Lake Garda and the local military history

OK, I sneaked off for a weeks holiday on Lake Garda in Italy. Although it was mainly a walking holiday there was a lot of history about as it was on the old Italian/Austro-Hungarian frontier.

Day one was quite stunning as we walked up the mountain at the north end of the lake and passed the remains of lots of fortifications. Monte Brione was covered in fortifications from the water level at Fort San Nicolo through to Forte San Alessandro at the summit. This area of concrete is all that is visible of Batteria di Mezzo part way up.




Late on I discovered that there is a collection of the best sites in the region assembled by Reinhold Messner here http://www.fortezzeimperatore.it/. It seemed that wherever we walked in the area we would come across remnants of WW1. At the refuge at Passo Nota they even had a book covering the fighting in the region (unfortunately in Italian) but with some unusual pictures of troops coping with fighting in the mountains. Quite interesting as we had ascended by a contemporary military road with tunnels, pausing just before the pass at a war cemetery.

Of course the area did not just see fighting in WW1, much earlier the area was controlled by the Scaligeri family who built/extended a number of castles including this one at Malcesine.

It is of particular interest to visit as it details the Venetian expedition to relieve Mantua/Brescia. They had to move 6 galleys, 2 galleons and 26 barques up the river Adige then drag them across the Nago pass to Torbole at the north end of Lake Garda before sailing down to attack the fortifications/dam on the river Mincio.



Even more dramatic was the castle at Arco, though I didn't get chance to visit


Will

More French Napoleonic wagons

Two new wagons from HaT. As with all their recent production they are in a soft semi-gluable plastic that has less detail and the flash is difficult to remove. Worse of all it the erratic nature of it's response to "normal polystyrene glue, it's sometimes OK and then not. I think the plastic must flex thereby weakening the join so that the glue fails.

First off is the field forge, I assembed it in operation with a few extra figures looking on.


Then there is the wurst wagon used for transporting medical personnel, it doesn't look the safest or most comfortable means of transport

I've still got two more of each and I'll certainly modify a forge to use in the SYW, and the other wurst wagons will be used for the "flying artillery"

Will

Something old, something new

I got bored with the cossacks, the curse of painting irregulars again, so I "quickly" painted the Strelets guides of napoleon. They actually represent the 2nd regiment of eclaireurs (scouts) of the imperial guard. It was quite a short lived unit raised in late 1813 but saw a lot of combat during the campaign of 1814.

PSR review

Many years ago, I created a squadron (old guard) of the 1st regiment (scout-grenadiers) from the Airfix hussars, so given that I had 12 figures I used the extra 4 to reinforce these up to full strength (for my rules) by adding some young guard. They are not exactly correct as they have the tapered shako.

The rest made up the 2nd regiment (scout-dragoons) which are fairly correct except for the saddle cloth which seems to have never been used. I was tempted to give them a wintery base as that was the conditions in which they fought, however I decided to flock the bases to keep them consistent with the rest of the Napoleonics.


Now back to the cossacks, etc.

Will

Polish Pacerni/Armoured cossacks

Seems a bit of a gap, but I've spent quite a while working on the kitchen and I've actually finished my WW2 Italians except for basing and I'm waiting for some more bits before I do that.
Therefore it's onto the main task, my renaissance cossacks from Orion. I split out the armoured version so I could use them as pancerni with my Polish army. I know they are not perfectly correct but they do look the part.

The flags are those for Lithuania provided on the Historical Flags for wargamers site Alex's Flags, which are just the job.

Various other bits are in progress so I'll see how well I do by the month end.

Will

Various WW2 allied vehicles

To start a Classix Ford 10cwt estate car, repainted as a command car for my BEF, I've already used one to make an ambulance for my Italians so I had to have at least one acting under it's true colours.

An M20 Greyhound, this is the Italeri model and it turned out OK except for the wheels. I used the wargaming version provided, but in retrospect I'd have been better using the standard model as the wheels are hollow at the back. I'm not sure how I will use it, as it is very large compared to my Frontline M8s (I think they may be undersized for 1/76).

Lastly a pair of M40 GMC, they were used only at the close of WW2 and the decals I used were for a unit operating in Korea. Strictly I should have got the Fujimi M12, but I couldn't find any at a reasonable price. I need one M12 for a Bulge scenario, but I'll just use one of these instead.

Thats all for now.

Will

More Macedonians

Yet more macedonians, this time bought and painted to fill some gaps in the Hellenistic light infantry. My opponents got a little confused sometimes where I used the staff slings to make up the numbers of archers.

Like most of the army these are bulk standard Hat figures

Will

On the workbench - April 08

The painting station seems empty now that the Parthians have gone. It's been a moment to take stock and shuffle some priorities around. I won't add anymore to the Parthian army until I've played at least one game with them.
So my current/ongoing plans are

• Finish the Macedonian light infantry - just the shields and bases left to do
• A couple of WW1 artillery guns for my WW2 German Volksgrenadiers (who needs King Tigers!)
• An Italeri M20 Greyhound, it's too big to go with my Resin M8 Greyhounds, but I want to see how easy it would be to convert/kitbash one the right size.
• Two Matchbox/Revell M40 GMC's - strictly I need one M12 GMC for one of the bulge scenarios, but the Fujimi M12 proved difficult to find
• Organise the Orion Cossacks and the various other Renaissance cavalry into coherent units and start painting them.
• Assemble and paint a HaT wurst wagon and field forge to add to my growing French napoleonic baggage train.
• More Italians for the big Battleaxe game - extra command and gunners this time.

I'm still trying to find some suitable 20mm figures for French revolutionary generals for Desaix in the Desert game.