New Unit - 28mm Desert Italian Armour

New Unit - 28mm Western Desert Italian Armour

Things have been quiet on the blog front for a few weeks, I have been painting stuff for the Desert for a friend (something I promised I wouldn't do again after being a professional painter many years ago) lots of 8th Army which I'll feature on here when he has based them, I hate basing.

Here we have an Autoblinda AB41 armoured car from Company B which I ordered from the wonderful Wargames Command Post (Bob at WCP has always provided a good service on WW2 and SCW stuff), 3 CV35 Tankettes from Perry Miniatures And 4 M13/40 tanks from Blitzkrieg Miniatures.

Two close ups of one of the CV35s, a quality model, as you would expect from the Perrys, 8 pieces including the crew with the option included for the mg or the 20mm Anti Tank gun version. All metal and a bargain for £9. The decals are from Warlord Games. Most of the contemporary photos I've found of these vehicles show them uncamoed so I have done them that way. For those interested these are painted with Vallejo paints, base coat of Ochre Brown then a layer of Desert Yellow, highlighted with Dark Sand and White with a very watered down wash of Smoke, all over a Matt Black undercoat. Not much use on the battlefield however hasn't survived a game yet.

The AB41, painted in the same manner with an added Perry Italian commander.

The Blitzkreig tank, Perry Crew and Warlord decals, same paint as before with a Russian Green camo.

There are still some gaps in the market for the Italians, Company B do some obscure stuff but they are quite expensive here in the UK probably 20 percent more than similar models in the Blitzkrieg or Warlord ranges. I'm sure one of the UK manufactures will get round to doing the earlier M11/39 and L6 light tank, there is also a big gap for some soft transport and motorbikes as well. I do begrudge paying the same for a tank as I do for a truck, if someone did a plastic 28mm truck for say a tenner they would fly off the shelf. Warlord have a new deal with Italeri ( a plastic model company ) which I had high hopes for but they are charging £18 for a kit M4 Sherman and £22 for the resin version, I'll pay the extra four quid and not have to put it together thanks.