Tanks for Sicily 1943: Semovente 47/32

 Hello guys

Sorry for the lack of activity in the last months, I got married in late April, then came the honeymoon,  a new job, I moved to a new home... so a lot of non hobby stuff as you can imagine, so now, very slowly I am recovering the mood of painting again :)

I wanted to add more tanks to my Bolt Action,  Axis force for the Battle of Sicily 1943. 

as shown previously here: https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2021/03/bolt-action-italian-tanks-in-sicily-1943.html

Italian armour in Sicily consisted of the captured R35 tank,  the Semovente 90/53 and finally, Semovente 47/32.  I already painted the first two models, so now I have finished the little Semovente 47/32.

These little tank destroyers after the fall of Tunis in 1943 were stationed in Italy, with units attached to the “Black Shirt” Divisions  and Livorno infantry division in Sicily. They saw action in defence of the island when the Allies invaded in  1943 with Operation Husky.

Unfortunately for the Semovente 47/32, when they entered service, they faced newer allied tank designs, with better armour and firepower. The 47mm gun was ineffective against medium tanks like  M4 Sherman, and barely adequate against smaller allied light tanks like the M3 ‘Honey’ Stuart at normal fighting ranges, so I will use the tank carefully in my games, trying to keep it safe under the protection of heavier German tanks or guns.

The model itself is from Warlord Games, resin and metal, but the quality is good and had no flash. The crew was also included, and was mandatory to paint them, as the tank would be absolutely incomplete without the crew, as it is an open top vehicle.

The painting process was the usual;

1) airbrushing the colors, giving them some cenital highlights

2)  gloss varnish

3) decals  

4) gloss varnish again in order to protect the previous work

5) color filter by Ammo Mig

6) Oil dots for color fading

7) Pin wash in the recesses with dark enamel by Tamiya

8) 2 color chipping

9) rust, streaking grime

10) dust effects, mud, and then matt varnish

11)spilled grease/oil , basing and finished!

I hope you like this little vehicle, cheers!

28mm Church Warlord Games/Italeri

 Hello mates,

I recently bought a second hand Warlord Games Church. It is an Italeri 1/72 scale Church, sold by Warlord as a result of collaboration between Italeri and Warlord Games since the last few years.

I wanted this kit since I saw it for the first time, although is not as well detailed as resin kits from Tabletop World, it is a decent model and reasonably priced, and above all,  is perfect for  a Mediterranean Church for my WW2 Sicily project or my XVII c. battles in Spain , like my siege of Gerona 1684 project.

Its size also convinced me, because it is tall but not too big in its footprint (remember it is 1/72). I got my inspiration with smaller footprint buildings from Sidney Roundwood's blog.

By the way, I got it quite cheap and it also came already built in a second hand app in Spain, so the painting process began almost inmediately after receiving it at home!  With the church I also bought a couple of Italeri mediterranean houses, in 1/72 but perfect for 28mm , and they also came fully built although unpainted :)

I usually paint my scenery with airbrush and expensive paints and materials, but this time I wanted to try something different:

A quick'n dirty way to finish off the building in no time!

The church came built, so I primed it in grey.

1) first step was picking a wide brush and craft paints and basecoated in dark grey the stones and red the roof, although the shingles are not modelled as mediterranean shingles and look like slate plates, but anyway I wanted them red.

2) I then changed the brush and started painting individually some stone and bricks and shingles, randomly in different shades of grey or red.

3) After that, I washed the whole model in dark brown oil paint with White Spirit

4) 2 days later, I decided to paint different colors of oil dots in the the whole model, and then fading the dots with the wide brush moistened in white spirit, with vertical brush strokes.

5) 2 days later the fun began with the drybrushing stage, light grey and creamy color in all the stone parts, and light red on the roof.

6) then some static grass and matt varnish.

It was very simple and easy to do , and the result is satisfactory, although it is not an award winning piece of terrain, it does it job in the gaming table.

I hope you find it useful !

Bolt Action: Italian tanks in Sicily 1943

 Hello,

I needed a rest of XVII c. painting, so I took a couple of kits from the pile of lead (or resin, or plastic) for my Bolt Action growing collection.  As an ex modeller and current wargamer, I love painting WWII tanks and planes, and I am also a fan of rare vehicles or not so well not tanks, so here you have my Italian tank force for operation Husky,  Sicily July 1943.

left: Semovente 90/53  right: Renault R35

I have built a small force of German Panzer force of Hermann Göring division (Panzer III and Panzer IV in plastic, Warlord and Rubicon) and now I need some Italians.   Italian armoured forces in Sicily in 1943 were very weak after their defeat in Africa, and most armor was in the Italian Peninsula, with their amoured divisions being rebuilt... So no M13/40 or Semovente 75/18 medium vehicles in Sicily, just light tanks and obsolete vehicles like old vintage Fiat tanks from 1920's or ex French  Renault R35, but also brand new Semovente 90/53 tank hunters.

 I have used both R35 and Semovente 90/53,  Warlord Games and Blitzkrieg Miniatures respectively. None of them is of great quality;

R35 from Warlord is just ok, it does its duty, not a bad model but not great either.  But I expected more from Semovente 90/53 from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, is my first vehicle from this company, and in the web I saw a nice render with smooth finish and crisp detail.... It was not like that in the flesh, although it had no flash, the sculpting was a little crude, and the gun shield seemed 3D printed in resin but the rivets were not properly printed so I had to clean and remove some of them :(   anyway, and despite those setbacks, both models were nice enough for me and when painted, they look good in my opinion.

