MOAR Italian Tanks!?

Part of the latest flurry of orders.. I did not expect these to arrive until April (because the seller's estimated arrival date was 25 March - 15 April!? 

Two more Italian tank kits... 

I haven't even finished assembling the FIRST ONE!? 

(I like painting tracks before adding the track guard because it's easier to paint the track before rather than after...) 

Ah, well... now maybe I can build and paint them together as a batch? Or perhaps I'll finish the first one and see how it compares to the one I have and then decide what to do with the other two!? 

Of course, now I have to actually make some decisions about WHICH TYPE of tank to build them all as... 

The kit can be built as an M13/40 tank, M14/41 tank, M40 Semovente, or M41 Semovente. I already have one medium Italian tank, which I THOUGHT was an M13/40 (I'm pretty sure that's what it was sold as!) but turns out it's probably an M14/41 (the most obvious visual difference is apparently the full track guard! internally it has a more powerful engine and ISN'T a slow tank in Bolt Action!) 

I'd originally bought just one of these kits and thought I'd build it as one of the Semovente - just incase the model was a slightly different size, I figured the difference would be less obvious if it were completely different types of vehicle. Also, I'm not sure I was even considering Bolt Action (Third Edition) at the time, so whether playing an earlier edition of Bolt Action or something like Five Men at Kursk, there is really only a need for one vehicle of any particular type... 

The original medium tank I have is a resin model that came as a one piece casting of hull and tracks and had its own internal base... which might make it taller than the others (I guess it could be the command tank...? I did leave the hatches open for that reason). As it turns out the plastic model IS just a smidge larger - by about a millimetre in each direction... not sure if this will be noticeable on the tabletop... 

So I COULD conceivably build them all as M13/40... and end up with one M14/41 and three M13/40... which could be fielded as a platoon of three M13/40 in earlier parts of the war... or a platoon of four lead by a newer M14/41 - as those start to arrive as replacements... 

Or maybe build one as an M14/41 and the other two as Semovente - so I could field understrength platoons of both of those vehicle types... (and hope the M14/41 look similar enough!) 

I guess I have other stuff to paint while I think about it... 

But also, I kind of want to get them DONE because last week we wrapped up our Operation Torch games and this week (last night!) I started playing games with my Italian forces against Orion's Americans in Tunisia (Stay tuned for After Action Report this weekend!) and kind of want these done sooner rather than later!! 

The only other thing I'm waiting on from the orders placed a week and a half ago are the three Panzer III for the Afrikakorps. 

And then there are the orders I placed THIS week... now, I had SWORN to Amanda I would not order ANYTHING else after the orders placed a week and a half ago until ALL of those things had arrived, were assembled and painted, and PLAYED WITH - which I expected to be by June or so... 

I don't really buy much off ebay any more. Other than the few eldar I ordered earlier this year, I can't remember the last time I ordered anything off ebay... It's been a few years... However, around the time I was starting to think about WW2 stuff again, I did have a brief look around and... there wasn't much of interest... there was a LOT of people selling 3D printed stuff fairly inexpensively, but of wildly varrying quality... If found a few that look like they were printed at a fairly high resolution, were dirt cheap, and early war tanks. I put them on a wishlist, thinking I'd come back to them later in the year if it seemed like WW2 games ended up being a whole thing... 

Apparently when you put stuff on a watch list of ebay, the seller sees that and can MAKE YOU OFFERS?! And so this week the seller of the 3D printed tanks, after months of those being in the watch list, made an offer!?

Now, I should point out that, while I do have my own ebay account, for reasons to convoluted to explain here, I usually use Amanada's account... and that's where the watch list was... and so it was AMANDA that got the offer.... 

Honestly, if Id gotten it, I probably would have deleted and moved on... (because I did make a promise not to buy more stuff and I really, REALLY wanted to try and keep it!!) But because Amanda got it, and she didn't ignore/automatically delete it and instead said "hey, is this something you're interested in...?" and not "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT MORE TOYS ON EBAY!?"... a conversation was had and I ENDED UP BUYING, NOT ONE, BUT BOTH?!?! 

(because Amanda DOES understand a REALLY GOOD DEAL!)

And so... I now have MORE tanks on the way... like, TEN more tanks... five Matilda II and five Cruiser MkI (A9) tanks... for about $150 CAD including shipping!? $15 CAD per tank is just NUTS... The five Cruiser MkI (A9) tanks cost about the same as buying ONE from Warlord Games! It's a bit of a risk and they may turn out to be garbage (but the seller did had thousands of positive reviews...!?). 

If it DOES work out, I'll be ready for some big tank battles in the desert (in a few months...)