WW1 Italian or Southern Front Figure Sources

This comes from a blog post I did, but since it got buried with time, I thought I'd move it to some place more accessible.

As of 2020-08-19, these are the figures I know that are available for the Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces.

Plastic

1/72
There are couple of offerings in this scale, including support weapons and artillery - you can find them on PlasticSoldierReview.com which I've linked below.

• Italian  - There are no arditi or currently produced bersaglieri, but there are regular infantry and alpini.
• Austrian - the link is to the Austrian section, but most of them are caps, not helmets, so primarily early war. Germans might make good substitutes or at least head swaps. No specific Austrian sturmtruppen sets. German versions would work well enough for these.

1/35
Italeri and ICM both offer multi-figure kits in 1/35, but options are limited

• Italian infantry in helmet (Italeri)
• Italian infantry in caps  (ICM) 
• WWI Italian Infantry Weapon and Equipment (ICM) - includes an mg and gear useful for conversions.
• Austrian in helmets (Italeri) - they say 1914 but wear stahlhelm, so more like 1916 or later.
• Austrian in caps  (ICM)
• Austrian MG + crew (ICM) I couldn't find a link to the manufacturer's site for this.
• WWI Austro-Hungarian Infantry, Weapon and Equipment (ICM) - includes two Shwarzlose mgs and gear useful for conversions.

1/32
 Armies in Plastic:

•  World War 1 - 1915-1918 - Italian Army - Balkin Front - these are the same figures as their French WWI infantry. The great coat figures don't really look like anything I've seen in pictures from the Southern Front nor do the figures with the blanket rolls (or whatever those are) but beggars can't be choosers.
• World War I - Austrian Sturmbattalion Assault Troops 1916-1918 - these are the same figures as their Germans in stahlhelms and could function just as well for later war Austrian infantry as sturmtruppen

Dulcop:

• RossMac noted that Dulcop made a 1/32 set of alpini. It's best found on eBay. The full set (click, then scroll down to see the picture) appears to contain some bersaglieri too. 

Marx:

• WWII French infantry - These figures may not be exactly correct kit-wise (certainly not the submachine gun), but they don't have the great coat problem the AiP figures have,  while also being a cheap source of regular infantry.
  

Waterloo 1815:

• Italian infantry  - the only current offering I could find in this scale that is specifically intended to be the troops stated. Despite box art identical to their original 1/72 offering, they are actually bersaglieri.

For Austrians in caps, conversions are necessary.  I have often thought Airfix or Deetail Afrika Corps figures could be pressed into service with some conversion work - mostly cutting off inappropriate kit. Tim Gow in a comment on my original post suggested the possibility of using Airfix Japanese or even BMC ACW figures.

Metal

Even in metal, no one covers every contingency. However there are a lot more scale options.

Scale	Manufacturer	Nationality	Notes
6mm	Baccus	Italian	Line infantry, bersaglieri, pioneers, cavalry, MG (line and bersaglieri), and artillery pieces
6mm	Baccus	Austrian	Line infantry with caps, MG, artillery, cavalry
6mm	Irregular Miniatures	Italian	Arditi, alpini, and  bersaglieri, the latter having an mg option as well, and an artillery piece
6mm	Irregular Miniatures	Austrian	Quite a bit more variety, including caps and helmeted infantry, cavalry, artillery, mg, and command
10mm	Pendraken	Austrian	Several sets, including vehicles and support weapons
10mm	Pendraken	Italian	Several sets including support weapons
15mm	Eureka	Austrian	Caps, mg.
15mm	Eureka	Italian	Caps, alpini, mg, artillery crew
15mm	Irregular Miniatures	Austrian	Nice variety although no stormtroopers.
15mm	Irregular Miniatures	Italian	Use the same link as Austrian. There's no direct link. Some variety including arditi.
20mm	Irregular Miniatures	Austrian	Early war.
25mm	Old Glory 25s	Italian	Infantry in both caps and helmets, alpini, bersaglieri and mgs
25mm	Old Glory 25s	Austrian	One infantry and one mg set.
25mm	Battle Honor 25s	Austrian	All in caps, infantry and cavalry, as well as mg and field gun
28mm	Brigade Games	Austrian	All in caps, mg, trench mortar, mountain gun
28mm	Brigade Games	Italian	Infantry in caps, alpini, pioneers, arditi, trench mortar, mountain gun
28mm	Scarab Miniatures	Austrian	Mixed caps and helmets in same set, sturmtruppen, support weapons
28mm	Scarab Miniatures	Italian	Infantry in helmets, arditi, support weapons, trucks
54mm	Irregular Miniatures	Austrian	Early war Austrian officer and infantry in caps and a useful gun model. If you build your own tripod, the German MG would work.
54mm	Irregular Miniatures	Italian	French infantry could work - but I haven't seen a picture of it - and a useful gun model
54mm	Irregular Miniatures	Austrian/Italian	This is a link to the Irregular Empire-multi part figures which you can piece together to form either Italian or Austrian, early or late war, as desired.