Run Up to Pigs Snout: Part Two The Figures

 

The Italian Side

One of the major issues I've suffered from when carrying out projects in the past is managing my own attention span. I'll jump from shiny new project to another, leaving a trail of unfinished models or adding to my pile of shame. In order to stay on target I introduced a technique from work and fashioned my own sprint board. All the projects I would like to do at some point go under the Ice Box sticker and the ones i'm working on go under the 'To Do' sticker. The order dictates the order I carry them out. I decided that monthly I could review the order and add as much to the Ice Box as I wanted

So far it seems to be working, although it might be decades before I can clear my wall

I'd been wanting to do an Italian army for years, a couple of things were holding me back, with no plastics, they were going to be very dear and the Bolt Action national rules weren't very good. I'd previous run a veteran Italian  Paratrooper army that I'd enjoyed but never painted, but for years I'd wanted to field a regular force in the desert. Then a couple of years ago, Wargames Atlantic announced a pre-order for their plastic Italians and I went in big for two boxes immediately. Rather frustratingly Warlord games announced their Italian Plastics in what seemed like the next day.

With the advent of Warlord's plastic release, their started adding tester sprues to mail orders and so with a handful of additional purchases i had a very large infantry army for Pigs Snout. The scenario called for everyone to be inexperienced and and shirkers, this makes a basic five man squad 15points. So i was in for a crazy big batch paint to provide 1000 points. I lent into weapon teams and pillbox to bulk out the force a bit otherwise the figure count would have been twice as much.

A couple of niggles appeared on assembly, turns out Wargames Atlantic are a bit shy on their research and didn't include LMG loaders, It doesn't matter so much for Bolt Action as the loader can change, but its nice to model. Then even more confusingly the MMGs didn't seem to have an ammo boxes for the guns. a large rectangle was included on the sprue, but I think this was perhaps meant to represent the AA version of the gun

They're also not great in providing instructions, although, having some support weapons on the sprue was a nice touch.

When it came to the painting, it seemed like I was a lot more comfortable with the desert colours of Italian uniform, but it was likely that these would not have been worn in Sicily. I thought I'd get away with a ragtag approach and mix the uniforms about, as long as there was consistency with basing and backpacks etc. I also couldn't find any reference to the uniform colour that Warlord suggested on the their otherwise excellent painting guide. I think the colour they showed was the fatigues, I quite liked the colour, but thought I'd stick to the Green Grey mentioned in the Osprey Men at Arms books

Once i'd got the basic colour scheme finalised, i attached the models to shot glasses to make them easier to hold. i first painted the desert colours on the older metal warlord models and anyone with a pith helmet

then Painted everyone else with Green Grey, and Olive Grey for helmets. Then started the slog. I endless selected a colour and stuck to painting all the models with that colour until all the models were finished. selected another colour and did the same. for some of the larger painting areas it took a couple of hours. but on average I was getting an element painted on the entire army a night

Finally dipped in strong tone

It must be very dull to look at but you can get the picture. eventually I used Vallejo diorama texture which I love, and added the excellent base ready products from Geek Gaming

It was the first time I'd used the sealant but it seems to work really well and dries overnight. Overall i think it took me about two months to finish the army, it would never hold up in conventional bolt action games but it would provide a good back bone for Case Blue. Also to give me a gut punch, the night before the scenario was to take place, I found I was short half a dozen troopers, AAARRRGGGG. a couple of hours later, I the remaining deserters rounded up. I didn't have time to add the magic dipping sauce so these were just painted with Strong Tone Ink

The British

Commander Roy was kind enough to send me some pictures of the progress in his force to keep me enthused whilst I was battling my way through the Italian horde

I wasn't sure what to make of this pic, I think he included it to ensure I was clear who had Air Superiority 

Snazzy Raiders

Paddy Mayne and his lads

the commandoes out commanding

Small but deadly team taking shape