From next week I'm shifting from painting 6mm Pyrrhic War Greeks and moving to the early days of the WWII North Africa campaign. So its time for me to start thinking about Italian armour and it just so happens I have seen some up close and personal at the Tank Museum in Bovington. Nothing quite beats seeing the real thing to help when painting.
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| M14/41 Italian Medium Tank. It was a slightly improved version of the earlier M 13/40 with a more powerful diesel engine |
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| This symbol identifies the tank as the First Tank of the 3rd Platoon in the 2nd Company. |
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| Twin 8 mm Breda mod. 38 machine guns in the Hull |
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| The Engine deck. The exhaust manifolds glowed red hot when in use, burning off any paint and leaving them open to rusting |
Plenty of information here to guide me in my new project. Now I must plan a return trip to Bovington for later in the year!
I remember seeing these in Bovington. As you say Lee, nothing beats looking at a real paint scheme up close and personal. The trouble with Italian tanks came from both gun and armour. Apart from the Semovente (which was a SPG anyway) all Italian armour were undergunned and the riveted armour was both thin and - as Italian crew found- the rivets had a distressing tendency to 'pop' when hit, resulting in the tank collapsing like a clown car.
ReplyDeleteCracking picture, Lee, Bovington is on my list for this year... M13/40's for early war/Compass, though?? ...maybe even M11/39? look at that bean tin, would you go to war in it?? ...and people have the temerity to believe the Italians weren't brave! I think not.. I wholeheartedly recommend "Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts" as a sobering account of the realities of fighting in the Italian armoured divisions in WWII...
ReplyDeleteI'll look up that book. Sounds interesting. I have nothing but respect for the Italian tank crews. They must have known their kit was inferior but they found on non the less.
DeleteNice to see the Italians getting a look in! In MY Opinion (NOT HUMBLE) I think there is too much German tank love and a huge under appreciation of Japanese and Italian (as well as other nations tanks)
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