SAGA tournament Empoli – BOLT tournament Turin, Oct 16 and 17 2019

Last week end was  full of activities for my club. Some of my mates took part to Empoli’s SAGA tournament while another group organized four tables for a quick Bolt Action competition.

The Empoli SAGA tournament was part of Empoli Games 2019. An Italian event dedicated not only to the Studio Tomahawk rule system but also to boardgames

The events was a success for my club because Aurelian won the first place and the gold medal for the best army painted. All the other my mates were within the first ten positions with: fifth (Arnauld), sixth (Giancarlo) and seventh (Riccardo)

In the same moment in which my friends won in Empoli, Antonio organized with other three local clubs a Bolt Action tournament. The idea was to create a training event to see in what way to organize the event planned for February in which La Piccola Armata will host the Italian Bolt Championship tour

Also this event saw my friends in good position with: Eugenio (first), Antonio (second) and Enzo (third)

Rapid Fire: Alberto’s eastern front scenario (Ogledow 1944), Oct 26, 2019

At the end of October Alberto and Ezio prepared a ww2 scenario related to the eastern front (Ogledow 1944). The scenario's objective was easy ... to take the control of a little Polish village in the middle of the table but the quantity of vehicles and miniatures were significant.

Alberto, Ezio and Flavio lead the Soviet army while Luca and Maurizio the Battlegroup Panzergrenadier forces

I have to admit that I could not participated to this match but … considering the high quality of Alberto's miniatures painting … I try to be present (even if only for a while) and I took some photos

Generally I don’t like to modified the picts I taken but in this situation I think that to do this increase their effects

I have not prepared a real battle report because I could not participate to all the game so I share with you some moments of the battle.

Some German pioneers exploring the battle field ...

... waiting for the arrive of the Volkgranadiers

An MMG and a panzerschreck teams are taking position

But Soviet forces are closer than the Germans can expect … below some Soviet reconnaissance team are studying the enemy’s movements…

… while a column of tanks is marching towards the Polish village

But also the Germans are ready with their heavy tanks that are advancing

At the end the Soviet start their advance and occupy for first the village

But the German reaction is not long to come and, even if they suffer some casualties, they won the game

The corner of the painter – Ivano’s Italian Army

In the last months, Ivano increased the number of his Italian miniatures with new models

He decided to paint only 28mm with great results.

I love his painting style and so some weeks ago I stole some of his miniatures while he was playing and I took take some photos.

He painted some infantry units of the “Regio Esercito”

And the their supports

The Regio Esercito (Royal Army) was born during the 1800’s with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy and it was one of the largest ground forces in Ww2.

Our national army was one of the pioneers of the use of paratroopers so Ivano painted some of them. He decided to dedicate his attention to a specific Italian division the “184th Paratroopers Division Nembo”.

This division was formed in December 1942 from another famous Italian paratroopers unit: 185th division Folgore. The 185th was sent to fight against partisans in Jugoslavia and against Us forces in Sicily.

After the Italian surrender, a significant part of the unit went over to the German side becoming the 4th Fallschirmjäger

He painted some soldiers one another elite unit of our army: the Bersaglieri

The Bersaglieri are an historical Italian unit that it easy to recognize thanks to the black capercaillie feathers applied to their helmets. During the ww2 they fought in all fronts: form the Libyan desert to the Russian frost

He painted also a Pak 38 with an Italian crew

The last unit he decided to paint is a particular army unit that was born after September 8, 1943 … the day in which the Kingdom of Italy signed with the Allied forces an armistice. In response of the armistice, the German army disarmed the Italian troops that they did not decide to continue the fighting for German cause. It was one of the most dramatic period of our history and the start of the Italian civil war but … it is history and we cannot forget it.

In October 1943 Heinrich Himmler devised the “Programm zur Aufstellung der italienischen Milizeinheiten durch die Waffen-SS” creating the first unit of Italian Waffen-SS

Below an original enlistment poster

Ivano painted the unit using German volkgranadiers partially modified with a good result as usual

The corner of the painter - ModelExpo 2019 painting competition

Last week end Aurelian, one of my club mates, participated to 2019 ModelExpo Turin. 

It is a local exhibition in which Aurelian participated to the painting competition winning a gold metal with the miniature below

Aurelian paints miniatures for commissions and ... as I told in other posts ... with Maurizio, Ivano and other my club mates is a very good painters ... for this reason I decided to insert in this post not only the miniature that granted him the victory but also some dark age miniatures he painted time ago for another club members. I hope that you find them a great work as I think

15th Panzer Division - Bolt Action/Rapid Fire - Sept 2019

This summer I started to paint some tanks to complete a Bolt Action Ww2 Italian desert army so … Why not to buy some new stuff to increase my DAK armoured division too?

During the Ww2 two German armoured divisions were involved in the African theatre: the 21th and the 15th Panzer division … I've decided to concentrate my attention on the 15th panzer division.

The first time I saw the original picture of the panzer III below … I found a kind of inspiration and thanks to Caesar Miniatures I tried to replicate it

I used to paint German tanks the “Vallejo Iraqi sand” because the sun lightened the hulls during the war. I have to point out that the colours of these vehicles was different based on their seniority and the different period in which they were used.

For example in this photo when the first tanks arrived at Bengasi in 1941 their colour is a pale grey-yellow …

… but in Tunisia the Americans had to fight against grey-green tanks

For this reason I asked to Maurizio to paint for me some vehicles with a grey-green base using his airbrush. In a second moment I add some weathering and damage effects.

The idea was to create a mix of tanks with different seniority to be more realistic 

The 15th panzer division took part in all major German operations in North Africa. It participated also to the successful German actions during the battle of Gazala and suffered severe loses at the second El Alamein battle.

When I’ve taken the photos below I imagined the division passes through a Lybian village executing one of Rommel’s order

I painted also some tank destroyers as the Marder in the photo landascape ...

... because I bought time ago this Kfz 15 horch that I painted at least three times before to decide to add it to Afrika Korps with an panzer AT artillery officer 

The 15th panzer division took part to the battle of Kesserine Pass and, after the retreat of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia, the remaining of this division surrended in May 1943 and it was not reestablished.