"Italian Officers Were A Mixed Bag..."

 "...With some enthusiastically serving in the Royal Italian Army..."

These two 28mm multi-part plastic miniatures were assembled using various parts taken from the Italian Army & Blackshirts sprue produced by "Warlord Games", and can be found inside a number of their boxed kits such as SKU: 402015801. However, I was lucky enough to be able to assemble them using a free sprue or two which the Nottingham-based company generously sent me as part of a much larger "Bolt Action" order, and plan for the pair to accompany my Company Commander as part of his Headquarters Unit on the battlefield.

To be totally honest I have never been a fan of kneeling down figures, and in the past have tried my best to avoid using such models whenever I can. For this project though, I didn't want to essentially waster a sixth of the options available to me, and thought I'd simply utilise the pose to represent my various squads' officers, or in this case, my Major's "immediate attendants". As a result I decided to have one chap pointing at something (in an effort to draw his superior's attention), and the other just 'hunkered down' waiting for an order.

"...And others reluctant to fight for seemingly worthless territories far from home."

The Italians were figure were undercoated using a couple of licks of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey, and shaded in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then 'picked out' their water bottle, saddlebag, rifle strap and the odd leather strap using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. I also applied a smidgeon of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil" to the fascists' rifles and canteen stoppers, as well as a bit of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna to their rifles.

With my Headquarters Unit now complete, and totalling 56pts for the (Inexperienced) officer and his two (Inexperienced) men - at least according to the Italian Army PDF released by "Warlord Games" in September 2024 - I am busy assembling a few five-model squads to represent the various elements of my force's Infantry, such as the Camicie Nere (Blackshirts) Militia and Bersaglieri. All of these units will be created using the manufacturer's plastic sprues; albeit I do plan to pick up some of their metal blisters so as to field a few support teams too.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - This Space Marine is having some of his details 'picked out' in "Vallejo" Gold

Alongside this soon-to-be blossoming "Bolt Action" project, I am patiently working my way through the last of my currently-built 28mm multi-part plastic Sons of Horus Space Marines for "The Horus Heresy" by "Games Workshop". Rather than tackle these remaining MK IV armoured Adeptus Astartes en-mass, I'm finding the detailed sculpts to be much more manageable when pigmented individually - especially my ten-man unit's incredibly 'busy' Sergeant.

I aim to make this particular range of figures one of my focal points for the forthcoming year, as I would really like to get at least one game under my belt before "the largest and the most successful hobby miniatures company in the world" bring out a new edition of the rules - as per the current circulating rumours. In addition, I own a fair few more plastic kits for it, many of which have been rather embarrassingly just sat gathering dust on a shelf since I first bought the Warhammer: Horus Heresy - Age Of Darkness box way back in June 2022...