Italian Compagnia Carri (Tank) Company

As well as preparing a load of wargaming bases I have also been busy painting some Italian self propelled guns and Armoured cars as part of my Compagnia Carri (Tank) Company. In fact these two platoons have finished off this platoon for the time being. I may add more units to this company at a later stage but for now I'm considering this project finished.

First up is a platoon of Semovente 75/18 Self Propelled Guns. These mounted a 75mm mountain gun on the chassis of a M14/41 tank (from 1941 onwards, prior to this they used the M13/40 chassis). Weighing in at a little over 14 tonnes and with a crew compliment of just 3 (commander/gunner, driver, loader/radio operator) the S75/18 was mechanically underpowered. The gun was a relatively modern weapon but at just 18 calibres its low muzzle velocity severely limited its range. They were best suited to a defensive role where they proved particularly effective against the US built M3 Grant and M4 Sherman tanks used by the British Army.

Self Propelled S75/18 Platoon

The Autoblinda 41 (AB41) armoured car was armed with a 20 mm Breda 35 autocannon and a coaxial 8 mm machine gun in a turret, and another hull mounted rear-facing 8mm machine gun. Weighing in at 7.5 tonnes the AB41 had a crew of 4 (1 x forward driver, 1 x rear driver, 1 x gunner and 1 x commander) and had a top speed of 48 mph. It was considered one of the best armoured cars of its era. 

Autoblinda  41 (AB41) Armoured Car Platoon

Both these platoons are part of the Ariete Armoured Division which was formed in 1939 and fought in the North African Campaign until being destroyed during the Second Battle of El Alamein. Despite the Italian armies shambolic and disastrous start to the North Africa campaign Divisions such as Ariete soon became battle hardened and were relied upon heavily by the German Afrikacorp. 

Compagnia Carri (Tank) Company

I noticed after completing these two platoons that the bases looked different to those I was producing just a few months ago. I'm sticking to the same painting formulae but the change has come about because the composition of my basing sand has changed. The initial batch consisted of fine and medium grained talus blended to provide texture to the bases. My most recent blend clearly has more fine grained material in it, resulting in a slightly different texture and this in turn has effected the dry brushed highlighting on the bases. I actually prefer the latest batch of bases and am already considering how I can make the older bases blend in with the newer ones. I must be mad, this project has only been going three months and I'm already considering re basing some of the figures!