Painting Blackshirts for Bolt Action

A rather rambling guide to painting Blackshirts for my Italian force for Bolt Action.

The wargaming superstition is that painted figures always do badly on their first outing, however I have to say my Italians performed admirably. My list looked like this:

Rifle Platoon

Lieutenant – SMG, 2x Rifles. Regular. 50pts.

Blackshirt Squad – NCO: SMG, 8x Rifles, 1x LMG. Regular. 119pts

Bersaglieri Squad – NCO: Rifle, 5x Rifles, 2x LMG. Veteran. 134pts

Heavy Weapons Platoon

Lieutenant – SMG, 2x Rifles. Regular. 50pts.

MMG Team – Regular. 50pts.

Medium Mortar Team – Regular. 45pts.

Armoured Platoon

M14/41 – 1 Turret Mount Light A/T Gun + Coax MMG. 2x Hull Mounted MMG. 8+ (vulnerable). Regular. 135pts. Command +10pts.

Autoblinda – 1 Turret Mount Light Auto Cannon + Coax MMG. 1x Hull Mounted Rear Facing MMG. 7+. Regular. 100pts.

I’m lacking decent anti-armour and my opponent was very gracious in not chucking a load of good armour at me, he played an entirely infantry British Para force. So I’m looking to add a bigger gun in somewhere.

My standouts were the Autoblinda which tore up an entire enemy flank, and my Mortar team who hit first time twice and basically eliminated two whole squads.

Anywho… here are some pics: