Round 5 - Matteotti Brigade - Italys civil war 1943-45 vs. 'Militia vs Cossacks

[Overlord]

[Will Bailie]

Great job on those horses, Brian!

[Wirelizard]

Great job on those horses, Brian!

Thank you! Cavalry are a pain in the neck to get painted - my personal rule of thumb is that a single horse+rider is equivalent to at least three regular foot figures worth of work! The secret to good horses, I've discovered, is a final coat of ink or wash over the horse's coat, mane and tail after you dullcoat horse and rider to protect the regular paintjob. Humans aren't glossy, but horses tend to be. Cossack raiders from Brigade and Russian partisan/militia figures from Copplestone, if anyone is wondering!

The Matteotti Brigade are nice figures and a reminder of one of the lesser-known elements of WW2 in Europe, Italy's internal struggle after the Allied invasion. The mix of uniform bits, armbands and scarves gives them a unique look.

[OLeary]

I do like to see well painted horses. And these are superb.

[tomek917]

Lovely cossacks! Are they copplestone sculpts on ebob horses?

[Navy Colt]

Both are very well done! 

[Captain Blood]

That's an interesting and ingenious mix of figures for those rascally Italians. Really good.

Very difficult not to be taken with the swash and baravdo of the cossacks charging the cart though, I must admit.

Well done to both of you 

[area23]

The italian partigiani are great! very good use of WW1 figs.

[Dr Mathias]

I like both entries quite a bit.

The horses will inspire me to be more adventurous with the red-brown tones

[Wirelizard]

Lovely cossacks! Are they copplestone sculpts on ebob horses?

The Cossacks are from Brigade Games; not sure if the horses are ebob or original to Brigade.

[pierrebi]

Both are grea. What miniatures are the italian partigiani onesa on the right and on the left? They seems to be from Alpini!

[malto cortese]

Both are grea. What miniatures are the italian partigiani onesa on the right and on the left? They seems to be from Alpini!

Thanks everybody, the minis are a real mix: the Alpini are two world war one Brigade games Alpini, the prone guy with a LMG and the advancing one with the green shirt are Empress republicans from the Spanish civil war series, the officer (the one who inspired me with the idea of turning them into Partigiani) is from Artizan's World war II Italians, and the guy with the brown jacket is a Copplestone adventurer. I added the red scarf with some green stuff to all of them except the Copplestone guy. And may I add that the inpiration came on April 25th, as we were celebrating the Partisans' insurrection in Northern Italy... and no, I could not force myself to paint the Fascists, not even for a badly needed 10 points bonus...

I had ordered more Artizans to give the group more variety (a partisan group without a single sten is a real shame!) but they have not arrived yet...

[area23]

Great! First time I see a well done unit of partigiani. Very inspiring, I should dig into the subject. I heard interesting stories about Arditi del Popolo and similar groups that deserve more attention in miniature.

[carlos marighela]

Indeed. First time I've seen anyone do the  partigiani in any scale, ever. Extra points for originality I say.

[AzSteven]

and no, I could not force myself to paint the Fascists, not even for a badly needed 10 points bonus...

Paint them anyway - think of it not as celebrating the facists' existence so much as their defeat!  Really nice work for a largely-unheralded piece of WW2 history there.