZ Motozattera
MAS Boats
Fiat CR32
MT Marchino Explosive Motorboats and Torpedoes
The dazzle is crisp and the splashes of colour are perfectly delightful! *stereotypical Italian perfecto gesture!*
ReplyDeleteExcellent work Millsy. Glad to see another Challenger working on the Regina Marina, a worthy opponent historically. Great looking barber shop stripes, but I might adopt the vino and feta monicker
ReplyDeleteBeatiful Italian ships, very stylish (...Italian after all)
ReplyDeleteCracking stuff, nice candy strip markings and my favourite is the ship that looks like an extended canal boat!
ReplyDeleteGreat work. I loved painting those stripes last year, makes the italians really stand out
ReplyDeleteFine work here once again Millsy!
ReplyDeleteMillsy - one administrative note - I'm trying to figure out the scoring on this...so there may be a delay.
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg. As I noted at the bottom I based my total on a previous entry using the same scale as Miles used for the same fleet.
DeleteLovely work Millsy, they may be heading to the bottom of the Adriatic or Mediterranean, but they will look very pretty on the way down.
ReplyDeleteLovely looking Italian fleet! I like your exploding ships!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Exploding ships? Wouldn't it be better if the enemy ships were exploding? Lovely looking fleet, the hand painted stripes and dazzle camouflage came out very well.
ReplyDeleteThe Mediterranean is safe in Italian hands
ReplyDeleteRegards KenR
Excellent
ReplyDeleteGorgeous work! Always nice to arrive late to a blog... innit just tho. Hand-painted?! Eek! I did mine with tape and it was still an absolute pig. :( I'm super-glad to see someone else using a very deep bluish grey instead of flat cinder grey for Italian camo. Maybe soon mine'll be finished, but there was no way i was going to send out just a Gabbiano to cover a convoy - that's why I had to scratch up a 'Ciclone' and 'Spica'-class torpedinieri (escort destroyers; far to big to call them torpedo 'boats'); serious heavy armament to match an F-lighter, plus they'll soak up a torpedo without batting an eyelid and they go like stink. I reckon three four-inch plus a fistful of 20mm at 30kts will give those pesky MTBs something to think hard about...
ReplyDeleteI hope you did win a few skirmishes with these though - too beautiful to lose every time.