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 !

The longest project

Hi,

My plastic 1/72 ACW is the oldest army that I have now (The 1/72 Napoleonic forces are long gone and replaced by something heavier and four time the size). I began playing the Archduke Piccolo sometime in the 90's and I recall had around 12 units and a few guns. The army then survived a decade of storage as I traveled the world but has taken me a good 10 years to sort out. A recent purchase of Airfix ACW figures has also satisfied a wish list item of getting some.

A recent burst of enthusiasm has seen the completion of a decent sized force. 12 Infantry Regiments and a few guns. I still have around another 12 Infantry Regiments, 4 Cavalry and about 8 guns left to do. Simple 90's basing was simple green paint and simple paint jobs and I have followed the same style for the new figures. ( They have that toy soldier look that I always admired in the early war-games books of Featherstone and Grant).

Below - The Current Pile - A mixture of 1990 basing and 2008 Basing (I seemed to change my mind a lot). The flags are all mostly glued on half an hour ago apart from some old hand painted ones done in 1994.

 The Oldest Units - Mid 90s at least. The Esci figures are even older as I recall having them when I was around 13 (I just turned 40).

 The "newest" - Italeri (new figures) and Airfix (second hand).

So a few more hundred to go and then the Union can be finished (But I have already started).

Cheers

1/72 ACW

Hi,

I picked up some used figures some time ago that I tried a different painting technique on. It was painting a base colour and then using a wash and highlight. I've done the wash and one part of highlight and I'm not that happy with it to be honest - perhaps the final highlight and detail (buttons etc) will make it look a bit better. I also had them glued to the base before painting - it was fine for the Airfix but a stupid idea for the Revell figures as I could not get to into some of the detail.


Airfix Confederate.

Revell Union.

I think I'll go back to either a simple one paint layer system OR a two step darker\light paint job.