Latest 28mm WW2 Project

These are just beautiful figures from Wargames Atlantic - Italian WW2 Infantry (see below, two boxes needed for a 1940 Italian Infantry Platoon): 

I am in the process of building up a force for Chain of Command. The source of this interest came from a recent holiday to Italy (an absolutely beautiful country) and Rome is the Eternal City. In addition, on my return, I started reading this book (see below, basically everything you wanted to know about the Italians in WWII but were afraid to ask - a highly recommended read): 

Also useful, is this assembly and painting guide for the Wargames Atlantic WW2 Italian Infantry (see below, Wargames Atlantic page watch-listen-learn and be inspired to so it yourself [the video is really useful]): 

https://wargamesatlantic.com/blogs/news/valhalla-reviews-the-ww2-italians?srsltid=AfmBOoqszIwSdZIKvxmyl57Z2d1NvoieHkTJRMRt7MYSYfUDrWPkhAAe

Happy days ahead. Watch this space for updates!

Boardgame: By Stealth and By Sea - WW2 Italian Special Forces

I "finally" got round to playing this intriguing little game. A solo, or collaborative style game where each player is an Italian "pig" (SLC) Human Torpedo of the Decima Flottiglia MAS, tasked with destroying Allied warships in Mediterranean harbours (Gibraltar, Alexandria and Algiers). A  novel and beguiling game, against a British (RN) "Bot" defense. The players are endlessly frustrated with countless "faults" in their equipment, quite how the Italians ever got near their targets in real-life is quite beyond me (see below, the imagery gives an accurate impression of a "hard day in the office" - now imagine people dropping small depth charges near you and it you surface a searchlight and rifle fire await): 

Sadly (or rather unfortunately for the RN) HMS Sheffield is now lying at the bottom of Gibraltar harbour! Three "pigs" (SLC) attacked. One crew was killed. One crew was captured (but sank HMS Sheffield at berth). One crew escaped (but only after their "pig" SLC developed a fatal malfunction within sight of HMS Renown and had to be "scuttled")! 

It certainly has great replay value!

Operation Compass: Tamar West - Operational Planning Map

As the attack on Tamar West unfolded through the Zoom sessions, as a British player, I tried to keep track of the assault as it progressed up the board. From the turret top of the Matilda I tried to keep a careful annotation, but as you can see the continuous movement made my hand very shaky (see below, hard black ink for the first session, red for the second phase of the attack  ): 

The intensity of the artillery fire is in proportion to the density of the ink. Respect is due to teh Italian gunners who stayed with their guns until the last.

But is it air.

Beda Fomm - Board Game Play - Play Testing

You read the set of rules, they seem straightforward (but even ten pages can contain a lot - now don't get me talking on DBA's six pages of simple rules needing seventy two pages of fan based explanation spanning several years of collaborative argumentation - over the meaning of rules after well-meaning and competition gamers get their mucky little hands on them) but until .. you get the playing pieces out on the board and start moving them around .. you don't realise the limitations of the brain's short term memory in understanding stuff. All good fun when play testing with friends though (see below, Beda Fomm set-up after what we thought was an accurate turn one - but looking at the board, flicking back to the rules and then reading the small print we realised "how wrong we were"): 

In the above you see an overuse of the "Move - No AT Fire" marker - which looked messy and we thought that cannot be right. Reading the rules again we find this isn't needed for all troops as not all troop types have AT fire capability (makes kind of sense). So particularly with respect to infantry, AT and Artillery if they do have inherent AT capability and they move they get a marker (tick). Art, AT and Regular firings are split out into different phases so this is an  fiddly but important "aide memoire" for the game (and as I sit typing I could not tell you for sure if that also applies to armour - I don't think so as it represents set-up time for guns etc but I will have to check). 

Secondly stacking limits really make this a "puzzle game" (as per the comment in the video I watched), but the Italian has some crazy "battalion sized truck units" (that represent feeing Italian non-fighting admin units) that have "minimal combat value" (aka the mighty "1") and serve mainly to get in the way of Italian unit movement and be VPs for the British and Commonwealth player. As it is a battalion size it will block another battalion from moving through them on the road - but the Italian has the option of "parking by the road" (stacking value zero but an auto kill if in combat). On the game test we even read simple movement values wrong, as we saw one Italian unit had a movement value of eight which translated into thirty two road hexes (wow) .. but only as we were packing away did we discover other units had a value of six (twenty four road hexes) so the convoy would really have travelled at the speed of the slowest unit until "first contact" with the enemy. This meant that the above board is wrong and a turn one encounter is impossible which also explains why our first move looked so unhistorical (as historically British and Commonwealth infantry blocked the road while the armoured cars prowled the flank shooting up "parked" lorries - but as we were playing it, the infantry would not have time to get there). 

