28mm WWII Italians from Wargames Atlantic

 All,

As always, I go all in, way too far, buy too much stuff, and there's no better example of this (for my particular situation) than having an Italian force for the Western Desert.  I don't have any particular desire to play battles with Italians in the desert, I just feel compelled to have them because they were there and I have British and Germans for fighting in North Africa.  I did the same thing in 10mm and 15mm and have yet to play a campaign where Italians featured; I think I've played a grand total of one game that involved (a few stands of) Italians, buttressed by Germans, in Tunisia.  

But it doesn't matter, I've got them if I need them ;)  So here they are; I got a good deal on some Wargames Atlantic Italian infantry, so I started there, then I bought some vehicles off my new buddy Scott on Ebay, then I bought a 3D printed anti-tank gun, then I decided I needed another squad so I bought it painted off Ebay but repainted it, then I decided I needed some light weapons and bought them from Warlord.  The Wargames Atlantic guys are nicely sculpted and proportioned, though they are a bit fiddly (compared to most Warlord figures) to put together, while the Warlord weapons figures are one piece models made out of resin, which I hadn't seen before, but they're well done.

As always, I went with a nice, simple paintjob using Contrast paints, which didn't take long at all.

The whole mess: four rifle squads, a few senior leader types, a machine gun team, a mortar team, an anti-tank rifle team, a Brixia 45mm mortar team, a sniper team, some dismounted tank crew, a 47mm anti-tank gun with prime mover (both deployed and towed), three M13/40 tanks, two Semovente assault guns, an AB40 armored car, and an AB41 armored car.

The commander (right) and his senior NCO (left).

Reverse.

Another couple of officer/senior NCO types.  The guy on the left is one I bought painted off Ebay then repainted; you can see I didn't do a good job and so the tone of the uniform is different to the rest of the force.

A couple men with submachine guns.

And a couple more, with different headgear.

Last one.

A pair of light machine guns.

And two more.

A total of 24 riflemen.

A pair tossing grenades.

Three firing from the off-hand position.

Three with bayonetted rifles leveled.

Three moving up.

The machine gun team.

Reverse.

The mortar team.  I believe I stole the mortar from a Plastic Soldier Company set of Soviets, while the assistant just has a grenade in his hand.

Reverse.

The anti-tank rifle, from Warlord.

The Brixia mortar team.

The sniper team.

The 3D printed anti-tank gun set, with crew and prime mover.

The gun, set up for action.

And being towed into action.

These came from my buddy Scott, some dismounted Italian tank crewmen.

Again.

As did this guy, though I'm not sure what he is or what I'm supposed to do with him...

Reverse.

The pair of armored cars, AB40 (armed only with machine guns) at left and 20mm cannon-armed AB41 on right.

The pair of Semoventes.

And the three M13/40 tanks, ready to get thrashed by the Allies.

So, a pretty cool force, happy to have them, just gotta make it worth it by actually getting them on the table.  Hopefully I'll get my Indian platoon (you'll see them soon) blooded soon against these guys.

V/R,
Jack