Archive for the ‘ tanks ’ Category

Paper Panzer E-10

WWII tanks are very beautiful, especially the German ones. I like bricolage tanks (old or foreign tanks recycled for new roles with new armour and weapons) and late war tanks. Moreover there are so many project for future tanks that you can design your fictional tank of 1946 or 1947. These are called paper panzer because they existed only on paper.

The E series was the attempt to build a standardized series of tanks, from light ones to heavy ones. The E-10 was a jagdpanzer between 10 and 25 tons. I like its low profile and its flat top surface. I build even a E-10 panzer with a Leopard turret, just an historical extrapolation than a real project.

My tanks are resin models with late war colours and camouflage. They are in 1/56 scale because I wish to use them with 28mm soldiers. A King Tiger or a Maus tank could be just a little bigger for a table. If you want to play tanks in 28mm, a realistic table have to be big as a swimming pool.



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Sherman Firefly

I have miniatures stuffed inside all available space in my house. But here on this blog you can’t find them enough. So, after photos of vacations, conventions and playtests, something more oriented to the world of 28mm. These are my Sherman V, with two of them in Firefly version. Resin models and turnable turrets.





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Some close-ups on miniatures in Lucca Comics & Games.

Up there is Nano Nefasto with his bust before his 5 days live painting session during the convention.
Below there is the glass showcase for the painting contest.

Torriani’s WWII game and its delicious setting.



Miniature displays.


Andrea’s things.


Miniatures from an Andrea sketch that were realised with the Fungi kickstarter. The character, but not the pig, resembles Andrea when he was young. Other people that run a miniatures demonstration space in Miniature Island liked the miniatures and created a game with some of them: a fantasy medieval race. They didn’t know that we were the maker of them.

A close-up on Star Eagles.


Two playable mascots of Miniature Island and a cake in Orti di Elisa restaurant. This year restaurant theme for the convention was Mario Bros.

In Lucca Comics & Games all is so big that some miniatures that you can view on wargame tables were a little bigger than usual.



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Lisbon

I’m busy at job and with my new house, so no abroad holidays in the last two years. And no real holidays at all. But I have got photos of past ones. I forgot to show you what I did during the 2013 summer. I promised that but other new things were more impelling, and day after day, they are 3 years. So Lisbon, at last! I have not the will to do something complete as a full report. But I create a thematic itinerary. I visited many places and museums with a military topic. I hope you enjoy all of this. And consider Lisbon for a visit because it is very beautiful, romantic and historic.





























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Holiday at Museums: Army museum pt.2

In the yard outside the museum that you have saw on the previous post, you can find four tanks used by Italian Army.

M47 Patton with Italian colours. In the background a Roman wall. We are along the late Rome walls.

M4 Sherman with Italian colours. Probably it was a tank used against Italy during the WWII, adopted by our new Army after the war. Too heavy and old to return to the USA. Moreover there was the Cold War and tanks have to be ready against Russians…

M13/40 (similar to M14/41 and M15/42) was the main Italian medium tank of the war. Inferior to Allied tanks, it gave however a lot of problems to its adversaries. Following some photos to have a better view of the tank. Some models are now available in a scale comparable to 28mm miniatures. If you want to add details to them, this could be a photo resource.

The other common tank for Italians in the WWII, from the CV33 – CV35 series, aka L3-33 – L3-35. Tank is not the right word. It is knew as “sardine box”. It was a tankette developed by the Carden-Loyd Mk VI. But operatively used as a tank, with only two machine-gun against real tanks.

After we visit a near church founded by the mother of emperor Constantine I. Not really a Roman building nowadays. However you can find inside a wood piece from the original Christ’s cross and a couple of its nails. If you believe in relics…

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We travelled to Cesena, a town near our base. We were welcomed by the mayor and an elder partisan.


After a lunch for 350 seats, we parked in Pinarella di Cervia and prepared a more choreographic entry in Cervia, with people dressed as Germans (and who speak German, they are very pro!) who waited us and after fled to the sight of tanks (two Sherman and other vehicles). I was on the jeep, at the end of the column, so I couldn’t see the action, I have to wait for the release of the official dvd of the event to understand what happened.

More videos. I saw a lot of people who took photos and films of us. The availability of mobiles with great cameras turned people in media producers. Here the entry in Pinarella di Cervia parking. You can see me while I’m using my mobile on a camion. And finding on my video who is filming me.

Half an hour after we left. And some tanks were with us.

Here we were in Cervia, in the main phase of the event, with more audience, more reenactors who reached us, another authorities speech, displays. And a lot of chatting with other people: locals and lovers of reenactment. It is not only a show with strange people dressed as military troops, but the opportunity to confront ourselves with other people, and to know more on history, personal history and passions.


Fuel of a different kind.

Heavy steel…

This one was a rattletrap used as artillery target, now reconditioned after a lot of hard work. Probably it is the only exemplar of marching AB 40/41/43. This one is the last type, the AB 43, built in North Italy under German occupation for RSI forces and also known as Panzerspähwagen AB43 201(i).



Later we reached a huge restaurant with more than 500 seats. At the end we finally fell asleep. The day after there was a long trip along the Via Emilia but we went back home, with a stop. More on a next post.

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We were 350 people dressed to war (but only for love of history) and with a lot of vehicles. We based ourselves in Cervia. A bus service collected us along the road from the hotels to concentrate in a municipal deposit. It was strange to see a bus full of people with helmets and automatic weapons. Here the start of the event in the morning. Later I’ll show you when we started to move to reach Cesena and Cervia city centres.







A column is a long strip made of vehicles and people that move at the velocity of the slowest. Often we were stopped by something but we didn’t know what. A boring thing. It is not lack of organisation, it is the reality of a large amount of troops that have to travel. As the logistic problem to find an area to park all this. And the queue to the petrol pump. I heard that to start a Sherman you must consume 20 litres. We had to collect money for the fuel, because these old cars have a high necessity of it. Moreover, when a vehicle is out of order, the first thing to do is to throw out it off road. We were not so cruel, but I saw some blocked in the rear for mechanical problems. The column march towards glory consuming itself…



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This is the biggest WWII reenactment event in Italy, Colonna della Libertà (Liberty Column), an opportunity to celebrate the official day of the end of the war in Italy with a military column constituted by military vehicles and troops of that historical period, with a prevalence of jeeps and other Allies materials.

Every year a different location. This year, for the first time, I had the possibility to participate with my friends to the event, but only for the 28th of April, a column visit to Cesena and Cervia. We had Italian uniforms of the South Reign, the part of Italy that after the end of the Italian nation, the infamous 8th September, passed to Allies side. A nice gentleman from Verona offered us a passage on his jeep. Here you can see a video about our trip along the column. More on next posts.

If you want to know more on this event you can examine the official programme.

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