As a design comment I can so see Frank Chadwick's interest in morale (which came through hard and fast in the later Command Decision set[s] of rules), as each formation (not counter) has its own morale tracker. Some of the Italian (mostly infantry) start really low at 6 (and as morale checks are equal to or under this value on 2d6, they are already behind the curve). Lots of combat results ask for "morale checks", lose one and you can die or retreat - and losing a morale also check means your formation "morale tracker" goes down by one and as continual combats keep asking you to pass a "morale check" - life becomes very hard vey quickly, which makes a nice vicious circle. With all these vital statistics captured on the board with small counters on tracks, it is a game that you don't want to play around cats or small inquisitive children! Nevertheless I am looking forward to the next game test when we move onto a bit of combat. I am interested to see how the game plays for the first five turns as the game quickly board fills up with Italians facing Combeforce (the RTR start arriving for the British and Commonwealth forces at the start of turn six). 

Note: The goals here are to (a) play the game in full 'correctly' and (b) spot battalion+ sized vignettes on the table top in Command Decision.

 

WWII Desert War Information - Beds Fomm and more

http://www.desertrats.org.uk/battles1941.htm#Beda

Beda Fomm Board Game - YouTube Game Report (1979 version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TBpoAj1Qg

Found by a friend for me, amazing what is out there on the internet!

Interestingly this was for the 1979, not 2010 version! Point taken with respect to it being a scenario specific puzzle game based on the uniqueness of he Beda Fomm circumstances rather than a generic battle system. 

Beda Fomm Boxed Game

A few weeks into 2022 and already there seems to be a steady meme or theme to my interests emerging, aka around the battles from the early Western Desert 1940-41 with the Western Desert Force taking on the Italians 10th Army. I was just thinking out loud to myself on a previous post of pushing this thought experiment forward, along the lines of perhaps revisiting the old Command Decisions rules set (aka Frank Chadwick) .. Benghazi Handicap being long out of print and circulation (but there is a Beda Fomm scenario on the Command Decision: Test of Battle website). Then out of the blue a good friend (who read the earlier blog post) sent me a special "surprise" package through the post - a very, very relevant game called Beda Fomm. This is an absolute gem, being a Consim Press 2010 republished version of a 1979 game from Frank Chadwick [yes, of my favourite Command Decision fame .. but note the year "1979", this is pre-Command Decision I publication date, but reading the game you can clearly see the influences coming through that he tool and emerged/developed into Command Decision miniature rules set]. Please see the Boardgamegeek links below for more detail (see below, and it just goes to show that a "good game" is still a "good game" no matter the "age of the game"; the difference between the two edition just seems to be more of map and counter production quality not rules):

1979: Original

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6914/beda-fomm

2010: Re-Published

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72941/beda-fomm

There is some lovely evocative box art too on the new game too, along with excellent quality counters and maps inside (see below, you have got to love seeing those MK VIs tin-can light tanks looking busy as they boldly go striding across the desert): 

The actual game map (or battle area) is only a very small part of the Western Desert as the battle came at the very end of Operation Compass - when the Italians were in full retreat and was in effect a brilliant "closing the door" swinging movement of British armour from out the desert which sealed the fate of the Italian 10th Army once and for all in Cyrenaica (see below, the map; the plan is to play the game to see where the battles occur and then put this area of interest onto the table top under "Edition One(?)" Command Decision [CD I]): 

Note: All this Western Desert Force interest in 10mm means that there has been lack of painting progress on the15mm Malburians - they are "furloughed" as such for the time being, but rest assured their time will come.

Breaking News: Somebody else seems to be doing something very similar to me in 2022! Lovely terrain, some nice 6mm models and Command Decision (IV) Test of Battle, see link below: 

http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.com/2022/01/swanning-about-in-desert-command.html

Test of Battle Beda Fomm Scenario

The last revision of the Command Decision WWII wargame rules system was Command Decision: Test of Battle (see link below): 

https://testofbattle.com/upload/bob/Pimple_OB.htm

https://testofbattle.com/

https://testofbattle.com/phpBB2/index.php

The site itself does not seem to have been updated since 2011, however from here you can see the OrBats and scenario (see below, a screenshot of the British Order of Battle):

And the Italians too (see below, quite a few M13/40's required)

Command Decision formation morale values are shown (see below, not sure what game system WPD is referring to)

The aim for me is perhaps to do this in 10mm Pendrakon. It would be interesting to find out if CD: Test of Battle (or any other variant is still actively being played in the wargaming community). There does seem to be "some" activity on the linked CD:TOB forum. 

