'Reconnaissance' from NoelW: Reconnaissance in the Desert

I quite liked the idea of finding some Italian Wars figures for this bonus round, so I could title it "Renaissance Reconnaissance" but I couldn't settle on any. So I had to settle for a different set of Italians, in the Western Desert, some time around 1941, I guess.

I'm fond of this theatre, probably because of the early Airfix 8th Army and Afrika Korps sets (in the first issue, of 1962) which still have a certain strange charm. The Perrys' 28mm plastic sets are a wonderful modern version, and have led to an excellent expansion of metals in that arena. So here's an Italian scouting party from that Perry range.

Meanwhile, a Warlord Humber scout car is on a similar recon mission. With a similar degree of effectiveness, it would seem.

A Stuka's eye view:

The Humber model is intended by Warlord for Operation Market Garden, driven by Brigadier "Joe" Vandeleur, but I've transmogrified it to somewhere in Libya. Ideally it could do with some decals to place it in that theatre (the reg number on the side is - er - 'hypothetical). I was quite pleased with the radio aerial - the first time I've tried to do this with a vehicle - though it's barely visible in the photos. It's a bristle from a paintbrush, placed with delicate precision and only the minimal amount of swearing.

Here's a close-up:

Here's a couple of close-ups of the Italians. The cap badges are a real fiddle to paint.

Some sources seem to treat the colours of helmet, jacket and trousers as pretty much identical. Others make them quite different in colour. I like treating them differently, as if there's different amounts of wear or exposure to the elements, and using the different shades makes them look a little more like campaigning troops than pristine regulation dress, I think.

Pointswise, there's six 28mm foot (30 pts), 1 vehicle (20 pts) and the building is roughly 6x3x3 inches, so 25% of a cube (so, 5 pts). That's 55pts plus the bonus.