The semovente 90/53 was a 90mm gun mounted on a tank hull, basically. 24 Semovente 90/53s saw service against the Allies in the 10° Raggruppamento Semoventi, which was stationed in Sicily during the Allied invasion in 1943. Following the Italian surrender in September 1943, the few surviving Semoventi da 90/53 were seized by the German Army, but were of little value in the mountainous terrain of Northern Italy where they operated. As a result, most finished their careers as long-range artillery.

French Renault R35 light tank was captured in huge numbers by the Wehrmacht in 1940, as it was considered obsolete by 1941, The Germans sent the Italian Army 124 R35s, with which the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment formed two battalions. The two battalions were assigned to the 131st Tank Infantry Regiment, which was deployed in January 1942 to Sicily. There, the regiment's CI Tank Battalion "R35" was assigned to the XII Army Corps defending the island's West, while the regiment with the CII Tank Battalion "R35" joined the XVI Army Corps defending the island's South. It used some of its R35s in defence of Gela on Sicily against US Rangers and British troops, with little success.

The painting process of both was the usual with tanks: airbrushing the colors, giving them some cenital highlights, then gloss varnish,  decals  (Warlord Games), and varnish again in order to protect the previous work, and then all the weathing with enamels and oils from Ammo Mig or AK interactive; filters, oil dots, pin washes, chipping, rust, streaking grime, dust effects, mud, and then matt varnish, spilled grease/oil and finished!

I like to base my tank models in order to give them some protection when using them on the gaming table.

Finally, although they were featured in an other post in this blog, I want to show you my full Axis tank force in Sicily. 

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2018/07/ww2-mood-panzers-in-sicily-43.html

My Hermann Göring division Panzer III ausf.M and Panzer IV ausf.G from Warlord Games and Rubicon Models respectively!

As always, I like a pic of me with the painted models. Sadly I have not been (yet) in Fort Sill (Ok, USA),  where the last Semovente 90/53 is kept, but I have seen most French tanks in Saumur Tank Museum in France.

Cheers!

Bolt Action: Manchukuo's Type 94 Tankette

Hello guys,

some months ago I decided to paint a small force for Warlord Games' Bolt Action, a defense force of the Empire of Manchukuo.  I know it is a rare subject, but I liked the idea of an auxiliary army fighting bandits, Chinese or Soviets in the steppes of Far East, with cavalry, outdated equipment and such. I started the project with a plane, a Japanese fighter in Manchukuo's service, you can see it here:
https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2019/12/air-support-for-bolt-action-manchukuos.html

And next miniature is a "tank" well, a tankette, a type 94, also of Japanese origin, we know Japan supplied Manchukuo with at least 10 of these vehicles throughout the war, amongst other vehicles, but I found this one was the nicest of all (imho).

The kit is in resin and metal, by Warlord Games, painted with Ammo Mig paints and weathered in the usual way of enamel washes, chipping and pigments. This time I think I did too much dusting on the vehicle, but it is not a big issue given the dusty and sandy terrain of the north China/Mongolian plains.

I downloaded a Manchukuo flag from the internet and added it to the tank, following the Japanese way of attaching flags to vehicles, in order to give some colour to the little model.  It's not my best paintjob, but I like it anyway.

I also like to use a picture of me with the vehicle painted, It is almost a tradition in this blog, so... here you have.

Cheers

30 Years War: more French reinforcements & Spanish gun.

Hello guys,

I continue in a French mood, so the past week I decided to do some more modifications and touches on my miniatures in order to convert the following:

- a Swedish leather gun (double barrel) into a French saker

- English Civil War cavalry into French "Dauphin Gendarmes" regiment.

The first one is the leather gun, I bought it from Warlord games a few years ago, and painted it with a lot of blue tones, but now that my Swedish project has been abandoned, and turned it into French, I retired the double leather barrel of the gun, and substituted it with a spare resin gun from Warlord Games saker.

I have left the crew as they were painted, but now I see them and feel that all those blue tones are a bit unnatural for the nature of 30 Years War... I mean, too uniformed for the French in the 1630-50' and those tones are not very appropriate for artillery crew... so I may repaint a couple of things here and there with browns or greys... What do you think, they still look too Swedish?

The second unit is a French cavalry squadron, from the regiments "Dauphin Gendarmes" , I took the flag from this old blog, which has very useful information about wargaming TYW French:

http://mtsc-tyw-french.blogspot.com/2009/04/cavalry.html

The miniatures are not painted by me, I bought them from the talented Peter Walker, who has also an interesting blog, just look on the right column of the blogs I follow.

I rebased the miniatures, and repainted the sashes and scarfs in white, the colour of the French monarchy, and as I said, put a new French flag and now the unit seems a lot more French, imho. Of course I avoide English features like the Tri bar Helmets or Montero hats,  so now with their more European Lobster helmet and broad brimmed hat, the unit is very "TYW".

Apart from the previous French units, I mentioned a saker from Warlord Games, so I show you here, painted some years ago, as a Spanish gun.  Before painting it, I used "instant mould" with the gun in order to have spare resin copies for my artillery needs, and thanks to that, I was able to use one of those to convert the Swedish leather gun into a Saker or medium artillery.

I hope you like them.