Showing posts with label WW2 Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WW2 Italy. Show all posts

04 May 2022

Airfix 20mm Japanese to Italian Infantry Conversions

Repeating here some photos from an old post that was wiped out when the site was hacked a few years ago.

The Airfix 20mm WW2 Italian Infantry set was first released by Airfix in the 1980s and there are some beautifully sculpted figures in the set, but with a limited number of poses.



These figures are on the small side and if you mix them in the same unit with other sets of Italian 1:72 scale figures from Esci or Waterloo 1815 they look too small.

You can add more poses to their ranks by using 1:76 scale figures from the Airfix WW2 Japanese Infantry set.





The idea of using Airfix Japanese figures as Italians is an old one. The very first time I read about using them as stand-in Italians was in an old article by Gerald Scarborough when as a kid, long before there were any other 20mm scale Italian Infantry figures available in plastic.



Spare Airfix Italian Infantry figures were used to donate some heads, and some others were given field-caps / bustinas made from epoxy.



The rifles on the Airfix Japanese figures are too thin and are not very well sculpted so they need replacing with weapons taken from other figures.

In the picture above the converted figures were getting a dry-run test using some blu-tac (actually yellow in this case).

Finally after finishing the conversions the figures were all painted and based.





The group also needed some heavy weapon support, so a crude and oversized “representation” of a Breda M37 was made using a Waterloo 1815 Japanese figure with an HMG.

At this point I had no more helmeted Italian heads left, so this Italian sports a head off an old Airfix Russian. I’m pretty sure that veteran plastic enthusiasts will all recognize which set the loader came from too….



The whole new family.




15 October 2013

Elevator shoes



I'm finishing off a bunch of HaT / Waterloo 1815 Italian Infantry at
El Alamein but I'm not too keen on the officer figure that comes in
the set so I've decided to replace him with the stylish officer figure
from the Airfix WW2 Italian Infantry set.

One problem though, at 1/76 scale he's too small and his 1/72 scale
subordinates tower over him so he's been made to look taller by
sticking some padding under his feet.

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10 October 2013

Altaya Sahariana


This is an Altaya Sahariana currently on the workbench that was given to me by my good pal Carlos.

The Waterloo 1815 Italian drivers he stuck in there look really cool.

This is a first test post I'm uploading by email from my mobile.

So if you are reading this and can see the image ok, then it has worked !


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26 March 2013

Italian Infantry Support Group In Progress

A box full of Italians on the go right now and they need a few 47mm guns - which I don't have.

What I do have though are two very old Hasegawa US 37mm guns, plus an unmade one which should (I'm hoping) make some fairly good substitutes for a "Cannone da 47/32"



Inspiration came from a photo from an old Airfix article by Gerald Scarborough.



Two of the ex-Hasegawa US 37mm guns now based and the third unmade kit has now been put together to represent a towed weapon.

The guns, minus their breech blocks, now need painting up. I also need to put together a suitable crew.



I have no Italians with mortars or heavy machine guns but this was solved with some head swaps - a mortar figure from the Esci WW2 French Infantry set, a crouching Esci WW2 US infantry figure and two figures from the Waterloo 1815 Japanese Infantry set.



The Japanse HMG is "supposed" to represent a Breda M37. It's not perfect but it's not too bad either once painted up and when I've got the bases flocked it shouldn't be to obvious.



And some of the Italian figures that are currently WIP.

21 March 2013

S-Models Italian L3/33 Tanquette

A few shots of the 1:72 scale S-Models Italian L3/33 tanquette by Carlos de la Concha from the Brazo de Nelson Wargames Club.



These are for a small Italian / Commonwealth campaign in North Africa that our gamemaster Iván Cáceres has put together for our wargaming group.