100/17 battery

Here is the big gun of the italian army.... the 100/17. Actually my grandpa was an artillery officer an fought as a leutenant commanding a mixed 75/18 and 100/17 battery in the 1936 Abyssinian war, where he got a silver medal during a big fight against natives at the Uarieu Pass. Later he returned to Italy and was assigned to territorial duties. Fortunately he was not sent neither to north Africa nor to Russia (so i was able to see him...) and after September 8 joined the partisans in Piemonte and Veneto. He left the army after the war as Lt. Colonel.
I ideally think one of the men we painted is my granpa ("Nonno Leo").

Italian support teams

The support is made up by the solothurn anti-tank rifle and by an 81mm mortar.

Italian Command

The third item in the production line is the command team of the platoon. It includes two officers and an artillery observer (actually from the 100/17 gun). The infantryman of the command is yet to be painted.

Officers have the khaki sahariana jacket with the markings. Artillery officers have black pipings.

Bersaglieri II - second squad of the commission

Following the good results obtained with the first squad we produced the second squad. This one has helmets with the typical bersaglieri feather plumes. We kept the same color scheme and basing to keep homogeneity of the army.

More photos below.

The first commission of the Gargas & sons

Tired of fighting against iron-colored armies I was convinced by my friend Max "Pollo" (chicken) to paint his Italians... I started this project since my oldest son Filo decided to help me attracted by an easy flow of fresh money in his pockets. We setup a nice collaboration: I take care of preparing and priming the figures; he paints all the main colors; I wash them with army painter dark tone and then do the refining touches... We used a speed painting technique that is suited for wargame standard quality but I must say that the final result is quite good given that we can do 8-10 items in one evening each... and most importantly Pollo is very satisfied by the result !

Here is a sample of the work done: a squad of Bersaglieri with sun hat.

A nice completion of the bases is an autarchic set of tufts I made with my self constructed flocking dispenser... I'll devote a separate post to that...

Any comment and suggestion is more than welcome !