I've been trying to focus on finishing up my Italian forces for World War Two. I was wanting to work on some forces to fight in the desert of North Africa, partly because I just bought myself a desert matt. Also I wanted some targets for the Rat Patrol to shoot up and to give myself some motivation to finish up my SAS/LRDG forces...
While trying to find a place to order my matts from, I discovered one of the places I was considering had a number of Bolt Action minis and vehicles that were about half the suggested retail prices - including a number of Italians.
I picked up this Italian X Arditi Section as the description suggested they were "tasked with competing against the British LRDG and SAS units in the Western Desert!" Though it seems they didn't really do much in North Africa...?
Initially I'd started painting these in the same Desert Yellow I've been painting all the other Italians in... and wasn't loving the look of them and could find NO reference pics suggesting they ever wore such a uniform, and then completely repainted them in the green grey of the standard Italian uniforms...
Italian X Arditi Section
(I had the new desert matt out so I took the picture on that.. probably should have dug out the grasslands matt... or took it on the bare table!?)
These probably won't be fielded with the rest of the Italians in North Africa. I might use them for smaller skirmishes in Sicily and mainland Italy using Five Men at Kursk, or something similar...?
I suppose I COULD use them in North Africa. There is plenty of evidence of Italians wearing the not-so-tropical uniforms in North Africa. It could make sense if they were a raiding party operating at night - just like the SAS and LRDG - if we want to pretend they actually did carry out similar operations...?
I have another 20+ Italians that ARE for North Africa nearly finished and will probably be posting them in the next day or so, along with the last of the Afrika Korps troops that I have...
Still have a game report from the FiveCore Pulp Adventure game I play a WEEK AGO to finish up... so stay tuned for that!
Also, I have a LOT more Italians and Germans I'm very close to completing! Expect those in the next day or so!
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Great looking squad!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal!
DeleteI am enjoying your foray into Bolt Action. Years ago l had 20mm Italian and Britains with camel corps, Italian Colonial troops, tankettes and other exotica. I used Rapid fire then. Sadly l sold them so long ago. I am following your Italians with interest and trying to resist…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Hey, nice work!
ReplyDeleteYou are right in that the X Arditi didn't accomplish much in North Africa - as far as Special Forces programs go, these guys were in a pit. Their vehicular branch deployed with too few vehicles to actually operate as intended, their paratrooper branch misdropped, got lost, blew up basically nothing of relevance, and didn't even have the rescue sub show up as planned so they all just got captured. The frogmen seemed to actually do pretty good, though, hiding in a wreck for ages and doing sabotage and manned torpedoes as I remember.
Uniform wise, I believe they wore the same jumpsuits as the paratroopers even in North Africa (though I believe the paras did drop with the jungle uniform and changed their clothes at some point). That said, the Italian army was poorly equipped and lots of guys in the infantry deployed to Africa in their wool green uniforms (which I'd imagine they'd promptly change into their grey fatigues if available).
Speaking of, which green did you use for your uniforms? I did mine mostly in Vallejo Olive Green (up on my blog if you're interested), which seems to actually be darker than the real "green grey", but was guided by a FoW painting guide and an offhand note in Warlord's Italian one as well.
Thanks!!
DeleteI'm sorry, I have no idea what green I used. It could very well have been Vallejo Olive Green. Despite constantly thinking I SHOULD WRITE THESE THINGS DOWN... so I don't have to paint and repaint new things to find the right colour I was using... I never seem to actually remember to do it when I'm working on things...
I will definitely check out your blog!
Tim, no big deal - I've actually made a point of writing things down these last few years for exactly that reason. My Warlord Italian paint guide is a mess of notes, and the underside of a few of my originals had pips to break them into different iterations where I was experimenting with different techniques (this was overkill). These days I also try working them into my debut posts, so others can follow along and I don't have to go digging about in my notes for more info. Eventually I'll publish some sort of concise guide, like I'm working on for my British.
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