Corpo Truppe Volontarie Completare!

My Italian CTV force, initially started in early 2023, is now complete...three years isn't the longest gap between the start of a project and the conclusion but it isn't exactly the shortest either. 

Here we have the entire reinforced company: three infantry platoons, three platoon commanders, three light machine gun attachments, a company of three heavy machine guns, two 45mm mortars and four tankettes.

The backbone of the force, three platoons of infantry. You can probably spot the three bases initially painted three years ago, they have slightly more yellow grass and some larger shrubs. The infantry uniforms were painted with Vallejo Russian Uniform and the helmets and coat rolls were painted with the slightly darker Vallejo Refractive Green.

A single CTV platoon advancing (likely unsuccessfully) forward.

Here we have three platoon commanders to spur on the reluctant infantry. In Company Command rules, these guys can be spent on an extra order. The officer on the far right is actually a WW1 French officer.

Providing some extra firepower to the infantry sections are the notorious Breda 30 LMGs. Beautifully machined and poorly designed, these LMGs used 20 round strips that were delicate and prone to jamming. In Company Command rules, an LMG attached to an infantry section (i.e. base) provides one extra "shock" die when shooting.

Next up are some heavy support weapons in the form of three water cooled Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914/35 HMGs and two Brixia Model 35 (45mm) mortars. The HMG used a fiddly multi-column strip-feed box magazine that was fed from the left of the gun. The Brixia mortars, while lacking punch, were good weapons that could drop rounds on targets quicky.

Adding some extra "punch", the armored fist of the CTV, four L3/35 tankettes. These little tracked tin cans were already obsolete but will add some firepower and armor. 

As you can see, two are painted with a reddish brown base and green splotches while two are painted with a green/grey base and reddish brown splotches. The Osprey on Tanks of the SCW notes that some of the early tankettes shipped to Spain had the former reddish brown color but later shipments were painted green. So I painted two of each.

And with that, the project is essentially finished. There are extra figures if I wish to add to my force. I also attempted to assemble a Lanzia armored car but that was quite fiddly with the railings and front axle. I may try to give it another go but am still traumatized after gluing my fingers together and various bits to my fingers during the first attempt.

I will try to get these little fellas in to a battle against the International Brigade. Finishing this SCW project reminds me that several other Five Core Company Command projects have been started but not completed: Yom Kippur War, French Indo China and Korean War...one day I will complete them as well. 

Not sure what will be tackled next in the painting queue. Perhaps scenery, perhaps, 6mm stuff, maybe the Moroccan Regulares or even the Wargames Atlantic Azincourt figures...we will see!

Culling of the Lead Herd or Cold Wars 2026

This weekend marked the 2026 edition of HMGS' Cold Wars convention. I was in attendance but you won't see any commentary on games or pictures of games. Nor will you see any pictures of the items I bought (although there were a few). 

Cold Wars 2026 (and boy was it cold!) was about me reducing the lead (and plastic) pile, making space on my bookshelves and streamlining my hobby ventures. I started off with a flea market table overflowing with wares, 4 large boxes worth of rules, books, painted and unpainted miniatures and other random unwanted items. 

Attendance seemed light, which is understandable considering the snow, ice, wind and arctic-level cold that is occurring right now. Even the vendor hall seemed to be missing some of the usual sellers. Despite the light attendance, I priced my stuff to sell and it did. I brought home less than half a box of remaining items.

To those who took home my Blitz Bowl, Star Wars Legion, 10mm Pendraken late medieval, 20mm WW2 Japanese and 15mm Hundred Years War....I hope you enjoy them and paint them. For purchases, I picked up about 80 small trees and shrubs that will be used for various 6mm and 10mm scenery on the tabletop. 

The other highlight of the convention was being able to sit down with Leon from Pendraken and catching up since the last time we saw each other in Edinburgh at the 2024 Claymore convention. I promised Leon I would be submitting an entry or two into his painting competition this year. 

Looking forward to getting back to painting, perhaps some gaming and maybe even spending some of the extra money in my pocket from my flea market sales. 

10mm SCW International Brigade

Over the past couple weeks, I have been spending time painting an infantry company representing the International Brigade for the Spanish Civil War. I am proud to say that it's complete more or less. 

Here is a picture above of the completed company as well as battalion/brigade support in the form of 37mm anti-tank guns, mortars, heavy machine guns and a pair of T-26 tanks. The company is comprised of 3 sections (aka platoons) each comprised of 3 bases. The bases represent platoons (aka sections...the Spanish had names a bit flipped but no matter). My company is actually a bit bigger than shown, I omitted some of the heavy weapon supports and an extra base of infantry.

This project actually started offf some years ago. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I placed an order with Pendraken to "support the hobby", part of this order included various SCW codes. In January 2023,  I finally started off on the 10mm Spanish Civil War project, managing to paint up some Italian CTV (project described here) that I entered into the 2023 Pendraken Painting Competition and had also primed some International Brigade to face them. A recent trip to Morocco motivated me to revisit the project, but before I could paint any Moroccans, I needed to finish what I already had in my queue. I decided to pick up where I left off with those handful of International Brigade figures that were primed and abandoned. Here is the finished result.

I still need to add some small clumps of dark static grass on some of the bases and I may add some nifty standard bearers....there is also an FT-17 tank I intend to paint up at some point.

Pictured above is a typical section. The sections (or platoons to you or me) comprise of 3 infantry bases and also have attachments to increase firepower: commanders, bombers and light machine guns. I used a mix of browns, khaki, grey and even some light green for the "uniforms". 

