Show us yer stuff!

[BurtWolf]

Thanks Mark, I’m slowly realizing this dilemma. I’d like Italians For all four theaters that you listed, but like you I’d focus mostly on Sicily and Tunisia, maybe a little bit of Eastern front. I feel like I will have to have two sets of Italian Infantry to do this but vehicle wise I’m not going to get too fussy. I did just paint some trucks and continental colors where as everything else has been desert.

Sorry to belabor the point, but can you give me your color schemes on painting continental Italian infantry?

[redleg]

Those are great looking tanks, as always, Mark! I love the extra bits to identify key vehicles, and War Daddy is awesome!

Chris, that C-5 is awesome! Where did you find on in 6mm scale?

[chrisswim]

eBay.. it is 1/450 or 1/400.
1/400 scale. I have 2.

I’ve had mine for a few years, 2-3 yrs. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Mk 1]

Sorry to belabor the point, but ...

No apologies needed. As with most of us (I would guess), I wouldn't be here if I didn't love talking about this stuff ad infinitum.

I’d like Italians For all four theaters ... but like you I’d focus mostly on Sicily and Tunisia, maybe a little bit of Eastern front. can you give me your color schemes on painting continental Italian infantry?

It sounds to me like your intentions align with mine rather well.

My readings tell me that continental kit was the right choice for a single force to serve in Tunisia, Sicily, and the Eastern Front. The tanks and some of the recon units from Tunisia can also serve in the western desert as you wish, but the majority of the infantry should be in desert uniforms if not in the AS42 TOEs (different organization at the company and platoon/squad levels).

My infantry is organized along continental lines: each platoon has 2 squads. Each squad has 2 sections, 1 section of riflemen and 1 section with 2 LMG teams.

Here is the original work:


This is my core infantry company. This was the first (very first!) formation I created after joining this forum. It was the first time I started, from the outset, to paint uniforms, boots, hands-and-faces, helmets and weapons on my infantry, and flock the bases they stood on.

It was built on an all-GHQ basis, with a Combat Command and extra Infantry and Support weapons packs. With all of that, I did not get enough LMGs, and spend the next couple years with a not-quite-full company because even going through all the extras of prone figures I still could not come up with enough LMG teams.

The original work was not quite up to my current standards. The guns were all black, the flocking was a single grass flock, on bases painted an odd dull green/gray (called "Sahara Sand" in the Poly-S collection). But it was the best I had ever done to that point.

Earlier this year I did a bit of a refurb, and added some LMGs and other odd-ball figures (engineers, HQ figures, etc.) from a UK vendor:


Now I have a full proper TOE, a company command, a few radio comms teams with the very distinctive Italian radios with hoop antennas, and engineering support. Rifles have brown wood parts, and the stands are edges in a more dirt-colored earth tone, with some variety in the flocking material. The overall force is still probably 90% GHQ figures.

The core paints are:
Uniforms: Poly-S Italian Uniform Green (a gray-green color, sadly no longer available). I have seen painting guides that recomment Gray-Green colors from other vendors. I have Vallejo grey-green, but that does not look like a good match to my eye.
Boots / shoes / leggings: Brown. I don't paint the anklettes / gators / leggings separately from the shoes.
Guns: Metal parts are in Valejo gunmetal gray (if repainted, or in Tamiya gunmetal gray if original). Wood parts in brown.
Helmets: Poly-S German Uniform Gray
Hands and faces: Flesh (Poly-S originally, Vallejo in the refurb).
Wash: hand-mixed highly diluted Poly-S gray-black originally, a pre-mixed wash called "Baby Poop" (I kid you not) on the refurb.

I did not paint webbing on this formation, as I have done on many since. Even in the refurb, I just let that issue go.

I use the same Poly-S color for my vehicles and guns. To wit:


Italian trucks base-painted in the same color as the uniforms (but with different colors for the canvases).

Hope that helps.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

[Guroburov]

Lovely figures MkI. Awesome infantry.

