Italian CTV uniforms in Spain

[AndyG]

Hi

I'm about to paint some of the lovely Empress CTV figures, but I've hit a problem. All my English sources and Bueno say they are in grey-green or Italian tropical dress, but my copy of Unifomes Italianos by Jose Maria Ravetto cleary shows early war CTV in a Khaki. My Spanish is just about non existant but the text talks about kaki and gris-verde and some illustrations from later war show the typical WW2 grey green european uniform.
I thought I had the answer when I looked at the Osprey book on the invastion of Abyssinia which shows a figure in darker khaki, but the text sats this was a winter tropical dress for officers only.
 
I'm wondering if any of the knowledgeable forum member out there can save me the pain of translating Unifomes Italiano word by word with a dictionary and confirm if it is ok to paint CTV in khaki. 

[Arlequín]

This site might help.

IIRC The first Italian units that went to Spain in 1936 wore the tropical 'kaki' uniform, which was fine for Andalucia, but as the year went on and the Italians moved to the North of Spain they had to rush out the European 'Gris-verde'. Obviously this didn't happen overnight and for a time a mixture of kit was worn, before all the troops had the European uniform. Unless you are going for the very early war period, I'd stick to the grey-green. 

[carlos marighela]

With the added benefit that you can then also use them as garrison troops in Sicily in 1943, if the mood strikes you.

[AndyG]

Thanks for your comments, on looking back at the pictures the khaki is limited on infantry to 1937, which fits in. I guess its a varient on the sand coloured tropical uniform.

 

[Doc Twilight]

All correct here, just wanted to add in that the Adrian helmets worn by the CTV were painted a metallic blue color:) Hope that helps.

-Doc