Run up to Gela: Preparation part one

 After the huge project of the previous scenario it was nice to get the smaller palette cleanser of  the Gela scenario, my part anyway was significantly smaller.

the mission is almost like a Hollywood heist movie, where I have five crazy rubbish tanks and have to run them the length of the board to win. Commander Roy's task is to take them out with, all the firepower he can find. considering that R35s have the same armour as an inflated balloon, this might be a quick scenario 

The scenario book from warlord does a great job of setting the scene, with some great special rules for the scenario and the units involved. There is also a great youtube video of the battle here, even is quite sympathetic to the often ridiculed Italian army

For Commander Roy's part he has a small elite force of rangers to complete, along with some bits and pieces of terrain, this may mean the whole of the town of Gela

Including some lovely Sarissa buildings built and painted

Gela Starts to take shape and is looking smashing, well done Commander Roy. we have some more terrain to add from my Italian Buildings

My goal, the piazza, with size turns to get there, a movement rate of 9/18 inches, that's no time to spare

Progress on Darby o Gill and the little people. Sorry, I mean Darby's Rangers

As for myself I've been distracted by other projects, that I thought would take no time at all, I've finished the first one but have decided to shift the WW2 stuff to the top of the list now as I seem to dilly dally with painting unless its something in the ww2 era

With five little tanks, to source and paint i was surprised at how hard it was to get a nice paint scheme in mind. In the end I went with something like the picture at top of post. It would prove to be a lot easier than Italian Camo.

I originally was to field all Warlord tanks, but the reseller I went for had only three in stock. I was actually surprised they had that many. So for the remaining two I went with printed models from Paint and Glue Miniatures

My opinions of both models changed over course of preparation and painting. at the beginning the 3d printed ones were clear winners, the detail was good, very little prep. but after clean up on the resin, they began to shine. There's a lot more detail in the tracks and the curved ages look a lot smoother.

Very similar size, thank goodness

I chose to paint the components separately as I thought it might make the tracks easier to paint, I'm not so convinced now

Mixing the two tank models together, and in my opinion they look ok. I have some detail to finish, plus a wee Italian tank commander for Sub-Lieutenant Navari, Italian tank decals and a wash to add but it looks like I have broken the back of this force. i'm not convinced on the white/grey copolas but they break up the colour a bit