A mixed bag with no real organisation:
Italians:
Firstly the first pair of my AB-41s for the Recce unit.
Morvalistan 1940 - 1941
A Fictitious Wargames Setting 4
A mixed bag with no real organisation:
Italians:
Firstly the first pair of my AB-41s for the Recce unit.
I decided that the Italians needed an armoured flamethrower company so I used
the Frontline L3/35lf models. I painted them to match my Iraqi Tankettes
that do dual service in my model Italian and Iraqi armies!
I brought the Fast Tank Battalion up to strength and added some L3/35s with
Solothurn 20mm Antitank rifles. There is one command vehicle without
machine guns at the front, 7 MG armed tankettes and 2 Solothurn armed tankettes
at the rear. The crews are from Reiver Castings,
The Metropolitan and Colonial Italian infantry battalions are based on the
Airfix set. Each has 3 rifle companies. The LMG gunners are
converted SMG figures.
Each battalion HQ has an MG platoon with Waterloo 1815 MGs, a gun platoon with
Waterloo 1815 47/32 guns, an anti-tank rifle platoon with scratch built Solothurn 20mm rifles.
All are crewed mainly by Airfix Russians with some other figures. There
are also a scout platoon of 4 rifles and an SMG as well as a flame thrower
platoon and light mortar platoon. The Commanding Officer is from the Emhar
British WW1 set.
My home made 20mm Solothurns.
They are made from plastic rod, scrap thich plastic and stretched sprue, some
small wheels from the scrap box (maybe from a Russian MG) and trails from bent
wire.
The artillery reinforced with a battery of
converted 100/17 guns with Skytrex FIAT gun tractors and a Frontline Polski-FIAT OP truck. The crews
are converted Airfix Russians.
Limbered up
An Autocannone 75/27 based on the Frontline "Civilian Truck" with a scratch
built gun on the back. Again the crew are Airfix Russians.
My Carabinieri platoon was made from some spare figures. The Carabinieri
hats were cut from some spare American War of Independence figures.
The forces needed some engineer support so I converted more of the Waterloo 1815
Anglo-Egyptians into Askari Engineers with Bangalore torpedoes and demolition
charges.
The Metropolitan and Colonial Italian Engineers were also converted from Airfix
Infantry and the (somewhat fictional) mine detectors are a couple of
converted Airfix Japanese riflemen.
These Irregulars can be used by either side. They are Zulus from the ESCI
set with some Airfix Australians to lead them.
I found references to a "Gondar Tank" and a couple of photos on the internet.
So I made one from a Thomas the Tank Engine die cast model Terrence the Tractor.
Later I found out that I'd made it too large.
Made from Terrence.
British
And the armoured train gets a 2pdr AA Wagon. Scratch built gun by Moonlite
with a crew from the Airfix Bofors gun set.
In Somaliland in 1940 a 3pdr gun crewed by Australian Navy ratings was
dismounted from a ship and put onto an improvised mount made from an oil drum.
Although there was only one of them I decided to make it and the crew swapped
their RAN whites for army khaki but kept their blue helmets.
I painted these up as Kings African Rifles companies
using Airfix Gurkhas though I will use them as
Kings Morvalistan Rifles.
KAR HQ and Support Companies with carrier, MG, Anti-tank, Pioneer and 3.7"
Howitzer platoons.
The RAF are equipped with a Forward Air Controller team in a Chevrolet. It
is a resin model by Moonlite Modelwerks.
River transport is very important in Morvalistan so I made these river boats
from toys.
And now for something completely different:
Mbilini
The Mbilini is a fabled creature of Morvalistan Folklore. In the legends it is a
great heavy creature with huge eyes and a mouth that tears down the jungle,
claws that pull
up the earth and nostrils that breathe smoke. The Imperial Morvalistan Mining Company used a Mark II tank
left over from WW1 as a jungle clearing bulldozer. They painted it in the
company colours of grey and sky blue. The crew painted its nickname, “Jungle Jim”,
on the side. The engineers
fitted it out with new petrol engines and the sponsons had their guns removed
and were converted to house the
dozer blade equipment.
At the outbreak of war the IMM Company formed its own defence force from its
company security personnel and workers and offered it to the state in time of emergency.
“Jungle Jim” was then converted back into a warlike condition with the addition
of two smoke generators above the engines, a 25pdr from the cargo of a wrecked supply ship and two
Maxims acquired from the military museum. The whole vehicle was repainted in a
jungle lizard colour scheme and the dozer blade decorated with a great red
mouth, white teeth and staring yellow eyes. This repainted and rearmed monster
was appropriately renamed “Mbilini” and it is hoped to have a detrimental effect
on the morale of any native troops the enemy might employ.
Well it is a Fictional Campaign!
Italians, British and armoured train
More Italians, Askaris and something unusual
More Italians, Aqsopians and some Qaza'ar troops