Wargamers Are Some of the Best People

 Well, you are probably aware, being one yourself, but wargamers are some of the best people.

Tim Gow of Megablitz and More had a few surplus-to-need Dulcop Italians and knowing of my WWI Italian force, he asked if there were any I had need of. 

There was one, the bersaglieri carrying what appears to be a coronet that I did not have even one of. Tim generously sent one my way.

This animated fellow arrived in the post today:

If you can't picture him encouraging his fellow soldiers to advance under the withering fire of Austrian machine guns, you must be looking at some other picture.

But wait, there's more! (As some TV ads in the 80s were fond of saying)

Tim generously included several fellow Italians to keep him company in the New World:

So much energy and motion in this picture!

They will all round out my Alipini unit and bring up the strength of my Arditi. The Bersaglieri coronet players are destined to server as unit commanders.

And there was yet still more!

These beautiful figures are the Weston WW2 British. 

The sculpting is similar to the Toy Soldiers of San Diego and Conte figures I have and I'm looking forward to getting them into a game against the TSSD Germans sooner rather than later! (I've been having some fun, undocumented, games using unpainted figures with my regular table setup. There's something about the combination that I find wholly enjoyable lately)

Tim went truly above and beyond! A true gentleman! 

Lancieri e Cavalleria Ride to the Sound of the Guns!

With great satisfaction, I am pleased to announce my first unit of Italian cavalry is complete. They can serve to represent "Lancieri di Novara" and/or "Genova Cavalleria" at the battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli, or, of course, generic units otherwise.

I really need to finish those base edges!

The figures, again, are Armies in Plastic horses and Egyptian Lancer bodies, with heads supplied from the Dulcop Italian infantry/arditi grenade throwing figure. The AiP WW1 British lancer body, with the cartridge belt across the chest is more accurate perhaps, but then I'd have to do something about the puttees. I guess I could mix the three figures together, but this is close enough for my purposes.

To my astonishment, I quite enjoyed painting the horses - maybe more than the figures themselves. I think the change in tune was due in large part to the toy-soldier look and not worrying about shading their coats as I had tried in 1/72. 

I have always loved horses (my maternal grandfather owned a stable of harness racers) but this was the first time I ever looked into their markings. I do love that one facet of our wonderful hobby is the rabbit hole you can fall into when looking for info when painting figures.

I have another unit of cavalry to assemble for the Italians (Austro-Hungarians won't have any), but first there are three lizard warriors primed and ready as well as machine guns with crews for the Italians and Austro-Hungarians (yet to be assembled) in line ahead of them.

First Arditi are Complete-y!

 I apologize for the title of the post. I'll show myself out.

Still here?

 Here they are, the first of what will be two arditi stands:

I know there are who people would prefer I paint eyes or rosy cheeks or shadows and stuff. My painting style inspiration for 54s has always been Britain's Deetail figures and their Seaforth Highlander set 5188 and similar.

 

The figures are by Dulcop and feature one of their least animated poses - which is hard to imagine. Indeed, they almost ended up looking like a synchronized swim team:

Where's Esther Williams?

But wisely, I think, I reconsidered the basing arrangement.

The straps on the guns are brittle to say the least - the lump on the middle figure's strap was there already - and I believe it was glued together as a repair by the previous owner. The strap I repaired has s similar lump but it's not visible in this picture. Trust me, it's there.

I have the next three ready to enter the painting queue - they are jumping the line because I am nearing the completion of the rifle infantry and assault troops for these armies(for now). It also took I think three days from start to finish and maybe an hour or two tops of total effort. I still have to do a few head swaps for the Italian cavalry (and then paint them), order additional machine gun teams for both sides, and paint some single figures to function as gun crews.

I don't need any of those things to field an interesting and amusing game, so it feels like I am entering into the home stretch here at least for the core of this collection (I see adding British and Germans as a nice to have, but not necessary, side project to this)

As a result, I am tempted to pick up the pace to complete everything for this collection - but I also know that's a sure fire way for me to burn out. Slow and steady wins the race.

WWI Project Updates

I love the look of gas masks, although wearing them maybe not so much (a band I was in once did live music for a theatrical production and were required to wear surplus gas masks while performing - it was hard to breath and seeing the guitar neck through the lenses was something else). I also happen to really like the French WWI horizon blue uniform and the gas mask they used for the majority of the war. 

It was probably inevitable, then, that in a moment of feeling sorry for myself for missing my friend's wedding due to Covid, I would order the ICM WW1 French in Gas Masks. 

They are 1:35 and ICM is small 1/35 in my opinion - based on comparing their Austrian and British machine gun teams with my 1/35 Soviet machine gun crew.  Clearly, they won't fit with the Armies and Plastic, Waterloo 1815, or Dulcop figures. 

That's OK. I have a plan.