10mm Pendrakon Western Desert Italians Storage

Finally with several layers of PVA'ed breakfast cereal cardboard reinforcing the bottom of the empty chocolate box the Italians have a secure home (for storage purposes at least, their lifespan on a wargames table against the Matildas of the 8th Army may be open to conjecture). Internally the ever useful coffee stirrers garnered from coffee establishments when they were open become excellent dividers (see below, infantry divided from armour and supports and subdivided into:  various types of armour - infantry v infantry support - anti-tank assets, recon and HQ): 

Altogether a nice excuse to treat the family to chocolates and then put the "upgraded firm bottomed" box to good use.

The First Corona Project Completed: An Italian Western Desert Task Force

Next comes the armour (see below, there may be fifty shades of grey but I am using three grades of sand on top of one layer of primer that gets washed in "Vallejo Brown Wash"):

I took one vehicle (M11/39) through to completion to get a feel of what to do (see below, kinda got it, taking Green Ochre (914), mixing it with Buff (976) and finally highlighting in pure Buff):

The tracks were initially painted in Flat Brown (984) and the highlighted in Gun Metal, flowed by a Black Wash and further Gun Metal highlight (see below, primed and ready for action):

From another angle coming at you (see below, the 47mm gun is the hull is anachronistic, the Italians only ever bothered equipping two battalions in the Western Desert with them, but a tank is still a tank when the other side does not have one):

The finished one alongside the other painted in the base coat Green Ochre (914) on the 40mm bases (see below, the Italian armoured column is taking shape):

The 10mm Western Desert Italian Project (see below, Infantry done, supports painted and half based, armour just started painting):

Pause for thought .. mu eldest wanted some help painting a D&D figure (Iron Golem) so while he was learning the secrets of "bronze armour" - I also experimented with Citadel Texture pain and under-painted bases (see red-orange-yellow). The idea being you paint over the bright colours in thick back texture paint goo. The goo dries, cracks and the colours of hell seep through the cracks. It can be extremely dramatic and very effective. Part way through this process I thought - they would be quite good as Chain of Command "shock markers (see below, the acolyte in training and are those "shock markers" I see?): 

An aerial shot of the painting table (see below, 28mm WWII British Infantry sprues on the top left, 28mm GW Fantasy bottom left, 10mm Pendrakon WWII Italians in the middle):

A close-up of the WIP 10mm Italians (see below, I am having second thoughts on how "light" the sand is on the finished infantry bases):

The Italians from another angle (see below, in the background you can see the bottom half of a Steve Young San Fran QB "Action Figure" - although it has to be said I am more of a Joe Montana fan):

An artistic shot of the Painting Table and a hint at my bookshelf (see below, a lot of Vallejo Paints [and unopened can of Carlsberg Export] - including duplicates - see previous post for details):

Another look at those bases (see below, they definitely look like "shock markers" to me): 

The Italian armoured column gets a Green Ochre and Buff 50:50 mix (see below, I can see the effect coming on nicely):

Buff highlight and I think we are there. Other bits, exhausts Flat Brown with Red Leather Highlight. Spades and MGs, black with Gun Metal highlight, tyres black with a mixed a dark grey highlight (see below, based on PVA dunked in sand and grit, soaked with an Anita's Acrylic Coffee Brown diluted wash):

Now came a a depressing moment when I took yet another look at the infantry basing and finally accepted that they were too light (see below, I preferred the look of the infantry supports and armour): 

The horrible answer was to Brown Wash the bases and start from the mid-tone up again (see below, once I had done one base I knew it was the right thing to do, that way they were all based the same too - which as a collection works better IMHO):

Finally painted awaiting a matte varnish (see below, after all the effort I put into these I decided I was not going to skimp on a varnish to make the wargaming figures more "wearable" or protect from hand-to-hand contact or is that clumsy handling combat?):

The Italian Infantry package (see below, note the alternative use of a chocolate box - which needs a bit of strengthening and interior divisions, so they don't all end up in a heap in transport):

The "Final Showcase I" (see below, head-on a furious sight of Italian armour and infantry in rapid advance):

The "Final Showcase II" (see below, side-on - a nice target for artillery):

The Italian Army is now in search of the British Western Desert Force (WDF) under General Richard O'Connor.

More importantly in the context of current world events - this is my first (perhaps of many) Corona Virus Lock-Down [UK] Projects.

