Italians @ Malta, 1942 - Defensive Walls & Objectives

Bolt Action requires that the Italian player relies primarily upon defensive positional tactics, as such it requires an Italian army to re-roll Attacker/Defender rolls and, if defending, to roll for D3 defensive positions. Each position should consist of three 6" wide by 1" tall linear obstacles. 

Initially, I had considered sculpting straight linear sandbag walls out of Sculpey but it would had required considerable time to sculpt and dry, so I ruled that out. Instead, I felt stone walls were a better - and more thematic - option. The rural areas of Malta are divided up into small farm fields separated by dry stone walls and this centuries-old practice actually was a large deterrent to the planned modern airlanding operations.

I was lucky enough to remember a local Hobby Lobby had a small "stone" mosaic tile kit on clearance a few months back but I didn't have a use for it at the time. Luckily, when I returned this past weekend, not only did they still have it for sale; it had been reduced further to $1.93! The kit came with small ~5mm square faux stone tiles, some glue, and a grout mix. I based my walls on tongue depressors, laying down each course with white glue and allowing it to dry. It was so easy, my 3 year old son even helped with much of the construction!

The tiles were all different colors which looked good in the kit, but fully assembled, looked a little too much like I had glued down Chiclets candy. So I sprayed them with black primer and drybrushed successive coats of brown, biege, grey, and finally white. I also used this opportunity to experiment with soil color for the bases. Malta has very a distinctive red-brown soil (which you can see in the pictures above) that is difficult to replicate in miniature. I felt the wall bases were a little too dark.

I completed painting of the objectives yesterday as well (except for the Lanciafiamme, which will be airbrushed). I'm really happy with the shrine. I also added a parachute from a tissue soaked in PVA and some strapping from nylon string. I again used this as an opportunity to experiment with the soil color, which is lighter but I think needs a brown wash to tone down contrasts.