PP Italian Infantry

 Just a quick look at my Italian desert infantry, which I previewed as part of the Italian Pocket Army post.

In the main they are advancing riflemen with some LMG stands, plus some Bersaglieri. I think in total I've only actually got eighteen pure infantry stands, but coupled with all the HQs, engineers, support weapons etc it gives me more than enough for now. 

As usual organised as a Command Decision style 'company', which can double up as a rifle section if needed. One LMG stand, one rifle stand and one rifle/command stand. Five of the figures are advancing riflemen, the NCO is one of the NCO pack figures although I used a few infantry officers too. The NCOs have a mixture of rifles and SMGs.

They are all nicely sculpted figures in the usal PP style, with little flash. They also look like later castings as they are bigger than the old Afrika Korps figures.

The LMG packs include  two marching and two prone LMG teams. I'm not a big fan of prone LMGs as they are much harder to pick up than standing ones, but I based them up anyway. The different poses help differentiate the various units. If I was doing a tactical game I'd have to reallocate the LMGs into those WW1 style LMG squads and Rifle squads the Italians liked to use.

I got one pack of Bersaglieri, sadly cast in helmets with feathers instead of Pith helmets, which makes them astonishingly hard to identify on the tabletop for my tired old eyes as the feathers are almost invisible. I'd originally planned to add them to my motorcycle stands, but in the end I just based them in pairs for four extra rifle stands. I figured they are Bersaglieri, so know how to spread out, and the two figure stands are easy to identify.

While there was a lot of variation in Italian desert uniforms, I was sick of variety after DAK, so I just did all of them in the same scheme. Dark sand overall, grey green puttees, brown webbing, brown boots and dark sand helmets. I did pick out a few trousers in a lighter colour, and I did a few lighter coloured Sahariana jackets, but tbh in the end they all blended into a big sandy blob.

I originally did the helmets and and equipment in desert ochre, but in fact they looked much better in Dark sand, so I repainted them all. Otherwise they got an inkwash on the flesh and equipment and an overall drybrush of Pale Sand to pick out the highlights. Based on light coloured builders sand with clumps of scrubby vegetation which is perhaps a bit light green compared to all the actual desert scrub I've seen, but it matches the flock on my Hexon desert boards.