WW2 Western Desert Italians: 10mm

A Note to Self: This is how I painted these (so I can remember how I did it when I get another set or want to paint Italians in a different scale)

The Italian Western Desert Party Pack (Blitzkreg Commander - alt high I don't have that particular set of rules we have plenty more that can just be as useful)  of 10mm wonder from Pendrakon Miniatures, which I am proud to say is a local 'Smoggie' firm near Middlesbrough, UK (see below, a mixture of roughly some 40 infantry with MG supports (3), mortars (3) and anti-tank guns (2); plus a mixture of Italian light armour - to be fair they didn't have anything really heavy metal to speak of - an armoured car AB/41, 3 x M13/40 and 2 x M11/39, plus a random truck, which I suppose the CO can travel around in): 

Separating out the infantry into sections of thee (see below, that way I can get a ten plus  bases to make platoon or  squad/section bases for most WWII Battalion-Company OrBats):

"Ubiquitous" general purpose coffee stirrers [one thousand and one other uses thereof] are used to based the files and washed miniatures (see below, a good strong [but relatively cheap] drop of superglue attaches said figures to the coffee stirrers, strong enough to hold them in place through the following painting process):

The infantry are "en masse" primed with Airfix Acrylic (01) Grey Primer - my favourite priming tipple, now back in circulation (see below, painted on not sprayed - you get to know the figures better that way):

Vallejo Brown wash is liberally inserted into all their nooks and crannies (see below, that overall yucky brown which accentuates shadows and is a lovely surface to paint on with the paint adhering beautifully):

Vallejo Game Colour Dark Flesh (see below, faces, hands and the off sunburned pair of legs in Italian football shorts):

An undercoat of Khaki (Vallejo Model Colour 70.988) for all the material parts of the Italian kit, a base colour (see below, this just lightened the grey/brown washed area to paint the true colours on later):

Helmets come next, Vallejo Model Colour 70.914 - Ochre Green (see below, there must be fifty shades of sand to match their fifty shades of grey in the Vallejo paint ranges):

The soldiers long socks (puttees - which are just like long rolls of bandages) are next with Vallejo Model Colour 70.888 Olive Grey (see below, a little green which comes as a bit of light relief):

Getting their the base-coats are now pretty much their apart from the shoes and rifles (see below, an Italian officer "becoming the part"):

I am adopting the "factory style" production line, trying to be a "ruthless finisher" of projects (see below - keeping pesky 28mm models that need assembling to one side out of sight, just for now at least):

This is the point where I start to believe it's working, the Vallejo Model Desert Yellow 70.977 takes hold on the tunics and pants (see below, I see them now as "sons of the desert"):

Khaki (70.988) is (re)applied on the canvas bags, water bottles and webbing, in addition to the famous Italian desert jacket so beloved by their officers, the Sahariana Jacket (see below, the Italian equivalent of the "the Rommel look"):

Vallejo Game Colour of Beasty Brown on the rifle stocks (see below, a small and quick detail):

Next comes the shoes and belts, Vallejo Model 70.894 Flat Brown (see below, small changes but creeping towards a finished product):

Flat Black on the rifle barrels, Vallejo Model Colour 70. and the face and hands [and some knees] gets the flesh highlight Vallejo Game Colour Dwarf Flesh (below, the model has now been covered all over since the Vallejo Brown Wash stage - the flesh highlight bringing them "to life"):

A little closer inspection on the WIP (see below, it has been a bit of a trek to get to this point and it is tempting to base "as-is" but a few extra highlights is well worth it):

Highlight on the tunic, mixing Desert Yellow (70.977) with Buff (70.976) on the upper edges (see below, it lightens the figures up nicely):

Highlighting the puttees with Olive Grey (70.888) mixed with Khaki (70.988) to sparkle the socks (see below, just a tiny dab you hardly notice):

Highlight the rifle with Gun Metal to give a light shine on the edges (see below, it breaks the black up nicely):

Highlight the shoes and belts with Red Leather (70.818) for a highlight spot effect (see below, the shoes get a dab and the belt a fine traced line, less is more here):

Highlight the canvas with Khaki (70.988) and Stone Grey (70.884) aka the bags and fancy commander jackets (see below, coming together nicely):

Highlight the Rifle Stock with Snakebite Leather (see below, to be fair the before and after shot looked the same to me so you could easily skip this step):

Highlight the helmet Green Ochre (70.914) mixed with Buff (70.976) to give a nice reflective contrast (see below, the figures are technically complete):

A quick check that nothing has been missed (see below, there is always something that is missed on the first pass):

The gallery tour: A Commander in cool Sahariana Jacket (see below, obviously looking at something far off on the horizon, perhaps an approaching Rommel in his 250 half-track or a 8th Army Matilda):

The Commander with some infantry (see below, they seem pretty animated chaps):

A strip of infantry, not many infantry poses [four I think] but they mix well (see below, all told I painted thirty seven for my battalion/company/platoon [delete as applicable] force):

Varnish: Using Humbrol Matte Coat as my varnish of choice, as in what was close to hand and seems to work nicely despite being twenty years old [surely not?] - safe to say that I don't varnish as a matter of course, perhaps it is the smell that puts me off (see below, the overall effect is to dull down, conceal any chalkiness of the paints and homogenise the feel of the figure):

My Italian "paint" part of the the Job has been done (see below, I am quite proud of them):

Next Stage: Basing them in the "sands of the desert" as "sons of the desert".