I've really been enjoying the army building and background creating for my Venusian forces, I realized I wanted to do more fantasy-based themes. Fantasy role-playing games and world-building loom large in my personal gaming history. I also happen to be a fan of weird fiction (Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, etc.) and the general ideas behind the various Mythos related role-playing games. It struck me that it would be fun to do something themed around that.

Weird World War II might be an obvious choice given my existing collection plus the Nazi occult themes, zombies or werewolves and sometimes mechs. However, I am really more interested in WWI generally speaking and I started this post talking about the ICM figures, so you have to know I'm leading up to their use!

Why not Weird World War I? 

I picture a handful of gas mask wearing infantry (the ICM figures!) heading into no-man's land, exploring mysteriously empty trenches, underground constructions of non-human origin, villages filled with low-hanging fog and no signs of life? Perhaps some slumbering Eldritch horrors have awakened due to the death and destruction sown upon the land? 

So, that's a new project that came out of nowhere - an RPG-light skirmish wargame.

I already have some horrors in mind - the lovely Hook Horror figures from CP Models. The proprietor, Mark, was kind enough to measure the figures for me. They come in around 50mm which is just about perfect.

FYI, the ICM figures come with two heads per figure, one with a gas mask and one without. Theoretically, you could buy two boxes of the gas mask figures to get an extra set of gas mask heads, then by a box of their French infantry without gas masks and gain a few more poses. 

I suspect I'll pick up some ICM British in gas masks as well, Germans too. Why should the French have all the "fun"?

In other WWI gaming news, I finished up my (for now) final base of Austro-Hungarian infantry and Italian infantry as well. They both now have six bases of regular infantry. The Austro-Hungarian force is done, save for a machine gun base that I need to purchase. The Italians need two bases of arditi (6 figures total) and a four cavalry figures painted up and another machine gun base as well.

Speaking of cavalry, here is the first head-swap to make Italian cavalry:

The body is an Armies in Plastic Egyptian lancer and the head is from a Dulcop arditi (the grenade throwing pose - the dagger pose has much too small a head). The head isn't a perfect fit but it's close enough. and is the best I had to work with. As much as it pained me to cut up a Dulcop figure, as was mentioned in the comments on the cavalry post, the AiP French heads are *way* too big to use for this purpose.

I'd be lying if I didn't note that I am already planning to acquire a box/bag each of Armies in Plastic WWI Germans for Caporetto, and the British for Asiago and Vittorio Venetto.

First Shots Fired on the Italian Front

Finally managed to finish my Austrians (Armies in Plastic WWI Germans) - all the bits that were bothering me have been retouched and a suitable gloss applied.

Of course, it wouldn't due to just let them sit and so, I commenced with my first infantry contact on the Southern Front using Trench Hammer.

The scenario is based on a actual historical event - three Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst out of hidden tunnels in the snow to surprise lightly held Italian positions. Ideally the Italians would have a machine gun on the table as they did in real life, but I am awaiting mine from England, so it will be awhile yet. 

In the meantime, two Italian rifle sections and their "leader" stand watch or mostly just complain about the cold and the incompetent fools who think this icy section of rock is worth protecting.

The eyes! The eyes! (they freak me out)

Without warning two Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst forth from the snow! (In Trench Hammer terms, one unit is a bombing section, and the other unit is being treated as an Assault section)

The Italians are caught completely unprepared and the stormtroops advance rapidly, firing rifles as the bombers prepare to unleash their fury.

As they get closer the Italian officer is able to get his men to start firing.

As the first units of Austrians reach the trench, another assault patrol bursts forth from a hidden tunnel. (Another unit I classified as a Bombing section)

A struggle ensues for control of the trench but the Italian infantry on the right give a good accounting of themselves, driving off two of the Austrian units.

The unit on the left on the other hand was forced to abandon the trench, which the Austrians took quick advantage of.

The Italian infantry on the right raced down the trench and close combat ensued. After forcing them back, the Austrians closed to assault again but it was not enough and the Italian defenders were victorious.

In Trench Hammer units are sections and have specific purposes - as they did historically in the British and German armies at least. Generally speaking each side fields a platoon with some support (which I don't have yet). Since Austrian stormtroops don't have a platoon organization to speak of, the assault patrol of 9 men being the basic unit of the company, this is an ad hoc attack assembled from three assault patrols. 

These troops are a specialist type of their own but are not directly accounted for in the rules. For German stormtroops the rules suggest making most of the sections Bombing units and so that's what I went with (After all, the Austrians were trained by the Germans).

The Alpini are Dulcop and were not painted by me - I just painted their bases (well some of them) to match my preferred green. They will do for now, but they will eventually get some paint.  I'm also not set on the basing I used here - I may move to 2 figures on a 2" square like I use for WW2.