The above picture shows examples of the heavy weapons available to the International Brigade. Maxim machine guns, mortars and 37mm anti-tank guns. I imagines those 37mm guns will make minced meat out of the puny Italian tankettes.

I couldn't resist adding some T-26 tanks which dominated the rest of the armor involved in the war. I painted them plain green, I may try to add some numbers using a fine point white gel-ink pen to jazz them up a bit. Wish me luck. 

Lastly, we have some International Brigade infantry charging past a Spanish village. The buildings are Timecast 6/10mm range resin and will add some scenery and objectives to my games. Company Command is best when you have a good amount of terrain to allow the infantry to skulk behind so I will be adding some hills, shrubs and other scenery bits. All of the figures are Pendraken 10mm.

I am already working on the remaining Italian CTV forces to face off against the International Brigade. They are painting up much quicker than the International Brigade so I hope to have an update with them soon!

Addition by Subtraction

 

In our hobby, there are often times we are faced with the prospect of culling our herd of toy soldiers. It can be a cathartic process, liberating us to pursue other ventures by freeing up space and adding money to the pocket. 

There are very few instances where I have regretted ridding myself of a certain project or certain miniatures. Most of the time I don't even notice the absence.  

The HMGS Fall In convention is fast approaching and I will be there selling my excess hobby clutter in Wally's Basement. Some are projects that began with great promise only to fizzle out, other projects failed before they ever started...still in shrink wrap and never opened. 

There will be 15mm Hundred Years War, 28mm King Phillips War, boxes of unopened Star Wars Legion Droid Wars and many hobby and history books. Stop on by if you are interested, they will be heavily discounted. 

I realize the hypocrisy of this post right after posting about a rather large order of plastic miniatures (over a thousand). However by culling excess, we make room for the new...

Christmas Come Early (or Late)!

This past Tuesday was a most happy day as a parcel arrived at my doorstep from Wargames Atlantic. As a Christmas gift for myself in late November/early December, I indulged in the eagerly anticipated 10mm Azincourt pre-order event. Less than a month after Christmas they arrived. 

Inside the package were the boxed sets for both French and English Azincourt armies! Also included were some 10mm fantasy Dwarves and Boneblades (aka undead). 

Backside of the English Azincourt army box above reflecting the contents inside. In the image below is a sprue of English. The figures look good, looking forward to figuring how I will base these little fellas and a plan of attack for painting them. I don't realistically see me starting this until perhaps the summer as there are other projects in the queue. 

One of those projects ahead of these little buggers is my 10mm SCW project. I thought I finished enough figures for a full infantry company plus support. Instead, my "fuzzy math" betrayed me as I was about four rifleman short of the necessary amount. I quickly prepped about a half a dozen more infantry and also prepped some T-26 tanks, CV-33 tankettes, mortars and 37mm anti-tank guns. There was also supposed to be a Lancia Italian armored car but that assembly was so fiddly that I gave up...and I think I may have assembled the gun shields on my 37mm anti tank guns upside down. 

SCW Progress Report

I've been grinding away on the International Brigade infantry company for my 10mm Spanish Civil War project. 

I managed to finish painting on one platoon and some support weapons. I based a few of the attachments and an HMG. I also managed to finish base painting on the remaining two platoons and the accompanying attachments and support weapons. 

Since I don't really have much finished to show at the moment, I will show you this:

On the left is one of the Italian CTV squads I painted back in 2023. To the right of them are some finished International Brigade: Maxim HMG, a commander base (with a fella aiming his Chauchat) and a Maxim-Tokarev LMG attachment. 

Since it's been nearly 3 years since I based the CTV, I couldn't really remember what color paint I used for the earth on the base as well as the static grass. 

I initially painted the International Brigade earth with "Teddy Bear Fur" but that wasn't the proper color. I was able to determine I had used "Coffee Latte" and corrected the problem. The static grass isn't a perfect match but it's close enough. 

I'm hoping to finish the International Brigade this week and get them based up. Those will be the next update. After that, I plan to finish the rest of the CTV and perhaps some SCW vehicles. 

Troll Country and Dark Lords

As previously mentioned, I had ordered character and packs and some trolls from Copplestone to supplement my Orc (and possibly undead) armies. After a few days off during the holiday, I finished some of these. 

The Copplestone trolls come 9 to a pack in 3 poses, they are pretty massive fellas for 10mm. I could squeeze two of them onto my 40mm square bases. I went with a pale green-grey color and painted them in a similar style to the WA orcs with alot of the black undercoat showing.

I didn't invest alot of time in these figures even though they are very nice sculpts. My objective is to get this army painted quickly. As you can see above of the troll rears, highlights were minimal. 

Next up is a Saruman-like leader of the dark forces. There is no face under the hood. I have seen many wonderfully painted versions of this sculpt online. For me, I wanted him more like a wraith or spirit so I decided I would just prime black, dry brush with a blue-grey and apply diluted blue Contrast to the dark lord and his sword (which was painted a metallic silver). The horse was given a diluted wash of Contrast black/brown mix. 

A picture showing the size difference between the Copplestone trolls and the WA orcs. The trolls will make a very nice addition to the orc army.

The dark lord rallying some orc axemen. The two ranges are very compatible in my opinion.

The dark leader charging at the head of some orc wolf riders.

Overall, I am very pleased with this 10mm fantasy diversion. I will try to keep it relatively contained although I see myself fleshing put the undead and dwarves (which I have yet to paint). Next up, I will return to 10mm Spanish Civil War as I have some International Brigade primed and ready to paint.