Italeri Horse draw Breda anti tank gun

[Guest]

This is an odd kit that took my fancy. The horse and the gun look very nice but the figures are not as sharp as the Tamiya figures. However, I hope they will paint up nice as this will be on a very harsh display base/mini diorama very much in the style of the box art. Should be quite dirty so I am keeping an eye on Richy's latest diorama to see how he gets on with the use of snow.

Painting may be an issue as the colour for the uniforms is just described as Italian Green (mmm, very helpful...)

[Centurion3RTR]

Looks like a nice kit, best person to ask about snow is Patrick (dubster72) he's the snow man. For the green i would paint it as close as you can, you're going to weathering them anyway so the colour will dirty down.

Looking forward to this Graham, John

[Guest]

Another Horse Graham now I`m really getting worried for you mate , as for snow mate take Johns advice and ask Patrick or Ron , I have not got a clue what I`m doing - this snow game is a 1st for me,

[Guest]

I reckon that will make for an evocative scene Graham. But I'm not sure of John's comment-snowman? lol if you mean I have coal for eyes & a carrot for a nose then no, although I'm working hard on the shape! There's no special trick to snow, I just mix white pva glue & baking soda. You can sprinkle more baking soda on as it dries to give a crisper frozen look and then a coat of Klear makes it sparkle-but that has to be sprayed on or it comes off on the brush! Guess how I worked that out! Patrick

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip Patrick. This will be a cold, dirty, slushy rush to get the gun up to the ridge before the tanks get here. It was the artwork that drew me to the kit, a really pressured scene. No idea how I am going to do it as yet but the horse and the figures are posed in the strain of the artwork so it would not look great just sat on a shelf, it needs that scene.

Need to do a bit of reading to. Not sure what theatre or period this would have been but as the scene will not include the enemy, it isn't too important lol. Sadly, the instruction sheet has no information about the gun or unit even though there is a modification of parts to the gun for version A or version B, but it does not tell you what the differences were or why. Time to fire up the t'internet again....

[Gern]

Graham, you're right about the figures not being as sharp as they might be. But I have faith! I'm sure you'll be able to get them to look good.

Gern

[yak face]

hi graham, i cant wait to see this come together , im sure it will be great, really unusual. cheers tony

[Guest]

Only problem I am having at the moment is trying to locate it in history. It appears the gun first saw service in the Spanish Civil War and then by Italian troops in North Africa. So many were captured there that the Australians used them in great numbers. Main sources I can find for the gun shows it was used as anti tank against very light tanks, armoured cars and bren carriers. The towing system was so weak, it was limited to 20 mph which is one of the reasons it was horse drawn early on. It found great service truck mounted as an anti aircraft gun until armoured bombers could take 20mm shells without damage, which probably explains the version a, b. One will be the anti aircraft sighting.

The box art obviously shows a very wintery scene and is an Italian crew so where, early in the war, would the Italians be in snowy wintery conditions?

[Guest]

Another use for the Breda was by the LRPG in North Africa so that could be a possible setting. Although often pictured as a hot desert, during the latter part of that campaign, fighting in the hilly/mountains of Tunisia was done in freezing conditions with snow quite common even at low levels. If not there, many Italian armies served at Stalingrad so the winter of 1942/43 would be appropriate. Patrick

[Guest]

Cheers for that Patrick. It was 50 degrees when I went to Tunisia, hard to thing of snow being there lol. I am happy just so long as cold & wet is not totally out of context as it will be on its own so I don't have to worry too much about who they are fighting. That is great, now I can stop worrying and get on with the fun bit. I know that there is often a lot of artistic license in box art.

[Guest]

Same here Graham, until I read 'Killing Rommel', a story about the LRPG where the reality of desert warfare opened my eyes! As you say, box art is often more about making the customer buy the kit than a realistic portrayal of how the featured item was actually used ;o)