Speaking of, painting, getting the Austrians done and on the table has inspired me to get back to painting. I will either extend my Austrians - possibly with some ordinary rifle infantry (assault patrols often led the way for regular army units) - or some of my unpainted Bersaglieri.

Recent Arrivals

The same seller who sold me the previously acquired Dulcop arditi, put up a larger lot consisting of Dulcop and Waterloo 1815 WW1 Italians. So, I snagged it.

New arditi to join their fellows.

A unit of alpini.

I didn't take any pictures of the Waterloo figures. There are maybe 16 or 20 of them and most of them are flaking badly. Amusingly, for some reason, the feathers in the bersaglieri helmets are painted green. Eventually, I'll strip all of these figures down to bare plastic, but in the meantime, the alpini and arditi can take the table once I paint up some Austrians.

Less exciting, unless you're me, is that I acquired some Games Plus pluck-foam storage for my metal WW2 54s. Sadly, it's many years too late for them and many have chipped paint - one has a broken bayonet. Still, better late than never.

The collection is a mix of Britain, Conte, and a few King & Country:

Britain's Big Red One US Infantry

British paras and Waffen SS from a mix of makers.

This collection is dedicated to 1:1 squad or less per side gaming. The US were used on bases before, but I decided to save that for the plastic figures. I find these figures inspiring, so I expect a game with them is coming in the near future.

The Christmas Bounty Arrives: Italian Front Acquisitions

Because, like many of my fellow war gamers, my hobbies are rather, shall we say particular, my family typically gifts me money for holidays, with the instruction to spend it as I see fit (though, not to be used for practical things. My mother is quite clear about that.) I decided to parlay it this year into a round of collecting for my WWI Italian Front project. (please disregard that I'm a year behind on my plan!)

The first to arrive:

The eyes freak me out.

These figures, acquired on eBay, were painted by a previous owner and I will be repainting them in my particular style (and in my preferred colors) when I finally get started painting this project. I had them in my watch list for ages and the price dropped like a rock so I snagged them.

They will be used to represent the arditi (grenades and knives being their favored weapons). They are from an out-of-production Dulcop set that includes alpini and bersaglieri. Ross Mac first alerted me to the existence of the Dulcop set a few years ago now, and I have been watching for them to come up for  reasonable price on eBay since! 

Both sides are getting machine guns in the form of 1/35 plastic kits. While I would have preferred to use the Irregular 1/32 sets (the German MG team can easily make a passable late war Austro-Hungry MG team), the cost of shipping made the plastic ICM kits more manageable for my wallet.

Peppermint inspects the troops

They will be under scale, but I do this with my WWII figures and it doesn't bother me in-game or even in pictures. It only bothers me theoretically. 

The Italians don't have their own specific model kit, sadly. So, I will begin with a 1/35 ICM British Vickers team that I will give Adrian style helmets and maybe swap the Vickers for a Fiat-Revelli  (both the helmets and mg courtesy of ICM's set of Italian accessories). Despite an estimated arrival time of late February, they arrived yesterday!

In keeping with the toy-soldier nature of my games, rather than worry about correct artillery, I've decided to go with Britain's guns. There are two different models pictured below with Armies in Plastic figures.

Although they aren't identical, I like the idea of different caliber guns. Now, it's just a matter of which models come up the cheapest on eBay..

At this point, I'm collecting forces to meet the One Hour Wargames Machine Age organization, replacing Cavalry with Assault Troops (sturmtruppen and arditi)- 3 infantry figures per unit initially - making them useful for The Portable Wargame, OHW, and similar. Like my colonial figures, they will be individually based, allowing me to play a variety of rules with the same figures..

Taking another of Ross's suggestions, I opted to go in on two Wings of Glory planes. The Italians are the first to equip with a Macchi M.5 flying boat: 

I really love the pre-painted models. Detail I could never replicate.

If I find I enjoy air miniatures games (I have two air board games that I enjoy: Battle Over Britain from Minden Games and GMT's Enemy Coast Ahead starter scenarios), then I can always acquire more of the planes. Since it isn't likely, for now, to be more than a side show, the pre-painted Wings of Glory planes are more than worth the time saved not having to paint them

Finally, because I stumbled on this article about WWI Italian combined operations, I ordered a copy of The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic. Combined with inspiration provided by Archduke Piccolo's lovely ships , I have an itch to try some naval miniatures gaming as well - although I will probably go with commercially available miniatures, rather than attempting to build my own. I know painting is involved, but a coat of grey seems do-able.

Unfortunately, I noticed this morning that the post office tried to deliver my book to some unknown ZIP code, which I can only assume is either a handwriting issue of the seller, or a mistake at the post office - eBay shows the correct ZIP, and clearly, quite a few things have been delivered to me successfully. Hopefully, I can get this resolved - it was a nice copy at a good price.