Red Devils

A couple of weeks ago I started to paint 1/72 WWII English paratroopers, just for fun. I’m not sure but I think that these miniatures were a gift of my father when I was ten or eleven.

Either way, when I was younger, I tried to paint them with watercolors … with awful results indeed… this time I utilized acrylic colors.

I found different images for WWII Red Devil’s uniforms, finally I decided to use a predominance of greens and browns and the sand color for cartridge cases.

Copyright wikipedia

During WWII Sir Churchill requested to the Royal Army to create an English paratroopers unit. The British Airborne Divisions took part of different fights during the war (Italy, France and North Africa). Nevertheless, I think that the most important action in which they were involved was Market Garden Operation.

Unfortunately, Market Garden was a failure for the English and Polish troops that took part of the attack. After nine days of German assaults, the survivors of the 1^st Airborne Division and 1^st Parachute Brigade were evacuated. In late 1945, the English HQs sent the Red Devils to Norway but the Division has suffered so many losses at Arnhem that at the end of the war was disbanded.

 

 

 

 

 

I painted also a shooter with his observer.

Into the box (former ESCI 1/72) there were two soldier with PIAT (an anti-tank weapon). Considering the effective fire range of these weapons (around 100 meters), I’ve imagined the soldier hidden behind an hedge or a wall.