[BurtWolf]

Thanks Mark, very helpful. Your stands look great, and I like the thought of command and engineer stands being modified. I use Vallejo paints so I am hoping the grey green is not too far off. But honestly I won't know the difference as I have a limited background in this area. I tried a few new Fiat trucks in Continental colors couple of weeks ago - the scheme may be fantasy but I was thinking the grey trucks would work well in Italy? The pics attached are dark, the shading is actually lighter. Did some Matilda Bishops as well, pretty quick paint up, and then did some new Sherman Tulips.

I tried using pigments on the Tulips - like Polish had done in the past - and it really added to the models. I am a pigment fan! One Tulip, on the far right, has no pigment so even though my lighting for the photo is cobbed, you can see the difference. IN person it makes a pretty big impact.

[Mk 1]

Burtwolf:

I would think that Italian camo green (a gray-green color, as per all I have found / read) is probably the best colors for trucks on the Italian mainland or almost anywhere except the western desert (or Abyssinia, if you like the far-flung scenarios). That said, I like to put some variety in my motor pools, so I have very little objection to any individual truck not following "proper" specs for color or painting patterns. What I've seen of actual unit motor pools, I think that's a better depiction of reality in a deployed military force.

The light in any picture may be off, so it's kind of hard to judge what colors are appropriate or not. I often use two or more approaches to lighting in one picture session just to get some coordinates of what the colors do or don't look like in person. Although in fact the same item in person can look different depending on the lighting ...

For me, I like a lighter gray-green on my Italian kit. But they don't all come out the same, and the canvases in particular get some shading variances.


Here is an older pic of some of my Italian force, with some arty deployed by a road being used by support units.

Part of the hodge-podge look I like in my motor pool is also formed by trying to get a variety of different trucks.


This is a recent pic of some of my Italian trucks. A GHQ Fiat SPA 35 Dovunque in front, a GHQ Lancia 3Ro in back, and a Ceirano from a UK vendor in the middle.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

[PolishGI]

Very nice Burtwolf!

Kudos to you for trying and pushing yourself to get better. That is awesome.

Trucks look great. Adding weathering to it is fun! As you eluded to, lighting is everything and can impact models.

With my stuff, I always go lighter on the base coat because these models are so small. The darker the model, the more detail that is hidden. I shoot for just a shade or two lighter with adding white paint. I know that once the base coat is down (on the model), you are going to apply weathering shades which will inherently darken the base color to what you want. This helps with both avenues in the end: the right base color shade along with bringing additional details out due to the weathering application.

Love the Bishops, they look great!

That’s awesome with the pigments. They are cool to work with once you find your rhythm.

Tulips look good. Always found that model interesting with the pods on the sides.

[redleg]

Nice trucks you guys! You can never ever have too many trucks!

[ACWBill]

Love the Italian stuff. It is indeed rare to see them in their European paint schemes

[pmskaar]

I see some really good stuff here on this board! Things seem to be picking up a bit.

ACW Bill - Excellent looking terrain layout for your Market Garden game. I remember seeing your excellent historical Civil War battle layouts at Historicon and am always impressed by your attention to detail.

Chrisswim - A very nice looking C-5 that is. The other two aircraft are interesting looking as well. I have not seen that type before.

Burt Wolf - Great work on the new Sherman Tulips and the Bishops. I have done some prep work for a battery of Bishops for my North Africa British forces to be completed at some point. I also like your new Italian Fiat trucks as well. I will be ordering some of those for my North Africa Italian forces which have yet to be painted. I did a little research on the Tulip last night because I wanted to know the theory behind it and found it very intersting.

MK1 - I love seeing your stuff. Very nice looking early Sherman company and "Continental" Italians. I am working on more Shermans for NW Europe, both M4A1 and M4A3 types.

Pete

[pmskaar]

Here are some M4A1 Shermans I recently completed. I also have some M4A3s as well.\

[pmskaar]

Here are some more M4A1 Shermans I recently completed. I also have some M4A3s as well. These are for my American forces in NW Europe in 1944-45.

M4A1 #13 by Alex Skaar, on Flickr

There are more pictures of these and others on my Forum page - Pete's Place.

Pete

[Guroburov]

Very nice PMSkaar. I like the antennas and decals.

[panzergator]

Very nice work on those Sherman's!