World War 2 Italians in Hard Plastic! Pre-order Now!

Comments

JP - October 11, 2021

When it rains it pours. We have nothing 28mm Italian infantry in plastic and now we have 2 manufacturers. Very welcomed. I think I will give this offering a go before looking at the Warlords games release.

George - October 5, 2021

however, although italian army fought in many fronts, the most important was North Africa, in which Mussolini wanted to build his empire, I miss to see some camiciotto sahariano tropical uniform, plus short trousers, short sleeve shirts, military short boots instead of putties and some heads to built the famous Camicie Nere, or “Mussolini Boys”, as they were known by their british oponents, that wore fez instead of helmets. However, there’s plenty room in order to add more figures to this topic, such as Genio Guastatori regiment (military engineers), San Marino naval infantry and Askari colonial troops.
Thank you.

George - October 5, 2021

Very nice addition for an often ignored or left aside WW2 country and army in 1/56 scale.
There’s a reasonable offer in 1/72 size.
This is the first multi pose hard plastic italians in the market, although BA is preparing one, but ignored releasing time.
I understand that this is a first step in what I hope to be more to come, howe

—51 51– - September 24, 2021

If only I’d read this before journeying around the net looking for a Breda 37 with a cooling box and shroud (I knew a little about bredas), however I now know a bit more about Italian m.g.’s, and the Fiat-Revelli Modello 1914. :)

Y. Whateley - September 23, 2021

Good catch, Justin! I would never have known the difference, I was going partly by photos of the Breda M-37, and just figured that it was a happy coincidence that the two guns happened to have a rough similarity, and the model seemed to make the similarity even closer! A mistaken identity explains a lot.

Speaking of photos, I found this amazing reference photo of an Italian machine-gun company ca. 1917, in uniform with rifles (Carcano carbines?) and their Fiat Revelli M-1914:
http://www.sadefensejournal.com/wp/fiat-revelli-modelo-1914/2/

Looks like a great match for what’s in this WWII kit aside from the helmets, which do indeed look like the ones that WA’s WWI French are wearing, so I think a WW2 to WW1 Italian project would be about as quick and easy a kit-bash as one could hope for! :)

Justin - September 23, 2021

It’s funny that Whateley mentions the Fiat-Revelli Modello 1914…. because looking very hard at that “Breda Mod. 37” again…. It’s actually the evolution of the Fiat-Revelli modello 1914. The modello 1935. Which is belt fed, has a receiver and barrel silhouette identical to the model depicted, and was both belt fed and had a box mount on the feeding side. So, I withdraw my previous nitpick about it being a terrible looking Breda Mod. 37, as it turns out it isn’t one at all. The gun isn’t incorrectly modeled, the article’s author just claimed the incorrect name for it.

Y. Whateley - September 23, 2021

I also really like the suggestions from Christopher Stannard and Gordon for kits of motorcycles, jeeps, and other light vehicles!

Drivers might be a bit tricky to do in a way that would make vehicle kits completely versatile across different militaries and eras, but I bet it can be done. with a little creativity (generic enough arms and seated legs separate from torsos could be used for default drivers, while replacement torsos and heads could be sourced from infantry kits to change the drivers to other nationalities, perhaps.)

A kit of nice, generic motorcycles (with optional sidecars) and bicycles, a kit with a couple jeeps, a kit with a couple Ford Model-T’s, and you’ve got the start of a line of some of the more versatile and popular light vehicles for a span of time periods, nations, and genres!

(Anything very much more substantial than a jeep or Model-T, like tanks, trucks, and halftracks, and you’re probably going to be competing with 1/48 scale model kit manufacturers who have surely had this ground covered for a long, long time, but some simple 28mm heroic-scale light military vehicle kits are surely doable, and fit well with the tabletop wargaming hobby!)

Come to think of it, 20th century Accessory/Objective kits might not be a bad idea for skirmish gaming use: generic spotlights, command posts, guard houses/check-points, radio shacks, generators, gun emplacements, pillboxes, and the like: the sorts of stuff that commandos, resistance fighters, and so on would want to blow up or capture, while their opponents try to defend the objectives. This sort of thing would mostly work for anything from WWI to the mid-20th century or later, I imagine – maybe even up to the 21st century, and I imagine two or three such objectives could fit on a sprue, with two to four sprues per box (judging from the Le Grognards accessory sprues, I think a one-man guard shack, small generator, and mortar emplacement, for example, would probably fit comfortably on a sprue, with maybe a little extra room for a handful of spare bits like guard’s arms with rifles slung over shoulders or arms holding clipboards/binoculars/flashlights/radios or other watchman/guard/officer type gear, small terrain pieces like signs or telegraph poles, ammo boxes or jerry-cans, 55-gallon drums, a figure or two such as guard dogs, or the like.)

Y. Whateley - September 23, 2021

Another rough-and-dirty conversion possibility:

I think one can probably get away with kit-bashing these guys with the WA’s German Infantry (1916-1918), to create some Austro-Hungarians. These helmets and soft caps don’t look too far off from the Austro-Hungarian stuff, and the Carcano rifles in this scale aren’t completely dissimilar to the Austrian Steyr-Mannlicher M-1895. The Germans’ uniforms don’t look very far off from the Austrians, the C-96 pistols should be accurate.

The two Breda 37 machine guns with a little modification and suspension of disbelief could be rebuilt into Skoda M-1909s (the barrel would need to be replaced with e.g. a bit of polystyrene rod, and a shield scratch-built from e.g. polystyrene sheet, with ammo belts and other accessories sourced or scratch-built somehow as the trickiest part.)

I think this set looks like it should be a real lit with historical WWII and WWI gamers :)

Y. Whateley - September 23, 2021

@Justin – ooh, good call on the French helmets for kitbashing these guys into WWI Italians!

I just realized it probably wouldn’t be too tough to modify those two Breda 37’s into Fiat-Revelli M-1914s: the carriage at that scale looks identical to me, and the grips and receivers look close enough to work at that scale… just need to work out the right barrel (which cold probably be done with some polystyrene rods to simulate the water-jacket/shroud), water-can and hose (which probably wouldn’t be too tough to scratch-build!), and ammo belt box (a little trickier, but I’m sure there are some work-arounds and solutions to be found!)

Darn it, I might convert to a WWI historical gamer yet – I’m having too much fun with the kit-bashing and conversion possibilities, and it’s a fascinating historical period!

Mike - September 22, 2021

A cold war range would be awesome.
Especialy a 70’s/80’s Bundeswehr Jäger or panzergrenadiere