Wednesday 16 May 2012

WW2 Italians WIP Pt. 2

Some more work in progress for my growing WW2 Italian forces. First up is the beginning steps in creating a 20mm Solothurn anti tank rifle stand. Each Italian infantry battalion has one of these stands. My plan is to replace the LMG on the prone LMG gunner from the Esci Alpini set with the anti tank rifle I have created by cutting down a suitable 1/35 scale weapon into a passable match for the Solothurn S-18/100.

Donor gun was a L7 GPMG.

To fit the weapons I had to use larger stands. I try to only do this for support weapons.
I then undercoated it, and some metal 45mm mortar stands with black spray paint. the next step in the Italian upgrade was to start touching up the paint jobs of the ones I  already have painted and then apply a wash of Devlan Mud.




The one on the left has been washed, the one on the right is unwashed...

Rear view of same stands. The wash really improves the paint job.
The painted 75mm AA gun.  I am not entirely happy with the colour.

i am till working on a gun crew stand. According to the TOE, it should be a double sized stand.

The MMG stand. crew are an Airfix Italian and an Atlantic generic gun crew figure.

The view from the other side. I mixed the uniform colour, but am now going to use Vallejo 888 Olive Grey for the rest of the Italians.

When I went to purchase the olive grey paint, I discovered that one of the local hobby stores was having a sale, and had model Italian equipment in stock.  So I was able to expand my Italian forces by adding some armour, and a SPG 90mm AA gun. Finding kits you want on the shelf is hard enough in NZ. Finding said kits on the shelf, and on sale is pretty amazing!

A good match for the diecast M13/40 from the 'Combat tanks Collection'
 I got a box of Italeri fast assembly M13/40 tanks (with two tanks in the box), a similar Italeri set except it contained two Semovente M40 75mm SPGs, and an Italeri fast build kit of a lorry mounted 90mm AA gun.
All went together very nicely and have increased the numbers of my Italians quite nicely!

Tanks and 75mm SPGs. I must get them ready to field against Mr K.

Autocannone 3 RO with 90/53 90mm AA gun. Very nice. I'm sure Mr K.'s Sherman's will love it!

So some more painting new stands, washing existing stands, and scratchbuilding some support stands should get the infantry component out of the way. I also want paint up a small force of Italians for the desert, and a small force up for the Eastern Front.



11 comments:

  1. The wash is an improvement indeed. Very nice painted figures. The autocannone is very nice indeed. I've painted one myself (as can be seen on my blog).

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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    1. I just went and had a look - very nice! I hope my one turns out half as good!

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  2. Replies
    1. Currently I am using the Games Workshop Devlan Mud as my brown wash of choice (as I did here), and their Badab Black as my black. They are much better than their previous washes, but I don't now if they have been continued into their new range of paints.

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  3. Nice finds and I agree, the washes really improve the overall look.

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    1. I will start doing this with other figures that I have acquired pre-painted, as a wash is easier than a repaint.

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  4. Very nice, I'm also doing an Italian Ww2 force in 20mm for CD, I thought I was the only person who was buying italian packets from Acorn models :)

    Cheers
    Paul

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    1. Largely I had given up on getting stuff from Acorn, as it never seems to have anything I want, whereas Stan is a much more reliable source of gear.

      As for the Italians in CD, it's nice to know that someone else is making up a force too - and in Christchurch too!

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  5. sounds like a cool development! best of luck with those guns

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  6. The wash definitely gives the figures more depth. Looking good!

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