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Re: Friday Message

"if these marching Bavarians will.also be deliver with the next batch?"

No.
Regards,

Strelets

Re: Friday Message

Very nice, but not very "deserty"...

Re: Friday Message

Desert is "closed" for a week-end drink.

Have a nice one!

Cheers,

Strelets

Re: Friday Message

Strelets, don´t feed the desert-rats too much!
They need to stay thirsty und hungry, otherwise they become really a plague...

Re: Friday Message

Don`t listen to the doubters Strelets, we are insatiable and our thirst for WW2 Desert sets knows no bounds , Africa Korps heavy weapons, Africa Korps tank crews , SAS , Free French and 75`s, 8th Army heavy AAA , LRDG having a break (seems to be on the way) LRDG road watch, LRDG fighting , Bush Artillery (Aussies with Italian guns ) Africa Korps 2.8cm Pz.B41, not done by anyone since Airfix in the 60`s due for an upgrade, Seated 8th army, seated Africa Korps , there are lots of gaps opportunities, needs, call them what you will:innocent:

Re: Friday Message

Alan,

Apparently Africa Corps isn't doing well there:

Best regards,

Strelets

Re: Friday Message

Now you are talking , that was a suppressed rebel yell moment, thank you , I promise to do them justice the second I can put a brush to them.In the mean time just shared it in the above mentioned facebook groups.

Re: Friday Message

Again - one word - "WOW!" Backwards and forwards! I love the desert figures, too!

Re: Friday Message

A question to the more experts...is the guy with the bren gun a lrdg or does he look like a commando?

Thank you all, awesome figs!

Ale

Re: Friday Message

Strelets-R
Alan,

Apparently Africa Corps isn't doing well there:

Best regards,

Strelets
Will these be from the same set, from two different sets, or one/both are bonus figures?!

Re: Friday Message

Baratheon
Strelets-R
Alan,

Apparently Africa Corps isn\'t doing well there:

Best regards,

Strelets
Will these be from the same set, from two different sets, or one/both are bonus figures?!
There is something about this scene that reminds me very much of the British war comics (eg: 'The Victor') that we of a certain age used to read as boys.....

"For you the war is over....."

Re: Friday Message

Alan Buckingham
Don`t listen to the doubters Strelets, we are insatiable and our thirst for WW2 Desert sets knows no bounds , Africa Korps heavy weapons, Africa Korps tank crews , SAS , Free French and 75`s, 8th Army heavy AAA , LRDG having a break (seems to be on the way) LRDG road watch, LRDG fighting , Bush Artillery (Aussies with Italian guns ) Africa Korps 2.8cm Pz.B41, not done by anyone since Airfix in the 60`s due for an upgrade, Seated 8th army, seated Africa Korps , there are lots of gaps opportunities, needs, call them what you will:innocent:
Actually, "yes" we are insatiable but not all of us have the Western Desert as our number One priority. However, I am somewhat sympathetic (with one or two fairly large reservations: WoSS/Napoleonics) to Mr B's urgent requests!

Let's not forget two things: 1) the Afrika Korps was not an exclusively German Wehrmacht formation, it included Italian units and many Italian troops and; (b) there were more Italians in the Western Desert Axis forces than there were Germans. So, actually this list is good but far from representative, as it does not include anywhere near enough Italians! There are plenty of these which need 1/72 sets, including Bersaglieri, (on foot, mounted on motor cycles, and vehicle crews), a good set of infantry in sun-hats and caps, and light anti-tank/anti-aircraft (eg: Breda 20mm) guns and crews, Solothurn anti-tank rifles, plus engineers etc. This recognises that Strelets have already made a very nice medium artillery 105mm gun and crew so have covered this aspect of the Italian forces already.

It would be fascinating to see an update/re-model of the 2.8cm cone-bore A/T gun modelled in the original Airfix Afrika Korps set. When I first saw this model gun with its seated, almost 'laid back' gunner, as an 8 or 9 year old I assumed it was a machine gun...only later did I come to realise that this tiny weapon was intended to knock out a tank!!

Re: Friday Message

The Bren is or is not the issue, Bren guns were not issued to the LRDG until very late 42 early 43 right at the tail end of the Desert war. The soft cap was worn by lots of Allied troops as it was comfortable and warm at night. There were several Commando units operating in the Desert , SAS army Commando`s , Popski`s private army etc , so take your pick.

Re: Friday Message

Dear Alan, thank you for your quick and detailed answer. I completely agree with Minuteman, Italians are decisively underrepresented and they deserve much more, just like British, Free French, Vichy French and Commonwealth troops.

Re: Friday Message

I would love to see Italians wearing sun helmets in order to represent the battles fought in Ethopia

Re: Friday Message

The big gap for Italian`s is field artillery, 75mm guns as captured and used by the Bush artillery at Tobruk. Waterloo do an anti tank gun that works if you customize it and level the barrel , they also do Heavy artillery. But no one does field artillery.

Re: Friday Message

"Yes" to Italian field artillery, and much else in the way of Italian forces. The size of the Italian army in the western Desert and the fighting value of a good proportion of these units is constantly under-estimated.

To be fair, there is a great deal of really good stuff out there in 20mm metal already: Early War Miniatures have an outstanding and extensive range, which includes most of the important Italian field artillery pieces:
https://earlywarminiatures.com/product-category/early-war-1939-1942/early-war-1939-to-late-1942-italian-army-1935-to-1943/early-war-1939-to-late-1942-italian-army-1935-to-1943-field-artilery/

The problems, as generally the case with metal 20mm, are: cost (a single gun may cost the same as a whole plastic set including crew); and scale/sculpting. The guns are perfectly useable with 1/72 plastics, but the figures are noticeably chunkier and look like front-row rugby players (short, squat, powerful, heavy) up against gymnasts (light, slender, graceful) when placed against many 1/72 plastic figures.

Re: Friday Message

WW2 Italian Field Artilery is an big gap and Strelets have given us some great artillery sets for 19th/20th century conflicts recently so hopefully will consider this set too. Also yes to Italian Infantry in sun helmets and maybe also a set of Italian Askari ( Libyan for North Africa or Eritran for East Africa) as these troops made up a large part of the Italian forces in Africa.

Re: Friday Message

Here's another vote for WW2 Italians, and field artillery in particular.

Apart from metal, there are field guns (of French and Austro-Hungarian origin) available in styrene but the 75mm Cannone da 75/27 mod.06 is lacking. It could be used for WW1, WW2, the SCW, and in many armies since their Krupp guns are very similar.

Re: Friday Message

Yes some Askari would be very welcome too. They were indeed very faithful troops which fought in many cases until the last bullet

Re: Friday Message

Some troops of WW2 are missing...gurkas, moroccan mountain troops (goumiers), libian inf.for the Italian army.

Re: Friday Message

I was just about to say that - second vote for Libyans!

Re: Friday Message

Another vote for Italians, the Waterloo 1815 sets have such a mix of figures that it is very difficult to create ordinary Italian troops.