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

Comments

Christopher Stannard - September 22, 2021

These look grand (apart from the helmets ).

Something I would like to see is a line of quick-build softskin vehicles. Fit two generic jeeps each of say less than a dozen simple parts on one of the large sprues. Put two such sprues in a box and you could have 4 plastic jeeps for around £15-£20. At the moment you would pay that for one! The detail on it may be great but is more than a lot of gamers need.

The jeep would sell because nearly everybody used it. Follow on models could be the kubelwagen, Bedford MWD, or anything that wargamers need more than one of. Larger vehicles could be one per sprue, keeping the simple theme of around a dozen simple parts each.

JTam - September 22, 2021

Reference the helmets:
The Italian M33 helmet worn in WW2 slopes downward from the front to approximately in front of ear and then back up. Seen from the side this makes an inverted triangle or “v” shape.
The helmet on the miniatures slants up or is possible horizontal from the front to approximately in front of the ear and the back down. Seen from the side this makes a “^” shape.
The helmets on the miniatures are not a terrible match for the modern Italian Army helmet or any of the 90s to know PASGT clones.
Will have to build these as Alpini or perhaps with the sun hats (which look a little small, but not terribly so).
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Plastic Italian cavalry would be awesome. As would motorbikes. (Same kit?) You could include the Carcano carbines in the set.

Justin - September 22, 2021

Awesome. They look fantastic and the fact you managed to fit all the heads and a healthy mix of rifles, carbines, SMGs and LMGs is great. And fitting backpacks on the sprue makes me extra happy personally. With a good mix of arms from other kits to replace the weapons with mausers, MP40s and Vz.26s (The french kit’s FM24 LMGs are close enough.) they can work well enough for Slovak troops as well.

But like others, I have to do a little nitpicking, but it’s not about the helmets, I can live with those being a slightly weird shape. What the hell is going on with that Breda Mod. 37? The receiver is missing the feed tray, and why is there a box on it? The Breda 37 was fed from 20 round stripper clips and there was no box/bag mount on either side of the gun. They all had to be fed by hand.

In regards to Y. Whateley’s comments. Making these work for World War I can be done, but the SMGs are definitely extremely wrong. The uniform is perfectly passable. The rifles are fine. A bit shorter than the WWI era model, but at 28mm scale this barely matters (Some company, like Warlord for example, can’t even keep small arms in scale anyways. Anyone who’s seen the insane length of the M1 Carbines on their recent metal airborne models knows what’s talking about.) Helmets are wrong of course, but here’s the great thing about that. Again, a solution from the French kit. Italy in World War I bought French steel helmets. They needed them fast, and that was the best solution to them because fighting in the mountains produced so much extra shrapnel, and consequently head wounds, from all the bits of rock breaking off from artillery and ricocheting rounds.
So, no SMGs, no LMGs, no Breda HMGs, drop the heads, and get spare French heads, or stick with the soft covers (Italy didn’t really change hat styles between the wars much either.) The rifles and carbines both work fine. Italy, like everyone else in the war, began to shorten rifles and issue more carbines as time went on.

Gordon - September 22, 2021

This is great news but I’d like to suggest another Italian kit you could make money on , WWW. Italian Motorcyclists , been waiting for years for some to make in 28mm , to go worth a the rule sets like “bolt action” that listed them but not one makes the models so we can’t play with them in our army lists ….if someone made these kits they make a killing selling them , and as a hobby store owner I’d need to buy them by the case load , cheers

Nick slanning - September 22, 2021

Jtam- I see your comment about their lids, some of the helmets have a weird ridge on them. Yeah not exactly a M33.

Francesco Chiementin - September 22, 2021

Thank you very much for giving Italian Army such a beautiful set. With these options you can make infantry, naval infantry, colonial troops, bersaglieri and even Alpini (Mountain troops). Couldnt be Better.

Fabio - September 22, 2021

E ANDIAMOOOOO, FINALMENTE!!!!
Finally, I’m really, REALLY happy to see this!! :)

David Reay - September 22, 2021

Very nice, I look forward to getting some.
Nice to see hats for Alpini and Bersagliari included, should be very popular!

Y. Whateley - September 22, 2021

Scott – September 21, 2021 – “Excellent choice to add to the under represented Italians to the line of World Ablaze figures… (Also thank you for not putting space helmets and Ray-guns in the box….)”

Come to think of it, there might be more mileage to be gained from continuing to produce these great under-represented historical kits from all sorts of eras, along with some kits of generic sci-fi and fantasy bits like ray-guns and cyborg parts and so on that can be used to kit-bash any historical kit into a Death Fields sci-fi army, or whatever else the modeler can imagine.

This looks like it will be a great addition to the WWII line, and I like the inclusion of those axes and heavy machine-guns, along with the usual and well-appreciated variety of heads and arms for producing armies for a variety of theaters and eras.

Speaking of which, sure, it’s not EXACTLY accurate, but it seems to me these guys could be handwaved pretty easily into WWI, and maybe even Victorian sci-fi settings (the steel helmets are maybe a bit too modern, but the pith helmets and feathers can surely come in handy for this purpose, the uniforms are similar, and I believe the Carcano rifles are probably accurate as well.) These guys will probably kitbash nicely with the French Resistance fighters, too – I believe some of the SMGs and grenades from that set are accurate for WWI Italian soldiers.

And I’m not a player of this game (at least not yet, you guys are selling me on it), but it looks to me like these guys will fit in well with the 0200 Night Raids thing as well: some of Mussolini’s fascists seem like they’ll be a perfect foil for some of those skirmishes!

Can’t wait to see what else is upcoming – I’m pretty excited about the preview renders of what look like a modern set with AKMs in it, the trolls, what seems to be a sci-fi set of robot/cyborg bits, and all of the upcoming secret sets. Looks like this is a great time to be a 28mm wargamer and miniature hobbiest! :)

JTam - September 22, 2021

Great set for a nice hole in the market.

The included tripod mounted machineguns are a nice touch. Thank You for making the backpacks separate.

The helmets are completely wrong though. Not kinda wrong in a nitpicking way. Completely wrong shape.