Italian 10th Army

I seem to have picked up some motivation to actually complete a project before moving onto something else. I am really keen to complete my North African Italians as they:

• Are half completed
• I have everything I need already

So every night I have been solely working on them based simply on the fact my hobby board only has Italians on it. My basic plan to to complete everything on the board and then move on.

So far I have made a base coat and given them a decent earth wash (I am still experimenting with

I have also solved my Italian Truck issue by finding my old Friends "Corgi Cadbury" toy trucks. Cheap and nasty, while they are oversized a good dose of Desert Yellow and basing will see them blend in.  I remember my great uncle telling me as a child that in North Africa the Italians were using an ice ream delivery van to pull some small weapon \ trailer so it think is quite fitting,

A long awaited dream has also been completed in that I now have tankettes !. Since the quick build tanks were released I have wanted some but never purchased, however off Stan that dream is complete.

The rough plan for the Italians is

4 M13's
4 L33's
2 Semoventes
5 Infantry battalions
1 Artillery Batteries.

Reconnaissance is a problem though. Did you know its cheaper to buy a 1/35 scale Autoblinda model than a 1/72 one ?  I will have to go resin !

20mm and 6mm WW2

I am slowly getting back into painting on a regular basis with a greater effort being made to organize my projects and my paint supplies. I have wandered from project to project though, but that has been for more motivation purposes than any other reason.

Below is my painting desk that I use at night, clearing the whole lot up at the end of each night. This has been a pain to be honest, I cannot leave figures anywhere handy or stack them up easily. For some reason they get knocked over or crushed (well the spears bent) ...the source of this  mayhem is yet to be unmasked.

I recently visited the bring and buy and picked up some Matchbox 8th Army, as well as some Italian tankettes from Stan. These shall contribute very well to my North Africa 20mm forces that I have slowly kick started into life. Below are some SQH Tropical Italians and an Italeri M13 "quickbuild" that is nearing completion.  They should round out a small Italian force to compliment my DAK for some early war games against my Desert Rats and Australians.

I have had some thought of using Megablitz or Not Quite Mechanised for larger games, however I face the same problem in any ruleset. Support vehicles and trucks are simply not enough in numbers so I will base the North Africa forces for Command Decision and then simply see what happens if I use any other ruleset. 

However I did drag out my 6mm early war figures to see is they could be used for Larger actions, below is an initial test (on a poor photo) of the 7th Armoured in 1940. I am still missing a bit but of kit but have plenty on hand to make up the numbers. In 6mm I can at least field the one Armoured and two infantry divisions, the DAK and a two Italian infantry divisions. (Painting them a different colour from the base colour will also help)

The source of my storage frustrations soon became clear. Someone or something has taken a liking to sitting or investigating my things.

 

It does not matter how high or secluded a spot I place boxes , I find the tell-tale signs of white fur and knocked over figures.  It appears the cat likes to sit in the painting box (On the newspaper I place on top), I dreaded her thinking it was a litter tray but luckily she prefers to go in other, less suitable places. Alas our cat is deaf  and a little bit thick and so stays inside the whole time. Next door's cats (of which *someone* has 4) like to taunt our cat from the windows. So she likes to protect our house by mixing her scent with ours, which means.........(yes you guessed it)  weeing over clothes, desks and anywhere we frequent on a regular basis. Countermeasures to the other cats have since been planned, a blitzkrieg type of offensive might upset the locals so guerilla warfare consisting of water pistols, sprinklers and 6 year old in full charge will possible make a more peaceful solution.