"Operation Herkules - Italians @ Malta 1942" Topic

For this year's Adepticon, I decided to start playing Bolt Action. It's a game I've been meaning to get into for a few years now but just never had the time or inclination to choose a national force. This past autumn I finished reading an excellent book about the Siege of Malta during World War 2 and the aborted joint Italian/German invasion of the island. Siege: Malta 1940-1943 focused mainly on the naval operations mounted from Malta to harass the Afrika Korps naval convoys and the mass bombing campaign to force the island into capitulation.

This got me thinking though – what if the planned invasion of Malta, known as Operazione C3: Malta and colloquially as Operation Herkules, had actually happened? In reality, by the winter of 1941-42, continued Luftwaffe bombing and the loss of several Allied naval relief convoys had brought the island to the breaking point. What if Hitler could have finally been convinced that the taking of Malta would have relieved pressure on Rommel's supply lines? What if Generalmajor Kurt Student, planner of the successful yet costly invasion of Crete, was given a second chance to carry out plans for the airborne invasion of Malta? And finally, what if the normally cautious leaders of the Regia Marina, in contrast to their concept of "a fleet in being", mounted a full-scale offensive amphibious invasion of the island?

In keeping with the pulpy nature of Bolt Action, I'm assembling my Italians for a tabletop invasion of Malta in early 1942. I'm trying to stay as close to the realistic plans and unit assignments for Operation Herkules. As such, I'm using a core of Italian Folgore Airborne and amphibious support units from the MVSN Gruppo Battaglione Da Sbarco. Eventually, I'll add a unit of San Marco Marines, German Fallschirmjager, and captured Russian AFVs from 2.PzAbt.zbV66.

More pics and info below:
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Folgore Weapons Teams

"Fixed" Folgore Commander

Objectives

L3 Lanciafiamme "Compact"

I once had Crete by Avalon Hill which included the proposed attack on Malta – this may help with ORBATS and such like.

Nice Job. Look forward to reading about the Invasion of Malta

Fantastic conversion on the Lanciafiamme.

Finished my dry stone walls for the Italian defensive position rule, as well as painting up the majority of the objectives. I used both to experiment with the distinctive red-brown soil color of Malta – neither of which I'm entirely happy with.

Much more pics and info below:
link

Just a quick update for today. Progress has been exceedingly slow – as much as I like the Airborne sculpts, the facial detail leaves a lot to be desired and it took me about an hour just to get the eyes and pupils somewhat right on all the minis. As of this post, 90% of the minis have skin fully painted and I'll be moving unto uniforms next. Here's a good example of how they all look – the Airborne FAO (I love his facial expression!) -

Nice

Great Job!

Just wanted t share my almost complete MVSN Gruppo Da Sbarco squad.

The Battaglione Gruppo Da Sbarco were a specially-trained amphibious assault Blackshirt regiment raised for the Invasion of Malta. After the cancellation of Operation Herkules, Da Sbarco was split in two groups – one taking part in the bloodless seizure of Corsica and the other being stationed on the southern French coast. The Corsican Group eventually joined the Allies, while the French Group battled partisans alongside the German Brandenburgers.

More pics and info below:
link

Finally got my airbrush up and running this past weekend and was able to complete the Lanciafiamme tankette/objective marker. The camouflage pattern is actually a copy of the allied "Malta Camouflage" painted on British Matildas stationed on the island. The pattern itself is made to help the AFV blend in with the irregular stone walls throughout Malta.

More pics and info below:
link

I'm pleased to have finally finished a unit (and two weapons teams) in their entirety in time to share them before Adepticon this week. First is the now complete CCNN Gruppo De Sbarco – the amphibious assault arm of the Blackshirts.

These are my favorite Warlord Italian Airborne minis – the flamethrower and sniper teams.

More pics and info below:
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While they aren't 100%, I'm pleased to be finished with this batch of my Bolt Action Italians for Adepticon. I won't be fielding all of them this weekend, but I feel like this is a solid start to my larger Italian force.

More pics and info below:
link

AFV reinforcements for my Italians @ Malta, 1942. I'm actually really proud with how these turned out, as they are my first 28mm vehicles since 40K several years ago and my first real-life military model vehicles since my teens. Much more finished pics, info, and WIP pics below:
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well done, they look great, still looking for the figure that is smiling with hands up in the air

What a great project. Something to use those paras on that "we" all have other than bleeding to death at Cassino and in the Bocage. I must look out for the AH game

After Operation Sting this fall, I recognized the need for some additional units – a Medic, an AT Gun, and a medium tank. More pics and info below:
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Well, my Italians are finally complete (for now).

Enjoy, more pics and info at the link below:
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Great looking figs! The vehicles look especially good, considering you haven't done any recently.

Also, gotta love those dry stone walls. Those are EVERYWHERE on Malta, and would surely have been a factor in any attempt to invade the place.

Thanks for sharing.

That M13/40 looks great! Really well painted!

Amazing stuff!!!

Thanks!

Great work,
Here's a link that should interest you all .

angelfire.com/games2/warpspawn/MaltaC.html

As for the dry stone walls – they look good enough at that scale ( they would be very time consuming to model accurately at that scale )& the soil is not all red brown so a mix of sand/brown would be ok.

Enjoy
Z